I have been checking out the sites of Western North Carolina for the last week, staying in Winston Salem and taking day trips to Charlotte, Greensboro and Asheville.
Across the street from where I am staying is a gallery space for
The Associated Artists of Winston Salem. Last night I went to an opening for their latest juried show called Exposures. The prospectus for the show states:
Works entered should in some way incorporate photography. Mixed-media is strongly encouraged, though any artistic medium may be entered (photographs, painting, collage, mixed media, sculpture, etc.) as long as the finished artwork incorporates at least one photograph or photographic image.
There was a lot of really nice work including a few textile pieces and I had the pleasure to meet blogger friend
Karen Newman Fridy who lives in the Winston Salem area and had two pieces in the show.
The first day I was in Winston Salem and walked around the corner of the gallery and recognized Karen's vessel in the window. I sent her an email and Karen told me about the opening.
I love blogs, they are such a wonderful way for us to meet friends from all over the world.
On Tuesday, my kids and I drove up to Asheville, it is about 2 1/2 hours west of Winston-Salem. We parked downtown and the first store we saw outside of the parking garage was a wonderful bead shop,
Beads and Beyond my daughter immediately had a few purchases to make.
I have always heard such great things about Asheville and was so excited to finally have the opportunity to visit. When I saw the yarn shop right down the street I new this city was a great place to be.
How cool is this sculpture a little further down the street for all of us textile lovers. North Carolina was a huge textile industry state, sadly most of our fabric is now made overseas. Don't you think the
Chicago School of Fusing needs to have one of these on their campus?
Such a fun place with a lot to explore and so beautiful. I can only imagine how breathtaking it must be in spring and fall. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to see what that is like one day.
Referencing yesterdays post about Susan's robot piece, Cindy from Art Making in the North left a comment with a link to Fobot Found Object Robots by artist and creator Amy Flynn.
Cool Mixed Media Felt art by Susan Hinckley.
We drove up to Asheville again on the weekend. I had to get in a few of the requisite stops suggested to me, I wish I had time to see them all and sample more of the fabulous restaurants.
A little further down the sidewalk is Woolworth Walk, a renovated Woolworth's store, now home to 150 exhibiting artists and artisans making and selling jewelery, fine art, decorative art and crafts.
All around Asheville there is a lovely backdrop of mountains surrounding buildings from the 1920's and 30's. It is a very picturesque town with such friendly people, we felt so welcome there.
The drive east going back down the mountain.
I made these pillows from cotton batting for RIT to use in their booth at the CHA conference in Anaheim, CA.
Thanks for the pictures Jamie.
There's my quilt that was used in Quilting Arts TV episode 312 and for my article in the December 2008 issue of Quilting Arts magazine.
The first day I was in Winston Salem and walked around the corner of the gallery and recognized Karen's vessel in the window. I sent her an email and Karen told me about the opening.
I have always heard such great things about Asheville and was so excited to finally have the opportunity to visit. When I saw the yarn shop right down the street I new this city was a great place to be.
How cool is this sculpture a little further down the street for all of us textile lovers. North Carolina was a huge textile industry state, sadly most of our fabric is now made overseas. Don't you think the Chicago School of Fusing needs to have one of these on their campus?
A year and a half ago Cheryl Prater and Debbi Crane asked my sister Deb and I to make a mixed media apron for the book they were writing, Mixed Mania. Since Deb lives in Maine and I live in Chicago, I started the apron and then mailed it to her for embellishing and finishing.
I cut some paper leaves and used gel medium to glue them to the painted fabric. I stitched around the flowers, leaves and branches then sewed the fabric into an apron shape adding blue rick rack trim.
Then I mailed it to my sister.
Deb added birds cut from fabric, paper butterflies and eggs, french knots on the flowers, stitched details on the leaves and white on white swirling stamped designs.
It was a really fun project to do, and it was the inspiration for the technique I have used in many other projects like these.
I had so much fun making I Beelieve for Virgina Spiegel's Fiber art for a Cause that I had to make another one.
I love seeing the different ways people paint the images. There were so many beautiful paintings, I wish we had time to take these through being quilted too. I would love to see the stitching bring out the details.
For the Tsukineko inks class I have students work from old copyright free engravings of flowers, vegetables, birds and insects. I like using these images because the lights and darks are very clear, helping with the shading. I teach two different techniques for applying the inks and I have students begin the class working on white fabric and then progress to more complex images on light hand dyed fabric (dyed with RIT in the microwave).
Such a fun group, we covered a lot of techniques, everyone was relaxed and did wonderful work.
I filled in little gaps with strips of different colors and added roving to the circles for highlights and shadows. It was SOOOO much fun. I love the painterly quality.
