Meeting Minutes - April 8

We had a terrific joint meeting with our regional cohort of Surface Design Association, including their representative Ellen Schiffman on Saturday, April 8, 2017. There were 33 SAQA members and 13 SDA members (with approx 10 SAQA members also members of SDA!) in attendance at Guilford Art Center.

Our first order of business was to acknowledge our gracious host location, Guilford Art Center, and the stunning photography exhibit on display. We also noted the beautiful quilt hanging in the entryway, which was donated by Sisters in Cloth, to be raffled off as a fundraiser for the Art Center. Raffle tickets are still available, so be sure to stop in the gift shop Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 12-4pm to pick up one, or a few! The final drawing will be at the Craft Expo in mid-July.

We had a brief intro to SAQA and SDA. SDA has been meeting regionally for about three years now. They have a regular newsletter, Facebook page, workshops (usually open exclusively to SDA members, due to space and material constraints), movie nights, and exhibitions (this fall, they’ll be in River Street Gallery in New Haven). Most importantly, they hold a variety activities to make the connections among its members.

Cathy Smith spoke briefly about the upcoming Textile Duo event at the Windham Textile & History Museum: June 10 will be Quilting and Fiber Arts and June 17 will be Spin Weave Knit. There will be a variety of speakers, vendors and demos (including a display of one of SAQA’s traveling trunks!). Also featured will be the month-long exhibition “Locally Inspired”, which will include pieces from some of our members. Our next regional meeting will coincide with the closing reception, on SATURDAY, JULY 1 (411 Main Street, Willimantic CT).

Cathy also mentioned that she is helping to organize a Fiber Arts exhibition at Gallery 53 for April 2018. Anyone interested in assisting her should contact her directly.

We then broke into 6 small groups of mixed membership, to share our Show and Tell pieces and stories. After carefully coordinating the timing, we broke for a brief bite to eat. We reconvened for the real treat of the day, our fabulous speaker (who just happens to be a regional SAQA member and, oh yeah, SAQA’s executive director), Martha Sielman.

In 2004, Martha became the executive director of SAQA, and at the time, our Connecticut region had a whopping SIX members. Over the years, she has had the joy of working toward and watching the organization, and our region, grow, as well as the overall awareness of and interest in art quilts start to take off. As both a result of that growth as well as a factor in it, Martha pitched, and authored, Masters: Art Quilts...then a volume 2...then a short series of specific topical books (The Natural World, People and Portraits) within the Art Quilts realm. In preparation for her newest book, Abstract and Geometric, she garnered over 1700 (!) entries to sift through and distill into a single volume. Drawing from that wealth of imagery and insight, she spoke to us on the Top Ten Trends in Fiber Art. It is a talk she has given on numerous occasions over the years, and yet it is always different.

The most significant change over the years has been COLOR. In the late ’80s, deep jewel tones were all the rage. What’s pretty current right now are golden browns/yellows/reds, though there seems to be a shifting tide toward stark black and white. But the real trend that coming through is (1) “Crayola colors” - bright, vivid, saturated primary colors.

Another feature to consider in art quilts is how they are quilted. There seem to be two divergent trends: (2) very, very dense quilting, such as in tiny matchstick patterning or a piece completely covered in stitching shapes, such as circles, with little spacing, and (3) handwork, also often dense, frequently in heavy thread to really showcase the maker’s hand and the process very visually clear in the final piece.

Other things she’s noticed gaining popularity:
(4) Machine-worked thread painting - covering the entire surface in stitching in order to create the coloring of the imagery.

(5) Use of sheers - often playing with the light and/or perspective of the viewer.

(6) Found fabrics - frequently stemming from environmental ethics of reuse, but also for memorial tributes and other purposes.

(7) Whole cloth quilts have been around forever, but it’s being done in new ways. Some examples shown were the incorporation of airbrushing, stencils, and dye-painting. One interesting comment from an artist she interviewed mentioned that the quilting catches light very differently than if the painting were just a flat unquilted piece.

(8) Inkjet and digital printing.

Like color, the use of embellishments has changed over the years. While once favored to be completely encrusted with bling, the current trends lean towards a more restrained and minimal use these days. Embellishments that are gaining in popularity are (9) text and (10) fabric manipulation, such as slashing, gathers, and dangling threads.

The whole presentation showed us tons of stunning, inspirational works by artists from all over the world. Most of the images are in Martha’s newest book, so I definitely encourage you to check it out and get your copy today!

Thank you to Martha for giving such an incredible talk, to Ellen and SDA for joining us, to Guilford Art Center for hosting our meeting, and always always, to you, the members of our region for showing up, making the work, and being passionate about art quilts. We hope to see you at our next meeting (if not sooner!).

Meeting minutes 2/20/16 at Guilford Art Center

Another fantastic regional meeting on the books! On Saturday, Feb 20, 2016, 41 of us met at the Guilford Art Center (411 Church St, Guilford, CT), in conjunction with the first showing of our second regional exhibition, Local Color: Connecticut Stories. Diane Wright opened our meeting with a brief overview of the jurying process for the show and a summary of the reception the night prior. Outgoing CT co-rep Barbara Adams presented our Exhibition Committee leaders Diane (and Kate Themel  in absentia) with small tokens of our appreciation for spearheading this wonderful opportunity for our region.

Next, Betty Warner, as part of our regional Trunk Show committee, discussed the hopes to have a minimum of fifty pieces collected for the exhibition. Due to feedback from the group, it was decided to extend the deadline to our April regional meeting.  Note:  Please do not mail your pieces to Betty; bring them to the April meeting or mail after April 1.

As our dear co-rep Cathy Smith has retired from her position, we took a moment to thank her for her service and presented her with a thank-you gift of hand-dyed fabric created for her personally by Carol Eaton.

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 This meeting’s agenda highlight was a small panel on the SAQA Mentor program:
·          Jan Doyle spoke with enthusiasm and finesse about her experiences with her mentor, Linda Anderson  She briefly described how SAQA pairs you with a mentor based on your interests and how much time you are willing/able to invest. Some resources mentioned during this time were the Spoonflower website for print-on-demand and custom photo fabrics and the Dreamscape app to turn photos into artist-stylized images.
·      Carol Capozzoli started as a Mentee with the goal of entering the SAQA call for Turmoil. Her mentor, Phillida Hargreaves from Kingston, Ontario, offered gentle guidance via Skype and email, to edit her work down, further and further. Some tips Carol offered included – Don’t take it personally. Go with the flow. Always say what you need to say. She revealed her piece, Cancerous Turmoil, to much admiration and discussion from the crowd. One notable link from her discussion was http://www.terryaskeartquilts.com/Studio/tips-tutorials-and-more/my-new-favorite-quilt-facing-technique/ for a great how-to on facing your quilt, rather than binding it.
·      One major point that both mentors seemed to really push was “What are you doing NEXT?”.
·      Cathy Smith spoke about how working with her mentor, Sharon Bass  helped her prepare the application for Juried Artist Member of SAQA. Some tips were to keep good records of everything you do (whether that be on a website/blog or otherwise), to preview the application beforehand so that you can prepare and work toward it, and to prototype/thumbnail 10 pieces together so you can see if you have a cohesive body of work. This turned into a fantastic discussion on finding your voice as an artist. Takeaways included the importance of working in a series and that while it is vital to find your voice, your voice can also evolve over time.

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After a delicious lunch, we handed out a few large door prize sets of varying goodies generously donated by our members. Then we turned the show over to everyone’s favorite, Show and Tell.   A few links from that time include:
·      Cathy Smith mentioned advertising in Art New England Magazine, which publishes an artist directory two times a year.
·      The Windham Textile and History Museum will host a series “Textile Trio 2016” in June.  On Saturday, June 11 from 10-4 there will be a series of talks and demonstrations featuring at least eight CT/SAQA members.  Check the website www.millmuseum.org for more details.
·      CT Fiber Artists Collective will have an exhibition called “Soulful Journeys” at the Windsor Art Center March 12 to April 23.  As part of the corresponding programs, there will be a fabric collage workshop led by Carol Vinick and Linda Martin on March 19 from 10 to 12 and a “Felted Labyrinth” workshop led by Diane Cadrain on April 16.  Workshops are $30 each; see www.windsorartscenter.org for more information and registration.

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Be sure to follow the regional blog at http://saqact.blogspot.com - but bear with us as it is slowly undergoing a makeover. One thing to note so far is the addition of an Instagram feed – tag your Instagram photos with #SAQACT for them to show up on our site and let other members see what you’re up to!

Our next regional meeting will be April 9, 2016 at the Windsor Art Center (40 Mechanic Street, Windsor CT) We will be generously hosted by CT Fiber Arts Collective to view their “Soulful Journeys” exhibit. Hope to see you there!

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Bonus note: Members, have you been receiving our newletters and updates via email? Be sure that SAQA is on your safe sender list [esp if you use gmail!] - directions to do so can be found in the website/technical questions section of the SAQA FAQs here. Email Kelly or Christina if you are not getting our notices!

Local Color: Connecticut Stories!!!

Diane and Kate hang Cathy Smith's piece, "Storm Coming"

Join us this Friday, February 5th at the Guilford Art Center from 5-7pm for the opening reception of Local Color: Connecticut Stories. Food, wine, and entertainment have been graciously coordinated by Sisters in Cloth, and it should be a fantastic time! Catalogs of the exhibition will be for sale in the gift shop.

A special thank you to Kate Themel, Diane Wright, Barb Adams, David Wright, and Roger Adams for their hard work in hanging the many beautiful and varied pieces for this show.

Local Color show teaser article

A fantastic article about our upcoming Local Color: Connecticut Stories exhibition at the Guilford Art Center [Feb 5-21]. It even has interview excerpts with the inimitable Diane Wright: http://www.zip06.com/living/20160120/from-a-long-tradition-maximum-creativity