Meeting Notes

Date: January 28, 2012
Location: Guilford Art Center (Guilford, CT)
Venue Organizer: Diane Wright


Our Regional meeting at the Guilford Art Center was full of energy, beautiful fiber art and friendly conversation.  We lucked out with a nice sunny day and an easy drive to Guilford.  About 30 SAQA members and guests came.
The meeting began at 10:00 with a welcome to all attendees, including new members Barbara Soebbing and Mary Lyn Page.

• SAQA Business, Announcements and Reminders:Members are invited to submit photos to the SAQA Journal -
  PAMs (Professional Artist Members) can submit photos for SAQA Portfolio 19, deadline May 1, 2012.

Local Business: Plans for a SAQA-CT Regional Exhibition:The theme will be Connecticut, from the perspective of individual artists.

• Possible titles include “My Connecticut”, “Connecticut Perspectives” and “Connecticut: Through Our Eyes”
• Several members are actively pursuing venues to host the exhibition in 2014-2015.
• To keep track of the status of negotiations and interested venues, Mayann Weinberg will act as Show Coordinator
• Diane Wright provided SAQA catalogs to some members so they can show them to prospective venues, making it easier to explain what we do

We also discussed the possibility of establishing a regular meeting location. Having a consistent location should make it easier to plan more frequent meetings throughout the year.

Show and TellAs always, our members brought a beautiful variety of work to share.  We saw work done in fabric as well as paper and textiles that were painted, cut apart and sewn back together. Here are just a FEW highlights:

• Carol Eaton and Carol Ludington showed off some hand dyed fabrics. 
• Barb McKie brought a new piece, never before exhibited. 
• Cher Hurney shared her experience taking a class from Katie Pasquini Masopust.
• Diane Wright brought a collection of dimensional quilts called The Color of Place, based on her international travels.
• Kathy Kasey shared a small purse completely covered with Sliver thread embellishment.
• Phyllis Small brought her paper quilt – you had to get very close up to discover it wasn’t fabric!
• Barbara Soebbing shared some new work, experimenting with color.

(Catherine Smith holding up an art quilt made for her by Barbara  Soebbing)

(Phyllis Small shows off her paper quilt)

(That’s Norma Schlager hidden behind a beautiful quilt done in shades of green)

Seeing is better than reading, when it comes to art quilts. Stay tuned for a new blog page: PHOTOS FROM OUR MEETINGS to see a collection of photos from the past few years of CT Regional Meetings.

“Photographing Fiber Art” with David Wright. After lunch, local photographer David Wright gave a step by step overview of photographing fiber art. He answered questions and gave helpful advice to anyone who wants to shoot their own photos.
Here are some Important points, if you are interested in photographing your own work:

• Best to use a flat wall/ neutral color background and make sure to have enough space around your quilt to see the edges. Felt is an inexpensive and useful background

• Use light bulbs that are around 5000 degrees Kelvin, which is similar to daylight. This is a measure of their color temperature (NOT the amount of heat the light bulb produces). Different types of light can affect your photos by adding a color cast to the image. i.e. Indoor/incandescent light is on the warmer end of the scale and creates an orange or brown color cast in photos. Florescent light can often make things look greenish or yellow. Click this link for a light bulb temperature chart: http://www.soslightbulbs.com/colortemperaturechart.aspx
• To avoid bright & dark “spots” on your photo use 2 light sources, BEHIND the eye of the camera, pointing at roughly 45 degree angle, at the center height of the quilt
• Avoid shaking the camera & getting blurry photos: Use a TRI-POD. You can also use a timer setting so you don’t shake the camera when you push the button to take the photo.
• Take the HIGHEST resolution or BIGGEST photo your camera allows. You can always reduce the size later.
• If your camera has a zoom feature (most do), use the middle distance setting. Extreme zoom and extreme close-ups can distort the image.
• Save the RAW or Highest Resolution photo from your camera into a separate file on your computer. Then make a COPY that you can use to “play with” in Photoshop or Paintshop. The COPY can be resized, cropped and used to create show entries. Manipulating photos in Photoshop or other design software will reduce the photo’s quality over time. That’s why it’s important to have the raw file somewhere, untouched.

Dave recommends reading Holly Knott’s article “Shoot That Quilt!” for in-depth, easy to follow instructions and helpful suggestions. http://www.hollyknott.com/stq/index.htm