Gala Opening of New Exhibit
I am extremely pleased to report that this past weekend at “one speckled egg gallery” we held a successful opening of my most recent body of work entitled “extraordinarily ordinary”, a creative tribute to the beauty and art that lies dormant within the faded, the worn, and the rusted.
As an advocate for the discarded ‘underdog’ object, I’ve spent most of my life rescuing the strange cast-offs no longer valued by society. Somehow I’m able to see past the peeling paint, the chips and cracks, and the absolutely obsoleteness, to the art at the heart of these artifacts from our not-too-distant past. There is a potential for new purpose, even if only to inspire creativity. There was a time when our material possessions were treasured, maintained, and mended to extend their usefulness and when old materials were put to new purpose. When did we lose this desire for making do with less, being more resourceful and creatively innovative? How did we become such a disposable society? If we continue as we are, how will we end up?
Inspirational Art Quilts
This new collection of artwork showcases not only my latest art quilts, but new photography, paintings, and collage work, all completed within the past six months. I was excited to present this collection as it demonstrates a varied cross-section of interests and mediums, all inspired by found objects.
Many of the art quilts found their inspiration in the old rag rug loom constructed from a discarded window frame. In my mind this innovative re-use of materials was genius, as the weaving was done on rusted nails hammered into the frame and the body of the rug is woven using old stockings, therefore every aspect of this forgotten, unfinished project was re-purposed, rather than thrown in the trash. The fact that I have rescued it from going to our town dump, was the ‘icing on the cake’ in the life of this wonderful piece of art. The old loom inspired me to create a small art book containing many design ideas that eventually led to the completion of over a dozen art quilts.
Textile work and mixed media collage on canvas
In just under six months, I madly quilted and painted almost nonstop to complete this collection – a collection I am very proud of. This work shows the diversity of my skills as an artist and the strong relationships developed between individual pieces to create a fully connected series of work. I also challenged myself to round out the collection with a strong showing of complimentary artwork in other mediums such as photography and collage, without distracting from the textile work. These were my main objectives in doing this collection and I feel it has been a success.
I feel now I can boldly introduce myself as an emerging fibre artist, mostly self taught and definitely self-directed, in the pursuit of artistic expression in a medium in which I find great comfort and endless passion, fibre and textiles.
My artwork is motivated by personal experience and is emotionally driven, and combined with a genuine curiosity, has become a unique language in which I can communicate my viewpoint to an audience. When producing my work I am concerned less with beauty, but more with evoking an emotional response in the viewer. By creating work with a mysteriously interesting back story, I am allowed a form of expression that is hopefully thought provoking, and yet still leaves room for individual interpretation.