Entering shows:looking for alternatives

Entering shows has become expensive when there are entry fees and shipping costs to and from..in fact if the entry fee is over $40 I’ve quit entering them.  Also I’m much more interested in the mixed fiber or multi-media shows, I think there is a lot more synergy when quilts are mixed up with other media. So I was very pleased to be asked to be part of a 4 person show “Uncommon Threads” in the Town 220 Restaurant and Gallery in Madison, GA. 

This is an interesting venue: the gallery is actually above the restaurant and is literally a gallery!  So the foodie smells don’t permeate the cloth (I never accept offers to show close to food), and yet the diners can see that there is art work “up there” and hopefully are enticed into going up to see it both before and after eating.

 

 

You know the old joke about matching the sofa?  Well I finally achieved it!  I’m so happy I was able to perfectly match that pink sofa!  This Quilt, Steelyard Frieze, goes so well in that location, I hope somebody will buy the quilt and the sofa!!

 

Another and, I hope,  tantalizing, view from the dining tables!

Interspersed with my quilts are digital pieces from the visiting professor of surface design at the University of Georgia, Jennifer Crenshaw.  Apparently the department has an amazing digital printer – hugely wide and endlessly long.  But I do wonder if having such technology that produces instant results from CAD program to cloth, doesn’t somehow limit the students.  The whole point, to me, about fiber is the hands on aspect.  It seemed as if the professor had never seen arashi shibori, for example, as shown in all three of my pieces in this picture.

Here’s a close up of one of them:

I was wondering if my quilts would look a little hokey next to the sleek digi prints but in fact they hold their own very well.  The digi prof and I loved the juxtapositions so much that we’re thinking about a joint show ……..all we need is the venue!

Jennifer’s work is based on graffiti –  mysterious layers of it, in pink and green and silver, quite beautiful.

 

 

And I was very happy that the restaurant had a deep burnt orange wall on which to hang these black and white pieces:

so do please visit if you can – the show is up till October 27, plus there is another fiber show in Madison at the Madison Morgan Cultural Center. 

Look for local shows – low entry fees, no shipping and serendipitous mixes of work……sometimes smaller and more intimate is better.  Places where people linger are good too!

And now I’m off to Canada, though I’m told it’s no cooler there at all – I shall be checking out the local galleries in the Burlington, ON area hoping to come across some fiber, but happy with whatever I find.  A favorite place is what my brother calls Garlic Gardens – actually it’s Gairloch – which is equally odd – why should a gallery in Oakville, On be called after a Scottish loch?  An extremely beautiful loch too,  if you ever visit the west coast of Scotland, and one well worth visiting.  

And, before I deviate even further from the main topic,  if you have been, thanks for reading!

P.S. Last chance to register for Inspired to Design at Quilt University this Sunday – so if you’re interested, check it out!