Community mapping

I'm busy writing a grant proposal this weekend for a community creative mapping event.  I've had a few meetings recently with members of the City Hall, the local historical society & VALA arts organisation, all of whom have been really excited by my community work and keen to work with me.

There is however the small problem of funding!  I always believe that money follows passion so hopefully the lovely, generous people at 4Culture  will see that I have passion a plenty for bringing people together through the arts & I'll be able to run the event.

 

If successful, the project will centre around participants creating a large map of their town using drawing & stitch.  I've been playing around with possible outcomes, using drawings made by children visiting the gallery, collaging them against my own backgrounds and adding stitch and a little applique.

 

 

 

The stitching doesn't show up very well on the photo but it adds texture on the original.  This is a paper collage & starts to become a little fragile when heavily stitched, plus it's difficult to manipulate under my sewing machine so if funded I'm planning to use cloth during the event.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

High Fiber Diet

In search of inspiration I recently visited the High Fiber Diet exhibition at Bellevue Craft Museum.  This is a great space & it was a delight to see such a variety of textile work on display, from traditional quilting and basketry to free-form crochet - this was a wonderful large crochet piece by artist Jo Hamilton.

 

Interestingly and somewhat unusually, the curator had decided to put the artist's explanation of the work alongside it.  I'm not sure if this added or subtracted from the experience; I like to make my own interpretations of work & I felt that I was constantly evaluating the art work to see if it lived up to the concept.  As a consequence, the most powerful pieces in the exhibition for me were those in which the strong initial concept was effectively conveyed to the viewer through  artistry and skill.  This piece by Patricia Resseguie stood out as being both incredibly beautiful, displaying such a mastery of stitch & really conveying the fragility of human nature as described in her concept.

 

 

New Beginnings?

New Year, New Beginnings! 

I was tempted to start a completely new blog for 2013 since it has been so long since I've written anything but I don't really believe in 'new starts', there is always a history, an accumulation of events, memories.  I'm hoping that 2013 is the year I start to find my way a little, especially when it comes to my work.  It has started well, I have been nominated as 'Featured Artist' for 2013 by a local gallery, VALA, and even better, I sold both pieces of work which were in their recent exhibition.

This was a quirky piece made to celebrate the Centennial of our local town, a little more frivolous than I normally work but America seems to enjoy a bit of British humour!