SAQA Structures Show, Part 1

Last night I attended the opening reception for our SAQA region's juried show. The theme for the show is Structures and consists of 24 pieces by 19 artists. There were quite a few people at the reception and they seemed to enjoy the artwork. I learned a lot. There is nothing like seeing things on a white wall and well lit. Those circumstances draw attention to lots of decisions which need to come together to make an effective statement. Missing the mark on just one of those decisions can make a big difference to the end effect. 

I will write more about how I perceived the reactions to at least one of my two pieces. But first I will show complete images. Here is a full length and detail shots of Photo 51. It is 42" tall by 30" wide and is wrapped around wooden stretchers which means that it sits almost two inches off the wall.

My artist statement says it all. 

Photo 51 

This is a story of both social and physical structures. In 1951 English chemist Rosalind Franklin took a position as an X-ray crystallographer at King's College, London. The university establishment did not welcome women and her male peers were openly dismissive of her expertise and experience. An X-ray photo that she generated was removed from her lab without her permission and was ultimately used to confirm the molecular structure of DNA. RosalindFranklin did not share in the Nobel Prize for the discovery. Contemporary quotes are fromVittorio Luzzati, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin (l to r).

The quotes at the bottom of each panel read as follows:

Left: They had a common room which was forbidden to women . . . It was not the kind of life you would like to have anywhere.

Center: Clearly Rosy had to go or be put in her place. The thought could not be avoided that the best home for a feminist was in another person's lab.

Right: Conclusion: Big helix in several chains, phosphates on outside. . . . Phosphate links available to proteins.

More numbers

I am heading to Antigonish later today for the opening of our SAQA region's second juried show. The theme is Structures. As the regional rep, I have had the privilege of seeing images of all of the selected quilts. It is a good show and better than our last in 2012. Ultimately that's what we want to see - improvement over time. I will deliver some remarks at the opening and will be proud to highlight a few of the artworks which were nominated by the juror for special attention.

After the opening I will post images of my pieces which are in the show. I consistently work to avoid 'pretty' in my work and I definitely succeeded this time. I was honestly surprised to learn that my entries had been juried in. It will be interesting to see them hanging in the context of all of the other pieces.


At home, the strips were transformed through washing and drying.

Then they were cut into 90 5.5 inch squares.

Also, 36 blue squares, 24 dark green, 24 light green, 6 yellow and 12 red.

Do it now

We just finished the second batch this week.

Baked Asparagus Fries with Roasted Garlic Aioli

Quilting by the numbers

I'm back. I have intentionally been absent from the blog. My reasons run along the lines of "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". Even though the snow has melted the weather has been miserable and my mood has been equally bad. It is still cold and rainy but things are now green. The light this morning was beautiful - a lovely yellow green because it had been filtered by the emerging leaves on the oak tree outside my studio window. I stopped my machine and went to find some fabric to match it. No photograph could reproduce the experience so the fabric was the best that I could do.

I have been remarkably productive in spite of my mood. I will catch up with a series of posts.

To start:

30 7" x 22" inch strips of Kona Cotton layered onto similar size strips of wool/rayon felt

24 lines of straight stitching on each strip

2.75 inches of prepared strips

2.25 pounds of prepared strips

The strips have now been transformed in several ways. I will describe that (with numbers) in subsequent posts.

For your entertainment. I have watched this over and over.



5 mètres 80 from Nicolas Deveaux on Vimeo.

Goal setting

To some people, and to me at another time, my day would look unproductive. Sure, I cooked lunches for a week, made dinner for two nights, groomed three dogs, went to Pilates class, wrote a new indoor cycling class and did some SAQA business. But I spent hours poking about, seemingly accomplishing nothing. The dithering and wandering had a goal and by the end of the day I found what I was seeking.

I now have a two-pronged approach to my work for the next year. Two series have emerged - Uncovered and Rolling - each with defined parameters with respect to technique and subject matter. And I am committed to using those techniques in anything I produce for shows in the next twelve months. I know that I work better with fewer degrees of freedom but haven't been willing to set those limits until now. I want to explore Uncovered in a couple of small 
pieces and then make it the focus of a 12" x 12" piece I'd like to submit to the SAQA auction. The Rolling series is pure fun for me - lots of piecing and an opportunity to cover problems with paint - with a hidden agenda which appeals to me intellectually.

I often have to remind my indoor cycling students to breathe when the going gets hard. I feel like I can breathe now.

Happy, happy

Last week at our SAQA retreat I planned for my portion of the Show and Tell session by writing a brief description of what interests me, and on the flip side, what definitely does not interest me. I then read the major points aloud before I showed four pieces of my work.

I took that approach for a couple of reasons. I wanted a good way to introduce myself to people who I had not encountered before. But I also wanted to remind myself of the direction I am going. When surrounded by talented people it is easy to be swayed and to go off on a tangent: "Maybe if I do that I'll be better than I am." The opposite almost always turns out to be the case. By reiterating my interests I hoped to inoculate myself against those feelings.

I am delighted that it seems to have worked. I did not come home with any itch to try a new technique or use different colours or revamp my approach to generating ideas. I have an idea for the all-Canadian SAQA show which is entirely consistent with everything that I said both works and doesn't work for me. I have sampled and found that I am getting the exact effect I want. I need to purchase a couple of batiks and have found the perfect colours online. Even browsing the fabric options didn't make me waver.

Here's a couple of photos of the first sample. Kona cotton stitched to felt (at two different spacings to test which I like best), shrunk, sandwiched with batik by stitching around slightly oversized template on freezer paper, top layer removed.

I love the effect. The photo doesn't show it but in real life the coloured letters are clearly behind the surface and, in fact, can not be seen when viewed from an angle.

200th post draw: Only one person directly commented on the blog after my 200th post. Four others sent me notes directly. I put all five names in a hat this morning and drew out Judith's. Congratulations, Judith. I'll be in touch about choosing yarn and a pattern for your gift.

Provocative

I made a very odd piece for FAB's Provocative show which I called Trapped: Paradise or Prison. It is about my experience of being an immigrant to Nova Scotia. (I don't have a good photograph but will try to get one now that I understand more about the issues as a result of a workshop at our recent SAQA retreat.) When SAQA recently announced an all-Canada show called My Corner of the World - Canada, I immediately thought of that piece. Unfortunately I can't enter it because it is three dimensional - I constructed a lobster trap over the surface.

I know that I want to explore the same emotions and thoughts and want the message to be a little less vague. So I have been playing with the concept of 'come from away' and today I found words that will work in the layout I have planned. They include clannish, welcoming, insular and warm. I like the general concept. Now I just have to figure out a way to make it work visually.

I have an idea for a second piece which is quite different. It strays from my tendency to use straight lines and little layering. I will have to keep sketching and thinking about that one for awhile.

Photo: K. Madeloso