Introducing Jenny Williams

 

Getting to Know Jenny Williams

I live in Lexington in central North Carolina; the self-acclaimed "Barbecue Capital of the World".  Unfortunately, I don't like barbecue, so I rarely go out to eat locally because that's just about the only kind of restaurant we have here.
As an artist, I originally painted with watercolor until 10 or 12 years ago when I saw someone painting on silk.  I fell in love with the sensuous tactileness (tactility? tactilability?) of seeing how silk paints flowed so easily, yet you could control the flow with a resist.  From silks I moved into the full fabric world of creating art quilts.  Eventually I moved into free motion machine embroidery - or painting solid pictures with layers of thread that are not computerized.  Now that I am retired, I can honestly say that I am a full-time professional art quilter.

Question:  Do you have your own studio or do you work wherever you can find a spot?  What is your favorite feature of your work space and what is your least favorite feature?
Answer:  By the time I started working with fabric, both sons had moved out and I was rewarded with the use of their bedroom, although it was several years before my husband realized that the beds really had to go.  We do have another guest room so it wasn't that difficult a choice.  My studio walls host 3 large IKEA shelf units, which have dozens of individual "cubbies" and are totally filled.  Because my work consists mostly of thread I don't use a lot of fabric, so I am able to store a lot of other items that I use for beading and stenciling.

Question:  What is the funniest or most embarrassing thing that every happened to you at an exhibit or quilt show or gallery opening for your work?
Answer:  My very first exhibit was at a mixed art show at the Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts in Louisville, KY.  My husband and I drove 8 hours to get to Louisville for the opening artists' reception on Friday night.  Never having been exhibited in anything at all like that, I was extremely nervous.  When I turned the corner in the gallery and saw my art quilts hanging on the wall, I was so overwhelmed that tears just streamed down my cheeks.  At that moment the curator of the show came over and my husband put his arm around me and sweetly said, "Well, that was a given".  I was quite embarrassed, but he gave me a glass of champagne and a tissue and both were greatly appreciated.  I have to admit that I still become emotional when I first see one of my pieces hanging in an exhibit.

The Barn by Jenny Williams

Question:  What inspires you to make art quilts and from where do you draw inspiration for your individual works?

Answer:  Textures fascinate me, whether it's rusted hinges, paint peeling off an oil can, weathered old barn doors, or lichen growing on the side of a tree.  Any and all textures make me curious to try to figure out how to best represent them in fabric.  My go-to technique to attempt to do so is usually with thread.

The Bow by Jenny Williams

Question: Do you use any very non traditional materials in your quilts or have any unusual methods of working that you would like to share?

Answer:  The most unusual non-traditional item I have worked with is metal.  I still enjoy working with fabric and I love combining it with copper sheeting, brass screen mesh, and decorative color coated wire.  After discovering my joy of metals, I purchased a blow torch, which I use to elicit those gorgeous hues of blues and greens and purples.

Thanks Jenny for sharing with us.  It was fun getting to know a little about you.

To see more of Jenny's works, visit http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jenny-williams.html

And as always, if anyone has something they would like to share with members in our region or if you would like to be featured in the Getting to Know You segment, send me an e-mail (eileenquilts@ec.rr.com)  and let me know.

Call for Entries

This just in from Patty Powers.  The Lynchburg Art Club is having a juried and judged show at the Club in April 2015, themed "Water Ways".  Cash prizes but the entry is coming up fast...March 10th.  Patty apologizes for the short notice but states that she would love to see more fiber and mixed media entries in the show and she just realized that she could have a notice sent out to our SAQA region.
 Here's the link for more information.  http://www.onlinejuriedshows.com/Default.aspx?OJSID=406

Thanks Patty!

Introducing Susanne Miller Jones

Good Monday Morning!  I hope everyone is thawing out from this very cold and snowy winter.  This month we are featuring Susanne Miller Jones on our "Getting to Know You" blog feature.  Enjoying reading about her and what she is up to these days.

SAQA:  VA/NC Regional Getting to Know Susanne Miller Jones

I am a retired elementary school teacher, living in Potomac Falls VA.  Retirement gives you time to explore many possibilities and I found that I love to create fiber art.  I use mixed media techniques and love the freedom involved in creating my own designs.  I work with bright colors and a variety of textures, pulling in fibers not usually found in traditional quilts: vinyl, fleece, crepe de chine, jute, raffia, and lace.  Frequently I use machine embroidery in my designs.  I enjoy adding beads, crystals, and buttons.  To add more texture, I often quilt with metallic or holographic thread.
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Susanne's Birthday Dinner debuted in the What's for Dinner exhibit at the Houston International Quilt Festival in 2014.

My Summer Paradise will be in the Southern Accents exhibit at the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, FL from May 16 - Aug 22, 2015

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"Rain" was part of the Beatles exhibit which is currently traveling and can be found in Inspired by the Beatles:  An Art Quilt Challenge curated by Donna Marcinowski Desoto

Question:  Do you have your own studio or do you work wherever you can find a spot?  What is your favorite feature of your work space and what is your least favorite feature?
Answer:  My husband and I live in a two bedroom condo and I am fortunate enough to have the second bedroom as my studio.  I love my studio because we re-purposed the room; adding cabinets and a counter-top that we had removed from the kitchen during a remodel, a built in ironing board and track lighting aimed at the design wall.  My least favorite part of it is the temperature.  In the winter, it's the coldest room in our place and in the summer it's the hottest.

Question:  Do you offer a professional service such as long arm quilting, teaching, commission work, fabric dyeing and selling, coaching, repair and restoration, etc.  
Answer: Yes, I do commissions
.  One of them hangs in the sanctuary of my church and I have two in the process right now.  Anyone interested in commissioning a work can contact me at quiltmeastory@verizon.net  My most exciting venture right now is a call for entries for a collection of fiber art pieces, Fly Me to the Moon, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first moon walk.  It is a multifaceted collection and will be traveling as several exhibits.  It will be published as a book in the fall of 2018.  Information about it can be found on the SAQA website, www.saqa.com/calendar-detail.php?ID=4541  It is also on my blog: bleever.blogspot.com

Question:  What inspires you to make art quilts and where do you draw inspiration for your individual works?
Answer:  I draw inspiration from memories:  a family meal; my grandmother's front porch; and old photographs.  I am finding that I enjoy the process of recreating scenes that look so realistic you can almost smell the food or feel the motion of the hammock.  I really enjoy challenges as a way of stretching myself.  It is such a blessing to watch my designs come to fruition in fabric.

Question:  What is on your list of new things to try that you have never done before?
Answer:  I am a life long learner and can't wait to learn new techniques.  I'm looking forward to taking thread painting with Nancy Prince, a portrait class with Esterita Austin, a fusing class with Sue Bleiweiss and a series of classes from Vikki Pignatelli at Sacred Threads.  I've taken some dye classes and can't wait to dye some fabric at Focus on Fiber this March.  I'm also looking forward to learning about applying paint to my pieces.

Question: Are you a member of a traditional quilt guild?  If so, how involved are you with your guild?
Answer:  I am the president of Reston Quilters Unlimited, a chapter of a much larger guild in the Washington DC area.  I also am a member of Countryside Quilters, a much smaller guild near my home.  I enjoy the friendships made and the generous sharing spirits of the ladies in my guilds.  I think my favorite job in my guild was Program Chair.  I loved planning the programs and getting to know the quilters who came to share with us.

Question:  How do you usually come up with a name for your art quilts?

Answer: Usually the name of a quilt comes to me.  I rarely have to think hard.  Most of the time I just know what the title is during the process of making the quilt.  It's like the quilt tells me its name.  Often it is a play on words or a familiar phrase.  My current project is a zebra, called Black and White and Red All Over.
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Question:  How many art quilt groups are you involved with?  Tell us a little about them and what you do.
Answer:  I am a member of a local group of friends, who make textile art.  We are called Playing Outside of the Block, Playgroup for short.  We meet every Monday and do hand work and chat and share and challenge each other.  Inspired by the Beatles, an Art Quilt Challenge was begun as a challenge in this group issued by Donna DeSoto.
I am a Quilt Alliance member and have participated in their yearly contest for the past two years.  I won a Judge's Choice the first year and a Members' Choice the second year.  I love going to their Quilters Take Manhattan event each September.
On the Sacred Threads Committee I am the liaison to the Artist in Residence, chairperson of the workshops, co-chair of the volunteers and I act as the facilities POC.  It is a thrill to be involved in such a special show of textile art focusing on the themes of joy, grief, inspiration,, healing, spirituality and peace/brotherhood.
For SAQA, I serve as chairman of the workshops, vendors and advertising for the upcoming Fiberlandia Conference in Portland, OR the May.

Question: Do you use any very non-traditional materials in your quilts or have any unusual methods of working that you would like to share?
Answer:  Texture is critically important in my pieces and I will use whatever I can find to simulated the texture that the piece calls for.  I have used vinyl, fleece, charmeuse, jute, raffia, window screen, and earring backs on pieces that I have made.  Searching for the right texture and shape is part of the fun.

Thanks for sharing with us Susanne!  It's been wonderful getting to know a little about you.  Eileen

Introducing Christine Hager-Braun Ph.D.

Good Morning.  Well, we have a brave volunteer who is willing to go first in our new getting to know you blog segment.  So, I'd like to introduce Christine Hager-Braun.  (who, by the way, is SAQA's translation liason in charge of coordinating SAQA's calls for entry and membership information).
To start off, I asked her to tell us a little something about herself and then asked a few other questions so we could get to know something about her.  Here is what she said:

Christine Hagar-Braun 

Back in 1999, I moved to the US from Germany to work as a scientist in HIV research. I began art quilting as a hobby. Seven years later when my son started kindergarten I decided to give up my job in the laboratory and to start a career as a full time textile artist. I fulfilled my dream: my hobby became my profession.

Question:   Do you have your own studio or do you work  wherever you can find a spot?  What is your favorite feature of your work space and what is your least favorite feature?  (We would love it if you could provide a photo of your work space.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be cleaned up!)

Answer:

Like many hobby artists I started out at a small corner of the dining table but soon I took over the flat surface and we ate at a small corner of the table. As it became clear that I needed a dedicated larger workspace we built a small addition to our house with the studio on the first floor. What I love about the space is the natural light. I have a total of six windows on three sides of the studio! 

Question:  Do you offer a professional service such as long arm quilting, teaching, commission work, fabric dyeing and selling, coaching, repair and restoration, etc.  Tell us a little about it and be sure to include your web page address and/or blog page info and whatever else you use to get the word out.

Answer:  I teach quilting with a walking foot and free-motion quilting for beginners as well as project-based classes. In addition, I give presentations to quilt guilds, providing them with an overview of my art work and telling the story of my the life as a textile artist. I accept commissions for art quilts which are similar to my existing work but need different colors or sizes. My biggest commission so far is a series of three art quilts for the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.

More info is available on my website www.soularpowerfabricart.com or via email at christine@soularpowerfabricart.com.

Question:  What is the funniest or most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you at an exhibit or quilt show or gallery opening for your work.

Answer:One of my early solo show was at a community building. I went back a few days after the opening to photograph the exhibition. A viewer, who apparently did not know who I was looked at my piece “Storm of Life” and commented: “I guess the artist had an egg sunny-side up for breakfast!”

Question:  In addition to art quilting, do you engage in any other artistic endeavors?

Answer:  The only other creative adventure I pursue is raising a teenage son (who I adore)!

Here are more of Christine's fabulous art quilts.........enjoy!

Regional Member News

Good Monday Morning!
Wow, we have gotten such a terrific response from our members about the "Getting to Know You" blog segment and next week will be the first of what I hope will be many more to come!  We have a brave volunteer who is willing to be first but you'll have to wait until next week to find out who it is!
Meanwhile, I have a couple of announcements to share with you.

First, Cheryl Gerhart from Chruchill VA, sent this in:      

  SQUARE

An exhibition of works by 82 members of the Textile Study Group of New York
January 16 through March 8, 2015
Narthes Gallery of St. Peter's Church, 619 Lexington Avenue (at 54th Street) in the Citisorp Complex

A full color 92 page catalog is available at amazon.com



Also, this is recently in for those of you who might be interested:

I  wanted to share with you an upcoming regional textile exhibition opportunity, deadline 3/13/15.  

Stitch: A Regional Contemporary Art Textile Exhibition

June 8 – August 26, 2015

Claypool-Young Art Gallery

Morehead State University

Morehead, KY

Stitch: A Regional Contemporary Art Textile Exhibition is an exhibition featuring works of all textile and fiber media created by artists living in Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia and Illinois.   Work for consideration must be created, in sum or part, of textile/fiber techniques including but not limited to, two and three dimensional artwork consisting of stitching, knitting, weaving, crochet, quilting, felting, surface design on fabric, stitched paper, and art to wear.  All works must have been completed since 2012 and not previously shown in the Claypool-Young Art Gallery.

 

Calendar

March 13, 2015                                    Final postmark deadline to receive entries

Mid-Late April, 2015                                           Exhibition jurying

Early May, 2015                                                    Email notification sent to artists

May 22, 2015                                                        Deadline for delivery of artwork          

June 8 – August 26, 2015                                         Exhibition dates

August 26, 2015                                                    Closing reception, 5 – 7 p.m.

Artist/Juror’s Talk by Susan Shie, 7 – 8 p.m.

August 26 (after reception) – September 2, 2015     Pick-up or shipping of artwork

Juror                                            

Susan Shie is a painter who works on unstretched, stitched cloth. Born in 1950, she has been an artist all her life, living mostly in Ohio. Her degrees in painting are a BA from The College of Wooster, 1981, and an MFA from The School of Art, Kent State University, 1986. Widely published, exhibited, and collected, she continues her recognizable style of pictorial imagery with a flowing, hand written text of everything from personal diary to world events’ commentary on her large, time-capsule-like narrative soft paintings. Her main interests remain women and family, along with peace, social justice, healing, and the environment. Her website is www.turtlemoon.com 

 

Entry Fee and Procedure

$15 for up to three artworks. Checks should be made out to: Claypool-Young Art Gallery, Morehead State University.

Jennifer A. Reis

Gallery Director & Coordinator/Instructor,

Arts Entrepreneurship Minor

Exhibiting/Teaching Artist & Curator

Morehead State University

108 Claypool-Young Art Bldg.

Morehead KY 40351

606.783.5446

So, until next week.............stay warm, snuggle up and keep creating!

Sweet escape

St John USVI

I was going to post some winter wonderland type of photos for Mondays inspiration but with all the winter storm disaster predictions on the news channels for tonight and tomorrow in the more northern areas of our region, I decided to go with some tropical photos to provide a sweet escape from the winter weather.  Stay warm everyone!

Winter Trees

Good Monday Morning Everybody,
I thought I'd post some photos I have of winter trees to start off the New Year.
I have been contemplating what can be done to bring people in our region together to share their thoughts, ideas, creativity, and  things they like to do.  We live in a very diverse and geographically large area which makes get-togethers difficult. Do you sometimes feel like you are working in a vacuum?  Do you wonder what other artists do for inspiration? Are people hobby art quilters or are they earning an income from their art quilting?  What kind of art quilts and/or fiber arts are people interested in?   I'm sure you could think of dozens of other questions you would like to ask.  Perhaps you have a business you would like to let others know about such as a long arm quilting business, or fabric dyeing or classes and student tutoring.  Well, this could be a great opportunity to get the word out and also to find out about others.   I am thinking about starting a monthly feature on our blog which would feature one individual each month in a sort of getting to know you format.  Here's how it could work.  If you are interested in being featured, you can e-mail me and I will send you a list of short questions to answer.  You can pick out 5 or 6 questions from the list, e-mail your answers to me along with a photo or you, perhaps some photos of your work or information about your services, etc.  Then, on a first come first serve basis, I will feature one person each month on our blog to introduce that person to the rest of our region.
Anyone interested?
How about e-mailing me or writing comments on this blog with your thoughts and also some questions to ask others that  you are curious about.  Some examples of questions could be;  Do you have your own studio space? and if so, what are some of your favorite features of your studio.  Are you in other art quilt groups or a traditional quilt guild?  Are you engaged in other types of artistic expression in addition to art quilting?, etc.

Looking forward to hearing from you!!!

Happy New Year

Good Morning.  I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and are now ready for a fantastic 2015.    Lorie and I have several ideas for getting members of our region to know one another and I will post more about that later.
For now, I want to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous, and Creative New Year!
In celebration of new beginnings, I'd like to share some sunrise pictures with you for inspiration.

Sunrise

Bridge to Emerald Isle at sunrise

Until next week..

Seasons Greetings

Season's Greetings to all!  Wow, this is such a busy time of year and I was so busy getting ready for a Christmas get together with some of my quilting friends yesterday that I completely forgot about our blog.  I bet many of you are frantically putting those last minute touches on your holiday Christmas gifts.  If you have any hand made/ hand sewn gift ideas you would like to share with our region, just let me know.  It's always nice to try something new!
The photo below is of a lovely hand made silk pincushion with machine embroidery made by my friend Susan Foster.    Just beautiful!

So, until January,  Happy Holidays everyone and may the joy and peace that you feel in your hearts this holiday season be with you throughout the year!

Pin Cushion by Susan Foster

Good Morning!  Did anyone have a chance to check out the Quilt Trail in western North Carolina?  I know we are all art quilters and probably not ensconced in our studios making traditional quilts, but, it's hard to ignore the beauty of these barns with their beautiful quilt block decoration. The countryside is beautiful and driving around to find the barns is quite an adventure.  Anyway, I thought I'd share a few more of my favorite photos with you.  Hope you enjoy them.

I know it's getting close to Christmas and everyone is busy this time of year.  If you have some great gift idea that you would like to share with members of our region, we'd love to hear about it.
Thanks everyone!  
Oh, and don't forget that soon it will be time to submit your entries for the upcoming Southern Accents show.  Entry information can be found on the SAQA web site.