Modern Materials

Planning meeting

I met with the staff members last week and finalized a lot of the details for the exhibit. In addition to providing an incredible art exhibit, we are working to make this a destination event with activities scheduled for the entire weekend. Remember that some of these details will change over time, as they always do.

Friday, July 10
The opening reception is from 5 - 8 pm, with a small, private catered supper afterward for people like the gallery staff and the exhibiting artists.

Saturday, July 11
The day starts with a self-guided gallery crawl and a visit to the Murrah Memorial. At lunchtime, there will be an artist's panel discussion back at Untitled[ArtSpace] that will be open to the public. A brown bag lunch will be available.

In the afternoon, there will be a meeting for the MO/KS/OK region of SAQA, but anyone is invited to attend. There will be time for dinner on the town, then a talk in the evening that is free and open to the public.

Sunday, July 12
In the morning, there will be a demo of an interesting surface design technique. At noon, lunch will be available for those who are still there. The afternoon is free so the visiting artists have time to travel home.

Food
The food that is associated with the gallery events will be available for a small fee for those who want it. We would need confirmation of attendance to assure that there is enough food available.

Lodging
A maximum of eight people will be able to stay in the gallery's second floor living quarters. There will be no charge for this. Priority for these spaces will probably go to the exhibiting artists. For all others, we are hoping to arrange for a discount at an excellent hotel that is within walking distance of the gallery.

Transportation from the airport
I have a minivan and am willing to pick people up from the airport on Friday afternoon and take them to the gallery or hotel, as long as I can take more than one person at a time. According to Mapquest, it's 10.64 miles and 16 minutes between the airport and the gallery. I can also take people to the airport on Sunday afternoon.

The latest information will always be posted on the exhibit webite, including a Calendar of Events. If there are any questions, feel free to contact me or Untitled[ArtSpace].

Mary Anne Jordan

Mary Anne Jordan and I have never met, even though we are both art quilters who live in Kansas. It's a very, very big state. I don't have a picture of her that's my own, but you can see one here in an article that was written about her. Mary Anne is a Professor of Textiles in the Textile Design Program at the University of Kansas and has made such a name for herself in the art quilt world that she juried the last Quilt Visions, one of the most prestigious exhibits in our medium.

I admire Mary Anne's work because it is very large, bold, graphic and almost Minimalist. I've never discussed her processes with her, but I can tell just from looking at her work that she concentrates heavily on hand dyeing, but purposely lets the dye react to the fabric the way it wants. We are fortunate that she will be displaying a brand new work in Modern Materials, entitled Landslide. At 110" x 110", it is one of the largest pieces that will be displayed.

Exhibit website

I spent the entire day revamping the look of the exhibit website, plus some of the information.
http://www.wernerstudio.com/UntitledExhibit2009.htm

I'd add a joke right here, but I'm too tired. You'll have to do without today. No pictures, either.

Is it time for an update?

1. The new Programs Coordinator and main contact for the Modern Materials exhibit is Jan Evans. Hello, Jan!
jan@1ne3.org

2. Untitled[ArtSpace] also has its first paid director, Jon Burris. I met him when I was in OKC last time for a planning meeting. I'm looking forward to working with him more, as he has a fascinating background in the hottest art scene today, contemporary art from China.
jonburris@1ne3.org

3. Today, I sent personal emails to all the exhibiting artists and asked them for any information that was missing from my files. A couple have already responded and I will update the individual artist pages on the exhibit's website as soon as I receive everything.
http://www.wernerstudio.com/UntitledExhibit2009.htm

4. I am going to attend the Petah Coyne gallery talk at Untitled on January 21st. I couldn't resist it any longer. It's worth the 6 hours of driving time round trip just for that alone.

5. Since I'll be at Untitled for the gallery talk anyway, I hope to meet with some of the staff while I'm there. I haven't told them I want to do this yet, so... surprise! I want to discuss the catalog, workshop(s), artist accommodations, publicity/press release and set the final calendar dates and times. I can also bring the gallery model.

Speaking of which, here's some gallery model news
Inexplicably, the cows have vanished, but a tiny version of a police call box suddenly appeared on the pedestal where Susan Else's Ferris wheel might someday be. Two very small people came out the box's door, including a man wearing very interesting and colorful clothes and a pretty young woman. They were obviously in a hurry, but still managed to look at the artwork for a few minutes before hurrying out the front door. How odd.

Wendy Huhn

I doubt that Wendy Huhn remembers me from this, but I was president of Kansas Art Quilters when she taught a workshop for KAQ at the Kansas City Art Institute in January, 2002. She covered a number of advanced surface design techniques, such as screen printing and foiling. I could tell that she was very tired after teaching a long string of workshops in different locations around the country, but she still did an excellent job and I continue to use many of the techniques that she presented to us that day. Thanks, Wendy!

Wendy's work is filled with imagery, even crammed with imagery. Many of those images would be warm, cuddly and domestic under almost any other circumstances, but not the way that Wendy handles them. They take on a definite edge. You could look at her quilts for a very long time and still not take in everything she puts into the picture. The stories they tell are very intense and very deep.

The artwork Wendy will be showing in Modern Materials is called Sleep and is 63" x 48". She told me it is her favorite piece and was working on it as her father was dying. I feel very honored that she is allowing us to show it in this exhibit.

Regina Benson

Regina Benson creates artwork of exceptional beauty and is being recognized for it. She's exhibited at SOFA Chicago and even been a featured speaker there. Her work is not only published in magazines, but she has had entire articles written about her. She's accepted into the top shows and her work is in high demand with buyers. Regina is, quite rightly, making a name for herself far beyond the quilt world.

Regina grew up in Lithuania, but her American college roommates decided to change her foreign accent and she now sounds like she was born here. You would never know about her Lithuanian background if she didn't tell you. She is highly intelligent, but I am even more impressed with her generous soul, as she is willing to help other artists (like me) with career advice. I think her heart is bigger than the rest of her body.

Regina's quilts are created from fabrics that have been dye-discharged (many times in snow) and the images are additionally manipulated using various methods, including rusting and burning. The work is then mounted on a 3D framework that is mounted on the wall.

The piece that Regina will be displaying in Modern Materials is called Core Sample, which is 48" x 64" x 4". I chose this particular artwork because I thought it was just stunning and I can hardly wait to see it in person. What more can I say.

 

Kevan Rupp Lunney

The first time that I saw a picture of Pod, the artwork that Kevan Rupp Lunney will exhibit in Modern Materials, I was blown away. I thought it was an outstandingly conceptual piece and wasn't sure whether to admire Kevan's work or be insanely jealous of it. In 2007, I discovered that Kevan was attending the same SAQA conference that I was, so I sought her out. That was the first time I proposed to someone that all the 3D art quilters get together and have an exhibit. Several other artists eventually got sucked into this vision and they will all be part of this exhibit, too.

I know that Kevan creates other wonderful work, but I had to ask her for Pod for this show. I couldn't NOT ask her for Pod because it would finally allow me to see it in person. Call me selfish. Kevan made it in reaction to her father's death and it is big enough for a person to crawl inside. The zippers along the edges of the leaves allow it to be shown in many ways, so I will have lots of fun arranging it. I intend to put it on the large pedestal just to the left of the gallery's front doorway, so people will see it right away. There is even a red bud inside that is not visible in this picture.

Kevan, I know you wanted to show something else, but once I threw myself on the ground and kicked my feet in the internet version of a tantrum, you relented. For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

Kathy Weaver

Kathy Weaver and I often hang out next to each other on lists of exhibitors; I am probably destined to follow her alphabetically for the rest of my life. Here's a picture of Kathy on the steps of the Columbus Museum of Art last summer. It's cropped from a much larger picture so this is as good an image as you get, but I assure you that she is quite a lovely person, both inside and out.

Kathy is a master with an airbrush and uses it to infuse her art quilts with the most wonderful pictures that are dreamlike, yet amazingly detailed. Often these days, her work has a robot theme and if you haven't seen any of it, you really should go to her website and look. A trained artist, she also produces paintings, drawings and embroideries. Whether or not the work incorporates robots, there is a very organic feel to her art. She has created her own surrealistic world and we have a chance to see it through her eyes. In some ways, it reminds me of the animated scifi movie called Fantastic Planet.

The quilt that Kathy will be displaying in Modern Materials is entitled Generated Topology (43" x 49"). It showcases her distinct style and I couldn't be more pleased to have Kathy's work in this exhibit.

Lori Lupe Pelish

It may seem as though I know all the artists I invited to be in Modern Materials, but I don't. Lori Lupe Pelish is one of the artists I don't know personally, but I do know her art quilts, which are remarkably lush, representional images. They capture a moment in life with just the right amount of artistic tension to make you want to know more about what is happening to that person. According to her website, Lori also hooks rugs using her own designs.

Lori offered several quilts for this show and I chose this one, which is titled Circus Life. It is 45" x 36". I once traveled with the circus myself, which is why it must have spoken to me in particular. This quilt was previously in the Fiberart International exhibit, so it has a great pedigree. I am thrilled that it will be exhibited in Modern Materials as well.

Pedestals

About a week ago, I added the pedestals for the 3D quilts. The pedestals are made from balsa wood and are sized to match the real pedestals owned by the gallery. The tiny pedestals are numbered and correspond to two lists, one of the available pedestals and the other of the work that will be placed on them. The cows are still wandering around, but at least they haven't left any cow patties behind them. They are very cultured cows.

I am still waiting to hear from one artist regarding the specific work they will be showing and two or three others are currently working on new pieces, so I do not have the pictures or dimensions for their works yet. Until I hear from them, I won't be able to finish the tentative layout, but at least I have a pretty good idea of where I stand space-wise.

I plan to show two of my own artworks in Modern Materials and I have been debating which ones to choose. The one that was a "definite", Unmatched, was just accepted into the International Juried Show at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, which is probably the top all-media exhibit in the U.S. today. Only 80 works were chosen from 1600 entries, so this is quite an honor. One newspaper called this show a "global cousin to the Whitney Biennial show of American Art" and it was juried this year by Adelina Vlas, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The NJ exhibit will be over by the end of March, so there won't be any conflict with Modern Materials.