Major Studio Improvement

Last spring I undertook a massive studio re-organization.  I did not understand how to use the space or the importance of having it be a workable comfortable and for me fun place in which to create.  Now I get it!  One major stumbling block to my studio being the most functional area was a pipe for venting from the second floor bathroom and placed right smack in the middle of my studio (why the guy who renovated the house before us did that I will never know except he was CHEAP).  Exhibit A:

We are in the midst of a massive kitchen remodel, moving a powder room etc. etc.  The guys are great so we asked for an opinion from Bob the plumber not to be confused with Joe, and John and Fred our carpenters.  They gave me the best possible answer.

Voila!  No more pipe and I am one happy quilter.

Ending the year with Fiber for 50

This year I turned 50.  In honor of the day my dear friend Grace made fiber felt cupcakes in my favorite colors, and in the spirit of good design they have a function: pin cushions.

For Christmas she made a knit-felt box.  This to me is magic.  I have the patience to quilt but not to knit.  Again my favorite colors.  What the box reminds me of us a hobbit house.  Grace and I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings when we were in junior high and we loved every page. 

 

Grace also found the coolest earrings that sport glow in the dark rods all the neon colors so I can wear them with anything.  If I could take better photos I would display, but my attempts failed miserably, they are too cool.

In the Making 250 Years/250 Artists

This year has been tremendously busy with things both difficult and wonderful.  

This post is about something wonderful.  In the Making 250 years/250 Artists is a celebration of artists in the 14 County region of Southwestern Pennsylvania Fe Gallery owner, Jill Larson pulled together a show juried by a panel of five (Vicky A. Clark, Joey Kennedy, Janet L. McCall, Katherine Talcott, and Michael Olijnyk) which showcases the areas diverse artistic talent, 250 artists, 250 works of art on display salon style in her gallery and it is wonderful! Kudos to Jill and thank you!

In addition there is a catalog which accompanies the show designed by a fabulous graphic designer Martha Wasik.  The catalog is stunning.

I was honored to be one of the artists chosen.

Recently the show was reviewed by Lissa Brennan in the City Paper.  I was fortunate to be mentioned.  My quilt Three Rivers Arts Festival Catalog 1968 Things We Found in Our Parent's House #2 is in the show.  The original photo image used in the quilt is from that catalogue. Sadly there is no credit given to the photo, it was taken by a medical photographer I like to think Mr. Veder who knew my dad. 

I scanned and printed the photo it flipped it and rotated it.  Here's a close-up:

And the full shot.  Still working on integrating PC and Mac so the full shot, something amiss. 

Is it about the stuff?

This last year has been tremendously difficult going through the contents of my childhood home. I come from a family of collectors, keepers and savers of family history and assorted magical things.  Everything we associate with our childhood.  Things that are now becoming collectable.

Of course none of us can keep it all.  One of my siblings lives in NYC the other in the UK.  I still live in the city where we grew up but I never wanted to live in the house we grew up in I am too independent for that; I need to create my own space.  

But what made it so difficult to go through the contents and get the house ready for sale was my parents designed their house.  It's mid-century modern design; in the suburbs, with alot of land not necessarily well suited for any of us, perfect for my parents.

You learn alot about yourself when you go through your family's belongings.  My mother died 18 years before my father and as we went through things she came back to me so vividly.

I learned how lucky I really am to have had such amazing parents, to be in this family as tough as we sometimes are as opinionated.  We think about things we do things we make things and we laugh at things.

Yet in many ways I am tormented about what we left behind for the estate sale, or what went to auction.  Did we keep the important things?  Not the "valuable" things but what has great significance to our family, who we are now and who we once were, who we will be.

I have been working on a series of things we found in our parent's house.  

Here's something we found that we couldn't keep so instead a photo: 

 

Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh

What an incredible last few months it has been which is why I have neglected the blog for so long. This has been my year to co-chair exhibitions.  Spring into summer it was the The Associated Artists 98th Annual Exhibition at the Andy Warhol Museum, juror John Carson.

What a time it's been. My siblings and I had to go through the contents of our childhood home and decide what to keep and what to let go of, a terribly difficult and intense process. 

Then I got married the high point of the year. 

Now I am co-chair with Laura Tabakman for Making Connections the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh. It opens today November 14th and runs through January 25, 2009 at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts .  

What a treat this experience has been.  Our juror was Nancy Davidson who makes incredible sculpture from inflatable weather balloons.  She uses humor to explore cultural issues, brilliantly I might add. Her work can be found on www.nancydavidson.com . Nancy's lecture on her work and discussion of her process was fascinating.  Spending the day with her through the jury process (work on site) was an incredible learning experience.  

For both of my co-chair gigs I have had the privilege of working with thoughtful and talented artists.

I was fortunate to have my piece My Dad's Pad's Things We Found in our Parent's House #1 chosen for the exhibit.

My father was a prominent physician who died in 2006.  I did a photo transfer onto fabric of his blank prescription from his prescription pad.  Each prescription is something he used to say often, quilted, and embellished. 

Back on Track

After a long hiatus I am writing again determined to be more disciplined. Working towards understanding the benefits of a blog and maintaining a log of my thoughts in a public way.

Like all of us I got overwhelmed with activity. For me I am a co-chair of the Associated Artists 98th Annual Exhibition at the Warhol Museum. What an adventure. I am learning a tremendous amount but it is unbelieveably time consuming. Today I realized I have a little over two weeks to finish my own piece, the fabric I plan to use on the back only just arrived today. Sometimes I work best under pressure.

In addition I am working on a commission which didn't go together quite as easily as I anticipated. A patchwork of sweaters and sweatshirts backed with microsuede. Seemed like a good idea at the time, using the correct needle essential but only one out of two machines would do it, my Bernina.

Last night I attended a lecture given by Nancy Crow who has a show opening tonight at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University 55 quilts 1988 - 2008. I have never heard Nancy Crow speak. She is a force and I am mulling over many thoughts. I am sure my thoughts will gel once I have seen her work in person. Prior to now I have only seen one of her pieces in the flesh. Mary Thomas wrote a thoughtful article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

The Three Rivers Arts Festival is running. I have a piece in Icing on the Cake Pittsburgh 250 Happy Birthday Celebration at Wintergarden in PPG Place. I was surprised and delighted to discover that Mary Thomas chose it for advertising in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. I didn't have time to shoot it but I have posted what the paper ran so I had to scan.

The Studio

I have been consumed with massive organization of the studio. It corresponds with a special edition from the publishers of Quilting Arts Magazine about studio re-organization. Helpful to look at to be sure, quite timely.

Until now I have always looked at maintaining some kind of order in the studio as a necessary evil second to what I create within it. But as I grow in my art making I have come to understand it is much more important than just a space in which I create quilts. It's not an office it's a studio which needs to inspire as much as anything.

My studio is on the third floor and is attic-like with slanted roofs. It is away from everything and a refuge. Although I live in the city so the direct view is out of the windows to the house next door the indirect view is to the backyard wooded area. It gets a lot of light.

Until now I have paid little attention to how I use this space. Over the years I have rearranged furniture and the like. Determined the best place for the sewing machine and added fabric storage. But I realized that when my father was diagnosed with cancer it became the create work when can, dump and run space. I had no idea how out of control it was. I became paralyzed to create within it.

I have ordered new cabinets, organized tools and supplies at least to various areas, recycled more paper than I care to admit, purged yards of fabric to give to children's programs found my checkbook and continue to consider improvements to the space. It's exhilarating. My design wall has always been a floor below in the extra bedroom we call the forbidden room because our cat Ilya likes to claw it. I may have figured out a way to incorporate it on the third floor which will make it much more conducive to intuitive design, everything will be in one place, currently I take piles of fabric downstairs to audition.

The walls are white but much of the furnishings are color, bright. For me it has to be fun, 60's bright, like my art. Photos another post I'm still getting the hang of posting them and I get frustrated.

I think part of my enthusiasm is a result of my artistic growth and seeking to develop a way of working, to establish a rhythm of working and the space I work in has to facilitate that. It doesn't need to be huge although that would be nice, it needs to function so that I am not looking for things but have immediate access to things. Or see something to spark something in me.

I have been thinking that my work is too thought out, too planned. I need to experiment but to do that I need to feel uncluttered I felt trapped in the clutter and trapped in my thoughts.

I think it gets down to moving up to the next level of seriousness about my art.