Thursday, April 18, 2019

Member news from Anne Brauer

News from Ann Brauer:

First two of my quilts will be sent to the Residence of the US Ambassador to Guyana as part of the Art in the Embassies Program. The show at the embassy is designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of walking on the moon as a rock from the moon was presented to the government of Guyana.

The two quilts are “green circle” copyright Ann Brauer 2015. Photo by John Polak. 40x40”


And Pluto is a planet”. 40x40 inches. Copyright Ann Brauer 2015. Image by John Polak.



In addition I will be showing at the Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton, MA on May 25-27. For more infowww.paradisecityarts.com

Finally I will be joining in the 10th anniversary celebration of the Federal District Court House in Springfield, MA which includes twelve of my quilts specially designed for the space.

 
Ann Brauer
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
Contemporary art quilts

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Member News from Ann Ribbens

News From Ann Ribbens: 

Ann has been accepted into a  juried exhibition  called "Journeys Onward". It was a call open to veterans and their immediate families by the Wickford (RI) Art Association. Her husband was a Vietnam veteran and is featured in the quilt that she entered. 

The exhibit which runs from May 17th thru June 16th, 2019. The opening reception on Sunday, May 19th, 1 -3 PM, at the WAA Gallery, 36 Beach Street, North Kingstown, RI.



Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Meet New Member Rebecca Linson Szetela

Meet New Member Rebecca Linson Szetela:


1: When did you start making art quilts?
December 2018
2: What type of work do you do - abstract/realist/representational...? What styles or techniques do you use?
This is hard to answer sine I have one quilt done and one in the design stage, but I guess somewhat realistic and somewhat representational. I start with a real image or images and then through the design process I work with changing the color to work with the design rather than to be truly realistic.
3: How did you learn the techniques you use? (Did you study with a mentor, self-taught, etc?)
My first (and only so far!) art quilt was inspired by Susan Carlson. I went to the N.E.Quilt Museum in Lowell during Susan's exhibit and I was blown away by her work. I was so excited by her quilts that I went back to the museum 2 more times, bought her two books, found YouTube videos she had made, started to design an art quilt of my own and then bought her online master class. The art quilt I designed and created (which is my first ever) was inspired by my understanding of how she creates her designs.  
6: How do you work?  Give us some insight into your design process?
I take a lot of pictures of flowers, birds, outdoor scenes and then I print them out and think about them. Then the most promising I trace to see what the lines look like and when I think I have a good design and picture I use photoshop and publisher to print it our full size in tiles. Then I do a color sketch, copy to muslin and start picking out fabrics.
8: What are your sources of inspiration?
The natural world is my source of inspiration but only as a starting point.
9: What is your studio like and when do you like to work?
My studio is also my business: Create!® Sewing Studio where I am owner, manager and sewing instructor. I have big tables, lots of sewing machines, good light, music peace and quiet and it is NOT in my house which is a major plus!
10: What are your goals or aspirations for your art?
I would like to make more art quilts! A major goal is to have enough of a body of work to have a one person show, but an intermediate goal is to be in a group show. My biggest challenge is time. Because I run the sewing studio and teach, it's challenging to find times that are free to to work (and make a mess!).
Make sure you also include the following:
Your Name: Rebecca Linson Szetela
Your Website:  www.createsew.com 
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Member news from Karen Swiech, Salley Mavor and Julie Brown

News from Karen Swiech of Ashland, MA: 

This a picture of my quilt, 60 Years of Memories. 
It has been shown in a few locations, but I was recently surprised to see it on episode 2303 of Quilting Arts TV, which aired on April 15 on the Create Channel. Out of the maybe one thousand quilts that were in the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England last August, Luanna Rubin chose maybe 10 to show and talk about on the show and mine was one of them. It is composed of 5,184 one inch photos that together make up the mosaic’d picture of my parents on their wedding day, April 27, 1957. 


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News from Salley Mavor


THE ART OF CUTE
Brickstore Museum, Kennebunk, Maine
May 1- August 31, 2019
Curated and produced by Illustration Institute

The Art Of Cute is an exhibition that takes a serious look at a powerful aesthetic that is often not taken seriously. The exhibit is organized into three sections: Normative Cute, Applied Cute and Meta Cute and will explore why we are drawn to that which is cute and how its impact is felt in life, in design and in art.

A selection of topical and political art by fiber artist Salley Mavor will be displayed in the Meta Cute or “beyond” cute category. This part of the exhibit explores how cute, combined with other aesthetics, can create meaningful art that can be ironic, disturbing, political, joyous, humorous and provocative.




























–News from Julie Brown Neu: 

Art Exhibition of Memorial Quilts through the Victims Quilt Project
Disarming: Memorial Quilts for Mass Shooting Victims | April 20 – June 10, 2019, 
Opening Reception April 27, 4-6pm 

Arlington, MA - The Arlington Center for the Arts is pleased to be presenting Disarming: Memorial Quilts for Mass Shooting Victims, a quilt exhibition on view April 20 to June 10, 2019. 

Throughout the history of quilting, artists have been called upon in the wake of tragedy, disaster, or suffering to create quilts to send to the families of those affected. When a call for quilts to comfort the families of victims of the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida came to quilt artist Julie Brown Neu in 2016, the thought, "No, you should make quilts for the victims themselves," came to her instead. It was then that Julie began the Victims Quilt Project, which aims to memorialize victims of mass gun violence and bear witness to the shootings that have impacted and punctuated our society for almost 30 years. These beautifully crafted and thoughtfully constructed quilts carry an emotional and physical weight that asks visitors to remember those lost by mass shootings and consider the impact gun violence has on our society.

When speaking about the inspiration for this project, Neu says-- “When the muse first gave me this project nearly three years ago, I didn’t understand why. When I realized that the 20th Anniversary of the Columbine shooting is this April 20, 2019, the purpose became clear.” Starting with the shooting at Columbine High School, Julie made a quilt block with the name of each person who died in a mass shooting in which more than 10 people were massacred at once.  To date, she has made 310 blocks, each representing an individual victim of mass gun violence, in 14 quilts for the shootings in Columbine High School, CO, Virginia Tech, VA, Binghamton, NY, Fort Hood, TX, Aurora, CO, Sandy Hook Elementary, CT, Washington, DC, San Bernardino, CA, Orlando, FL, Las Vegas, NV, Sutherland Springs, TX, Parkland, FL, Pittsburgh, PA, and Thousand Oaks, CA. 

This exhibit includes all 14 memorial quilts, plus "Bullet Holes," in which 796 holes represent victims of mass shooting events large and small from 1990 to 2018, and "In Our Sights," which includes pages from The New York Times covering the shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.​ The visual volume that these quilts carry is representative of the degree to which mass gun violence has impacted our country in the last thirty years and the emotional toll these tragedies take on our society. 

As an Arlington resident, Neu felt it was important for the inaugural display of this work to be presented by an institution in her town. “I feel so fortunate to have an organization in Arlington like the ACA to support me as an artist and to help me make this exhibit possible. Without them, I’d have nothing more than a stack of quilts tucked away in my closet.”

“I am deeply moved by Julie’s passion and commitment to remembering those who lost their lives in mass shootings,” says ACA Executive Director, Linda Shoemaker.  “Julie’s juxtaposition of the traditional, gentle, often nostalgic-feeling medium of quilting with the hard reality of the mounting toll of gun violence in our country is powerful.  Her insistence that we remember the victims of mass shootings through the ‘soft’ form of these quilts is 'Disarming,’ indeed, as her exhibit title suggests."

"The power of seeing so many quilt blocks with so many names, all with the same day of death," says Shoemaker, "leaves an indelible impression.  This is one of the gifts artists can give us – a new way of seeing and engaging with the challenging issues of our time, and I’m proud that Julie chose the Arlington Center for the Arts for her first public showing of these powerful quilts.”

Disarming is on view and open to the public April 20 to June 10, 2019, Monday through Friday from 10:00am to 6:00pm and during evening public events. The public is invited to join the ACA and Julie Brown Neu for an opening reception on Saturday, April 27, 4:00-6:00pm. Refreshments will be provided. For more information about this exhibition and opening reception event please visit acarts.org.

Julie Brown Neu: Julie Brown Neu began quilting more than 20 years ago as a way to fill her free time after graduating from college.  As the years passed, quilting became a vital form of artistic expression for her.  Julie is now a working artist from Arlington, MA, who uses the soft form of cloth and the nostalgic medium of quilts to explore the hard topics of sexism, xenophobia, and mass shooting violence.

About Arlington Center for the Arts
The Arlington Center for the Arts is a community arts center devoted to the mission of "transforming lives and building community through the arts." For the last 30 years, ACA has opened its doors to a community of artists, learners, and supporters of the arts and has committed to engagement, access, and inclusion of all art forms. In 2018, thanks to the support of many generous individuals in the community, the ACA finished renovations and moved into their new facility at 20 Academy Street, Arlington, Massachusetts 02476.To learn more, visit our website at www.acarts.org. 

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Friday, April 12, 2019

Meet New Member Denise Konicek

 Welcome Denise Konicek


1: When did you start making art quilts?
Like SO many others, I began making traditional quilts, got a bit bored, started making my own designs, and then since I had art training began looking for other ways to play with my fabrics. Attending a few of the larger quilt shows introduced me to the concept of art quilts about 10 years ago. Shortly thereafter a friend of mine who went from quiltmaking to one-of-a-kind fabric dragons nudged me to take my first art quilt class with Beatriz Grayson. Bea became my mentor and primary teacher, and since she has now retired from teaching she has referred students to me. 

2: What type of work do you do - abstract/realist/representational...?
What styles or techniques do you use?
I have not yet settled into a fixed style. I am in what I would describe as the 'late discovery stage.' Serious quilt artists generally are an inquisitive bunch, and the most common path seems to be working a large variety of techniques before settling into a specific area to create an extensive series. The largest number of quilts I have created to date are representational fabric collage, often mixed with piecing and other select techniques such as embroidery or selective fabric modification (paint, permanent marker) to get a specific effect.



3: How did you learn the techniques you use? (Did you study with a mentor, self-taught, etc?)
My most extensive in-person studies have been ten years of once-a-month master classes with Bea Grayson and a wonderful group of about 5 other fellow students. I have taken several one-off classes with a number of major quilt artists such as Katie P-M through quilt shows and guild offerings. Overall I have learned the most through the excellent textbooks that many quilt artists have written and my 'informal' self-study pursuit. I'm not sure any of us are truly self-taught. 

     
4: Do you have a favorite color palette? 

I prefer jewel tones to pastels or muted colors. However I try to be conscious of my biases and make compositions with colors I would normally avoid. My most severe color 'allergy' was pink. I grew up being sort of a tomboy and always avoided it. When I started getting serious about quilting I decided at one point to add pink fabrics to my stash and challenge myself to work with it. Although it is not my go-to color, it is now a comfortable part of my choices.

5: How do you work?  Give us some insight into your design process?

I generally start with a sketch of some sort. I have four notebooks for quilt ideas, roughly broken up by types of composition and/or anticipated size of quilt. I have yet to use a computer to do any design work. I studied 'traditional' art seriously earlier in my life and am used to sketching - I also think that it stimulates your brain in a very different way to physically hand-draw an image. Doesn't even matter if you do it at all well. Just gets those neurons firing.

6: Do you work on a single project at a time or do you work on multiple pieces at once?
I work on multiple pieces if I am 'stalled out' on my primary piece. I have found I am not artistically productive if I metaphorically bang my head against a wall trying to finish a piece just to get it finished. I'm pretty good at meeting deadlines, so if an exhibit opportunity or commission presents itself, I am comfortable setting my current projects aside to achieve that goal. 

Your Name:  Denise Konicek 
Your Website:  denisekonicekart (about 70% finished!)


Monday, April 8, 2019

Artist Reception: Sat. April 6th, 2019 EXPLORATIONS: Journeys in Creativity: Inside the quilt artist's Studio NEQM, Lowell

Artist’s Reception: Saturday, April 6, 2019  -  "EXPLORATIONS: JOURNEYS IN CREATIVITY: INSIDE THE QUILT ARTIST’S STUDIO

(Lowell, MA)—“Explorations: Journeys in Creativity—Inside The Quilt Artist’s Studio” will be at the New England Quilt Museum (NEQM) 18 SHATTUCK ST, LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS 01852 nequiltmuseum.org
Presenting: Exhibit #2 April 3-June 23, 2019

 Curators Nancy Turbitt and Allison Wilbur 


Sue Colozzi

Mary Ellen Latino

Valerie Maser-Flanagan

Wen Redmond

Suzanne Munroe

Jeanne Marklin

Janice Doucette

Janice Jones 

Sharon McCartney

Sarah Ann Smith 

Allison Wilbur