Redefined

Petah Coyne

On Wednesday, I drove down to Oklahoma City to hear an artist's talk by Petah Coyne, a very prominent contemporary artist from NYC. The talk was held at Untitled[ArtSpace], where they will be exhibiting Modern Materials, the art quilt exhibit I'm curating for next summer. Petah gave a delightful and insightful talk that made me realize that I don't necessarily think like some artists do.

When Petah was a younger artist, she had a compulsion for collecting dead fish and she used them to festoon the rafters of her NYC loft. After her husband developed an allergic sensitivity to them, she used the 5,000 fish to decorate other places instead. At one point, she discovered a charming home in Long Island and, in the middle of the night, strung lines through the trees outside the front door of the house, then hung a large number of the dead fish on the lines. She was so hurt the next day when the homeowner came outside and reacted negatively to the fish that decorated his front yard. To Petah, the fish were a great gift and she couldn't understand why the homeowner didn't love them the same way she did. As I have never collected dead fish or even decorated with one of them, I suspect that the left side of my brain must have a bigger hold on me than my artwork would suggest.

After the lecture, an extremely nice woman named Michi Susan took me out to dinner in The Paseo Art District, where she has a studio. She creates beautiful collaged artwork using paper. Not only did she pay for my food (I probably ate 95% of the calories between the two of us), but she also listened quite graciously to my incessant babbling. Afterward, we returned to the gallery and spent the night, along with Laura Warriner (the gallery founder) in the second floor bedrooms. What an amazing, art-filled place!

The next morning, we gathered up another woman and the four of us ate breakfast at a Guatamalan restaurant. The biggest surprise there was the way they prepared oatmeal. Imagine milk soup that has some oatmeal floating around in it. It was surpringly tasty, however.

After breakfast, we returned to the gallery and I had a planning session for Modern Materials with Laura, Jon Burris, (Executive Director), Jan Evans (Program Coordinator) and Autumn Daves (Development/PR Coordinator). We managed to get a lot done and, to help them with their work on the exhibit, I gave Jan and Autumn a couple of the cows that had wandered through the gallery model a while back. I hope that the cows bring them good luck and that the staff can save them from any future alien abductions.

Cyber Fyber

Sweet Marguerite
Last week, I travelled to South Carolina and spent a couple of days visiting my 92 year old mother. She doesn't look her age, but I'm not surprised because she's always looked like she was 15 years younger than she really was. Oh, I just love the whole idea of "inherited traits".

My mother is deep in the throes of Alzheimers and there are some days that doesn't speak at all, but some of her personality is still leaking out around the edges. Just as I was getting ready to leave, I reminded her who I was and told her I loved her, but was about to go. Very slowly, she said, "I would like to live... the rest of my life... in the land of Jill". I love you too, Mom.

Cyber Fyber
After leaving the nursing home, I drove to Columbia, SC and attended the opening of Cyber Fyber, a very interesting exhibit of fiber art that was curated by Susan Lenz. Her whole idea was to demonstrate the connections that she has made with other artists on the internet and the influences they have had on her art and her life. In one part of the exhibit, there were small artworks the size of postcards and trading cards, mounted by the hundreds upon the walls. They were created by artists from all over the world. In the side room, there were larger artworks made by 19 international artists who Susan had invited. Here is a picture of my artwork, Transformed, in the show.

I walked into Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, where the exhibit was installed, about 5 minutes before the reception officially opened. I recognized Susan from pictures I had seen of her, so I went over and introduced myself to her. From then on, she made me feel like a rock star.

Susan is an absolute ball of fire and I kept expecting to see sparks flying off her fingertips. Here she is in the middle of the picture, along with her mother and sister, Linda and Sonya. What a great family! They obviously love each other a lot and support each other.

Here's another picture of Susan with Stephen Chesley, a painter who has a studio there.  He's helped Susan quite a lot with her career. Interestingly, Steve and I are only 5 months apart in age and our fathers worked in the same building in New York City, probably at the same time. How strange is that?

I was so impressed with the way that Susan curated this exhibit. It had a central theme that went far beyond "aren't these pretty quilts" and she created 12 different blogs to document everything going on. Here is the main one. She even has a blog filled with videos of the reception and exhibit. In the blog for the invited artists, I love her description of the installation of my work.

Another wonderful thing that Susan did was to recruit Cindi Boiter, a professional writer, to produce and distribute press releases. They both did a wonderful job and the show has been reviewed in a number of publications, such as undefined, an excellent arts journal for South Carolina. See p. 30 for the start of the article and P. 31, column 2 for the writeup about me.

The day after the reception, Susan planned a Fiber Day at the gallery. Four local vendors came in to demonstrate new materials and machines. The big hit was the Embellisher, which does needle felting. Susan also gave a demonstration of how she makes her own work.

All in all, I had a wonderful time and was so impressed with Susan's organizational abilities. She is a great curator and I hope she has the strength and energy to do something like this again someday. I was truly honored to be a part of it.

Tom Otterness and his "Millipede" sculpture

On Wednesday, the Ulrich Museum of Art here in Wichita welcomed a new sculpture by Tom Otterness into its collection. The Ulrich, which is part of Wichita State University, already has one of the top ten outdoor sculpture collections on U.S. college campuses and this was one more (and very giant) feather in their cap.

Tom Otterness, a Wichita native who now lives in New York City, was there for the dedication. This picture shows Millipede (affectionately known as Millie) with the dedication wreath around her neck.  I took pictures of the sculpture without the wreath earlier in the afternoon, but there was a crowd around her at all times, making her difficult to see. All of the feet rest on the ground with the exception of one back foot, which is being helped along by a very little female creature. The dedication included a street party complete with music and refreshments, an original dance by members of a choreography class at WSU and speeches by about 50 million people. OK, it really wasn't 50 million. In fact, the speeches ended quite a bit earlier than planned. The director of the Ulrich, Dr. Patricia McDonnell, was the MC.

After the dedication, everyone convened at the campus theater for a Powerpoint presentation by Tom. He talked about his career and how he made the Millipede in particular. Apparently, as the sections of the sculpture were joined together, the workers had to crawl inside to weld the joints. He indicated that he probably wouldn't make another piece that way again.

On my way back to the car, I took a couple of other pictures. One was of the ivy that was climbing the museum walls and turning colors for the Fall, which I thought was very beautiful all by itself. The other was of a work by Andy Goldsworthy, called the Wichita Arch. A tree is planted underneath the middle of the arch and will interact with the structure of the arch as it grows over time.

International Sculpture Center Conference

On Saturday, I returned from the International Sculpture Center conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have been a member of the ISC for several years, but this was the first sculpture conference I attended. It's part of my general move from the art quilt community into the greater art world.

The conference was held on the grounds of the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park and they couldn't have chosen a better location. If you are ever in the area, I suggest you visit the gardens, which has sculpture from some of the best artists in the world. Many of the sculptures are very large scale.

I arrived on Wednesday and that evening, I went to a pre-conference party at the home of a longtime arts advocate in the area. The house was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and had a wonderful lake view. The place was so crowded that I was often stuck in a hallway when trying to move around. It wasn't really a problem because it actually gave me the opportunity to talk to some wonderful artists and get to know them as we were stuck there together.

On Thursday morning, there was a preconference panel discussion at the hotel where I was staying. The topic was creating a city dedicated to public art. One sculpture they talked about in particular was a large Alexander Calder sculpture located about two blocks away. At very moment, there was a crowd of about a quarter of a million people surrounding that sculpture listening to a speech by Barack Obama. When I left the hotel to go to the sculpture gardens for the start of the conference, I was caught in the traffic leaving the speech. It was a little strange to see security personnel on the sidewalk just a few feet away from me who were obviously wearing about 60 pounds worth of large weaponry.

The general topic for the conference was public art, which really didn't pertain to me. However, I still learned a lot. The keynote address was given by Jaume Plensa, who creates wonderful sculptures like the Crown Fountain at Millenium Park in Chicago. I was really inspired by the meaning he infuses into his work.

Optional events included the opportunity to participate in an Art Slam. Up to six artists could present their work within the space of an hour. A number of other people turned up to listen to the presentations, too. Here's a picture of me giving my talk. The editor of Sculpture magazine was in the audience and I was glad in many ways that I was showing work that was so different than the others.

The last night of the conference was the monthly gallery hop in Grand Rapids. Here I am with Pam RuBert at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art. It is a great gallery and I plan to submit my portfolio in the near future, hoping to be considered for a show in one of their spaces. The most impressive exhibit was the Big Art Party, a once a year event held in an unused building in Grand Rapids. The Grand Rapids Art Museum had recently moved into a new building, so the party was held in their old location. All the marble and wood rooms (and there were a lot of them) were filled with some really impressive contemporary artwork. The music was pumping and the place was crowded. I wish we had an event like that in Wichita.

Overall, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

What's on the board?

Here's a better picture of Posted, the "bulletin board" in my solo exhibit. It looks so real that many people walked right past it, not realizing it was part of the exhibit. Even when they were standing close to it and I told them it was a quilt, bending the bottom upwards to show how flexible it was and how you could see the stitching on the back, some still asked if I used real cork to make it. Nope, it's all made from fabric.

I used a combination of thumb tacks, straight pins and push pins to hold the items onto the board. To protect the wall behind it, I covered the points with pierced earring backs. I am sooooo clever!

The real bulletin board for the university's art department had some pictures of art that had been cut out from magazines, so I added a picture that I had cut from a magazine, too. You can see "Alien Invasion" by one of my favorite artists, Pam RuBert, right under the Art Dept. sign.

The lime green poster in the lower left is the gallery's schedule for the 2008-2009 school year. If you look closely, you can see an arrow to my name, with the handwritten words "Is she related to Mary Werner, the gallery director?" and underneath, "No". This was my way to answer the obvious question, for people who know Mary.

The Art Dept. sign is attached with Velcro to make it removable. The next time I use the bulletin board, I can change the sign to suit the situation. Just to the right of it, I placed a fly (glued to a thumb tack) that looks like it's crawling across the surface of the cork. There are also a lot of extra tacks and pins in the board, to make it look like it's being well-used. You'll also see a fortune from a Chinese fortune cookie and some comic strips from my home bulletin board.

The white papers are fake notices. One is a "Roommate Wanted" sign, one supposedly has course additions for the Fall semester and the other is a For Sale sign for an Gauguin ($37 million OBO/ Moving out of state).

If you have been following my blog for a while, you may remember my blog contest. The three prizes are the blue hand dyed scarf, the artwork in the black oval mat and the round, red, beaded pin just above the scarf. These prizes will be sent to the winners when the exhibit is over.

Going solo

I had a wonderful time at the opening reception for my solo exhibit on Friday evening. Many people turned up with whom I wanted talk longer, but I didn't have the opportunity. Two hours goes pretty fast when you are having fun!

If you think we're friends but you didn't turn up, we may have to renegiotiate our relationship. The art may not have drawn you, but how could you resist free food and wine?

By coincidence, the gallery director is named Mary Werner. A man and wife with the last name of Werner were also there because he works at the university. To my surprise, another Jill M. Werner turned up with her husband and friends. She lives here in Wichita and we knew each other existed, but had never met. I had sent her an announcement postcard as a lark and she apparently couldn't resist meeting the other Jill M. Werner in town. The first three letters of our middle names are even the same. At one point, there were seven Werners standing in a circle talking and, with the exception of the married pairs, none of us were related. That kind of thing never happened to me when I was simply Jill Rumoshosky.

Splashed, which can be seen on the pedestal near the left wall, was most people's favorite piece. Another favorite was Posted, which can be seen on the right. It looks so much like a real cork board that many people were walking past it, thinking that it was a real cork board used by the university's art department. However, if they studied the items on the board, they soon realized that something was a little "off" and it was actually part of the exhibit. I added more bulletin board items after this picture was taken, so I'll take another before I do the gallery talk tomorrow and write a blog post about it.

Many thanks to the folks at Newman University for making this exhibition such a success!

 

My name in lights!

My solo exhibition starts tomorrow, in conjunction with Wichita's Final Friday gallery crawl. Here is the information, if you are in the area.

Newman University
Steckline Gallery - De Mattias Fine Arts Center
3100 McCormick Avenue, Wichita, Kansas

Opening reception- August 29, 5 pm - 7 pm
Art for Lunch presentation- September 2, 12 noon - 1 pm (open to the public and you get a free lunch!)
Gallery hours- Mon-Fri, 9 am - 4 pm or by appointment
For more information, call 316-942-4291 x2199
Gallery director- Mary Werner (no relation)

As I was driving over there yesterday to do some last minute adjustments, I spotted the school's LED sign with my exhibit information on it. My jaw literally dropped! This sign is right next to the highway, so a lot of people will be seeing it.

They even spelled Rumoshosky right. What more could I ask for?

 

Popping up in Oklahoma City

This weekend, I travelled to Oklahoma City for a workshop on pop-up structures with Carol Barton. She is a paper engineer from Maryland, a wonderful person and a very good teacher. Her instructions were clear and she paced the workshop just right, so you didn't feel rushed or bored at any time.

We worked with very colorful paper and after a while, the table looked like it had been hit by a flourescent blizzard of scraps. I always thought I was a creative person, but some of the people in the workshop made me feel very uncreative by comparison. I was sitting next to Elia Woods (who is also an art quilter and textile artist) and she was doing some amazing work. She even created a pop-up table that was covered with bright scraps of paper like our workshop tables and had recognizable pop-up versions of people around it who were in the class, like the teacher.

Here is an example of what I made. I tend not to pour all my creativity into workshop models, but instead absorb the techniques and ideas. All the time I was working, I was thinking about how I could apply the principles to my own work. A while ago, I created a piece based on pop-up ideas that is appropriately called Popped. It is currently travelling with an exhibit through the Kansas Art Quilters group. Unfortunately, I realized too late that you couldn't really tell it was a pop-up when it was installed. This workshop gave me some wonderful ideas about better ways to make that more obvious when the piece is opened and just sitting there. Ah well, you live and learn, which is why I took this workshop, obviously.

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.