Redefined

Material Matters

Last Thursday, I flew to Ohio for the opening reception for Material Matters, an incredible exhibit of art quilts at the Columbus Museum of Art. It turned out to be the largest summer opening this museum has ever had, with over 1000 visitors in attendance. Here's a picture of me standing on the museum steps.

There are 39 artists in this exhibit from all over the world, selected from former teachers and students of the Quilt Surface Design Symposium. Considering the extraordinary level of talent represented, I was very honored to be one of the few who had two works invited into this show, Knitted and Transformed. Knitted's image was used for advance publicity and I was one of several artists who was asked to record a cell phone audio tour for my work. If you would like to listen to it, call 614-448-5095 and press 321#. There is also an impressive book available from the museum containing all the works included in the exhibit, as well as a great section written by the guest curators, Linda Fowler and Tracy Rieger.

Here are installation pictures of both my artworks from the show. Unfortunately, after taking the first picture of Knitted, I was asked to turn off the flash on my camera, which is why the picture of Transformed is not very good color-wise. I tried to tweak it, but just made it worse, so it is shown here unchanged.

One of the best parts of going to such a reception is the opportunity to meet and talk to other artists, the curators and museum staff. A high proportion of the artists attended, including some of my favorite people, Marilyn Henrion and Kathy Weaver. Marilyn and I are in at least four different exhibits right now.

An interesting side note is that the museum has a large section dedicated to the great American painter, George Bellows, who was from Columbus. One of his more famous paintings is Lady Jean, a portrait of his daughter. As it turns out, I knew Jean when she was an adult. She lived a couple of blocks from my house in Dobbs Ferry, NY and her family was good friends with our next door neighbors. I was just a little girl at the time, so to me she was always "Mrs. Booth". I do recall going to birthday parties at their house and trick or treating there on Halloween.

Fellowship awards ceremony

You are getting two long posts today because yesterday, I traveled to Topeka to receive my Mid-Career Artists Fellowship (Fine Art) from the Kansas Arts Commission. They held a wonderful reception for the recipients and I want to tell you about some of the interesting people who I talked to. There were many others and I hope that I don't hurt their feelings by not including them, but I have to stop the list somewhere before everyone falls asleep, like in a college class right after lunch.

- One of my State Senators, Les Donovan, was there with his wife, Cissy, to hand me my award. I was honored that they took the time to be there for me, as I was the only fellowship winner from the Wichita area. I was so impressed by their graciousness and intelligence.

- Pauline Verbeek-Cowart, who received the Masters Fellowship in Fine Craft, is a tremendously talented weaver who teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute. Many people know her from the Surface Design Association. Talking to her came at a good time for me, because of a question I had regarding SDA and the fiber art exhibits associated with their biennial conference. She was the perfect person to ask and I had an opportunity to get to know her at the same time. That was almost worth the trip all by itself.

- Melissa Gregory, who works in the office of Governor Kathleen Sebelius. I have a quilt hanging on the wall in the governor's office right now and Melissa knew exactly which one it was. Coincidentally, she "long distance" commutes from Wichita and her Wichita house is one that my husband and I had looked at when we were buying a home almost 20 years ago. We distinctly remember that house and have even talked about it a few times since.

- Barbara Nelson, who co-owns the Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan (Kansas), probably the most respected contemporary art gallery in the state. Her husband and gallery co-owner, Jay, was on the selection panel for the awards. Barbara and I first met in 2001, when she was kind enough to host a meeting of Kansas Art Quilters. I was president of KAQ at the time. I'd love to get to know Barbara better, as I remember her gallery/home as being jaw-droppingly amazing, which says a lot about the insides of a person.

- John Divine, a commissioner on the KAC board. He chaired the selection panel for the visual arts awards this year, which is the first time I'd seen him in about 25 years. We used to work for the same branch office for IBM, but he was based in a city 90 minutes drive from me and I only saw him occasionally during that time. In fact, I was surprised he remembered me at all, but I guess Jill Rumoshosky isn't a name you hear every day.

- Roger Shimomura, who received the Masters Fellowship in Fine Art, is a world renowned painter. In 2000, when I received a Mini-Fellowship from the KAC, I attended the selection meeting and one of the panel members made a comment that changed the course of my art tremendously. It took me years to figure out what that comment meant, but I eventually did. When I told Roger about this, he did not recall whether he had served on that panel because he's served on so many over the years, but thought the comment was something he would be likely to say. Whether he has any memory of that moment in time, I do remember it and that's what counts. You never know the impact that your life has on other people, do you?

Dinner in the Deuce

Last Friday, I traveled to Oklahoma City for an opening reception at a very special contemporary art gallery called Untitled [ArtSpace]. The exhibit was Dinner in the Deuce, referring to the neighborhood's name, Deep Deuce. All the projects were collaborations, made up of people from different artistic mediums and different physical locations. Considering the logistics of the project and all the artistic egos involved (including my own), the end result was magical. Each dinner setting had a theme and they were all very different from each other.

Portable Picnic was raised off the floor so no one would step on it. The pedestal they used was one of the massive, original sliding doors from the old warehouse building where the gallery is located. We were the only group who didn't have a table, so some visitors assumed that the door was part of our display. It might make the picnic a little less portable if you had to carry the door around, don't you think?

The ceramics were created by Barbara Broadwell from Edmond, OK and the pewter pieces were made by Margareta Grill from Tulsa, OK. I'm really pleased with the the way our work looks together and proud to have been part of this project. Thanks to Laura Warriner and her gallery staff for coordinating such a wonderful exhibit.

Fellowship fun

I drove 620 miles in the past two days, roundtrip from Wichita to Topeka, KS on Thursday and round trip to Oklahoma City on Friday. My finger got tired of resetting the cruise control button as I left the rest areas. In this post, I'll tell you about Thursday.

A few months ago, I applied for a Kansas Arts Commission Mid-Career Artist Fellowship. The Visual Arts selection panel met in Topeka a couple of days ago and I went to watch them deliberate. I won an Individual Artist Mini-Fellowship from the KAC in 2000 and in 2001, I was on the selection committee myself, so I had a good perspective on the process already. The public and the applicants were invited to attend, but I was the only person to actually turn up. I arrived late in the morning because I was #41 on the agenda of 43 applicants (the W name, you know).

When I came in, the director of the KAC, Llewellyn Crain, grabbed me and pulled me into another room. I had met her about a year earlier, so she knew who I was. I was told that I was welcome to observe, but I wasn't allowed to interact with the panel members in any way.

As I walked in the room, I realized I already knew some of the panel members or at least knew who they were. One was Dr. Patricia McDonnell, the director of the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University. I love this museum, as it's "the" place for great contemporary art in Wichita. Another was Novalene Ross, the former director of the Wichita Art Museum and a true leader in the Kansas arts community. One board member from the KAC is required to be there and conduct the proceedings. This time, it turned out to be a man I used to work with at IBM. We worked in the same branch, but were located in cities a distance apart, so I wasn't even sure that he remembered me from 20-25 years ago. I did not know the other three panel members.

I sat quietly through the rest of the evaluations that afternoon, listening to what they said about each applicant's work. Dr. McDonnell did not vote or comment on my art, citing conflict of interest (she knows me). The comments about my work included:
innovative, original (this was said a lot)
took quilting in a whole new direction
craftsmanship is excellent
sensuous appeal
transcends wearables and bedcovers
very good statement in fine craft

The only negative things mentioned were that my statement was more a biography than a statement and that I had a great resume, but didn't have enough solo shows on it. This is my year to look for solo shows, so if you have one to offer me, I'm yours! I'll even lick your boots, if you want me to, but only if it's done in public and advertised as performance art.

When the scoring was finalized, I was allowed to introduce myself. I absolutely love to hear myself talk, so I also took the opportunity to tell them my positive experience with receiving a mini-fellowship and how my art was tremendously affected by listening to the comments of the panel that year. Being a panel member is a lot of work, so I wanted them to know what an impact they were having on the artists and the ripples the fellowships sent out into the world.

I was allowed to look at the final scores after the process was over, but I was so busy talking to people that I barely got a chance to glance at the sheet before they wanted it back. Out of 19 in my category, I was ranked 5th. However, there are two other (much smaller) groups whose scores will be integrated with ours and they are only giving awards to the top eight. I think I'm on the bubble as to whether I'll receive an award or not, but I won't get upset if I don't. I saw how tough the competition was this year and I know I did well, so I am happy with my ranking either way. The way I look at it, I had the opportunity to have a number of art heavyweights see my work and critique it, plus I had the chance to talk to most of them personally. Forget the fellowship money, that experience was priceless.

Dipping my toe back into the traditional quilt world

The Wichita Art Museum just installed an exhibit of masterpiece antique quilts from the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. During the planning stage, the chief curator also asked the local quilt guild to display work from some of their members and, a few months ago, they sent me a letter asking if I would be interested in being part of this. My first reaction was, "Do they know what they are getting into?". Hmmm, antique quilts, traditional quilts from the guild members and... my work, which would be incredibly different from the rest. However, I said yes and they selected Connected, which at least hangs on the wall. That's about as traditional as I get these days.

I haven't been a part of the Prairie Quilt Guild for years, but I'm back on the list again after they realized I was no longer a member and sent a tactfully worded email requesting that I send in my dues, because the exhibit was for members only. As a bit of trivia, PQG has approximately 900 members, making it the largest local quilt guild in the world and virtually every member creates very traditional work. In fact, many of them don't think I've been successful as a quilter because they've never seen my work at the Kansas State Fair. Ha! Can you imagine the reaction of the state fair judges if they were asked to judge a quilt that is 1-1/4 inches wide by 70 yards long? They'd probably melt into a puddle.

The opening reception for the museum show was Friday evening and they held a quilt symposium on Saturday afternoon. One of the speakers was my friend, Anita Holman Knox, who is one of the nicest people around, as well as a very talented art quilter. Her hand dyed fabric is positively delicious, as I have discovered by nibbling some of her scarves when her back was turned. During the week, she is the acting director of the Kansas African-American Museum and she gave an excellent presentation on African-American quilts. The only problem she experienced was that, by the end of the day, her scarf had little bite marks around the edges and I don't think they were all from me.