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"Circles Collide" - © Gloria Hansen 2010

I am very honored that my piece, Circles Collide, will be a part of the ITAB exhibition.  The piece is based on a digital painting and the image was printed on silk fabric using archival pigment ink.  It was further enhanced with fabric pastel.

From the press release:

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 22, 2010 – The first International TECHstyle Art Biennial (ITAB) exhibition, a new signature event for the Museum of Quilts & Textiles, opens August 17 and is on view through October 31, 2010. The opening reception, free with admission, is Sunday, August 22, 2:00-4:00pm.

ITAB is a juried exhibition of work by artists mining the expressive potential of combining fiber media with new information and communication technologies in their artistic processes, in the content of their work and as a mean of artistic expression. Leveraging its location in Silicon Valley, ITAB serves as the premiere platform for introducing the emerging work of artists exploring the intersection of fiber art and technology to the global community that assembles—virtually and in the real-world — on the occasion of the San Jose’s biennial ZER01 exhibition, the 2010 01 SJ Biennial, which runs from September 16-19, 2010.

The ITAB 2010 exhibition includes 41 works by 28 artists from six countries— including Canada, China, Germany, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These artists responded to this signature event in a variety of ways using technology in their content and subject matter or as the means for creating the work. The resulting exhibition explores the variety of ways that artists use technology such as jacquard weaving, digital printing and video to express their ideas.

For more information, visit the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles website.

On Saturday, the 17th, SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association) spoonsored a symposium called “Building An Artist’s Community” at the Wayne Art Center, in Wayne, Pennsylvaina (outside of Philadelphia).  The symposium was held prior to the opening of ArtQuilt Elements 2010, although attendees had the opportunity to see the quilts prior to the public opening.

The Wayne Art Center

Once in the center, we were greeted by Carolyn Lee Vehslage, an artist, the Editor of the SAQA quarterly magazine,  and an active member of the Art Center.

Prior to the symposium starting, we were able to view the works selected for the show.

Entry into the first room of the ArtQuilt Elements 2010 show

My friend, Colleen Bell, who made the trek with me from central NJ.

A hallway in the Art Center which was showing off a fascinating collection of images created with shells.

The symposium sessions started at 9 a.m.

Sue Benner was the first speaker.  She talked about her journey as a quilt artist, including the intertwining of her family and the various artists who came into her life at various times of her life.  I would have also loved to have seen some of her work, which I’ve always admired, up close and in the flesh.

Next up was a discussion of the jury process by the jurors of this year’s show — Robin Schwab, Deborah Warner, and Jason Pollen.  I wasn’t juried into the show, so I was interested in hearing what they were looking for and why.  Coming into the lecture, my thinking was they were looking for an emotional response to a visually expressive piece with that piece also having to work together with the others to form a cohesive whole.

It was a lively discussion with a lot of audience participation, and it all centered on slides of rejected work.  While I liked the interaction, I often didn’t get why there was so much emphasis on the composition of the detail shot.  I’ve always thought a detail shot is to zero in on the technique of a piece,  to call attention to that which might might get lost when looking at the image of the whole work.  It seemed a strange thing to emphasize as one can take a good crop from most pieces of art and make an interesting piece of it in its own right.  It almost seemed as though they were rejecting works whose detail looked more interesting than the whole.  And, as an audience participant said, “It was like comparing apples to oranges” and “what about scale.”  That all being said, they are the jurors and what they are drawn to is what they are drawn to.  It’s very subjective stuff.

For me it would have been more enlightening if there was a rejected piece discussed and then an accepted piece discussed, giving their take on why one detail complemented the piece while the other didn’t, what they believe worked in one that didn’t in the other, and so on.  That would have given me more insight in to their process (yes, I can be a thickhead).

Benedicte Caneill, who won the SAQA Cream Award for outstanding new artist!!, and moi

It was good seeing a lot of people that I haven’t seen in some time and meeting people that I’ve only spoken to on line.  I finally met Wen Redmond and Natalya Aikens, both of whom are lovely, talented, and have work in the show.

Colleen and I both were unable to stay for the remaining afternoon events and the public opening of the show, but we had a great time.  There is a lot of fantastic work in the show, and if you’re unable to make it you can purchase a catalog of the quilts directly from the ArtQuilt Elements website.

Earlier in the year, I entered Quilt Visions 2010: No Boundaries, an exhibition of art quilts that will be on display October 24th – March 13, 2011 at the Oceanside Museum of Art in California.

I have never been accepted into that show despite years of trying.  I briefly looked through some of my files to see if I could find the year I received my first rejection letter from them.  No luck, which is in all likelihood because I tossed it.  Having enough rejection letter to cover a wall can get a bit depressing.

This time around  I entered two works:  “Circles Collide,” which won an award at the IQA show in Houston, and “It’s Time,” a piece I finished right before the deadline and which I made specifically to enter into the show.  My thinking was if it wasn’t accepted, which I suspected it wouldn’t be, I’d enter it into other venues.

This past rainy Saturday afternoon, I received in the mail a “fat” envelope from Visions.   “It’s Time” was accepted.  I cried.  My red, blotchy face made my husband cry.  My business partner was on iChat/video with me and he started to tear up.  It’s absolutely silly to let a show have such weight, but it does.  There were only 40 works selected from 600 entered.  Clearly very low odds.  I am absolutely thrilled that this time around the jurors saw something in my work that made it appropriate for their selection.

After posting my acceptance on the QuiltArt list, I received emails from others.  Some were also accepted, and thrilled.  Others shared they had tears, but because they didn’t make it.  Even with the full knowledge that the jurying process is extremely subjective, I feel their pain.

Another artist from a group I’m in shared a quote from a Lancaster County, PA newspaper.  In an article interviewing Olympic skater Johnny Weir (who lives there),  he was asked, “What does winning an Olympic medal mean to you?”

He replied, “Figure skating medals aren’t won by a stopwatch or number of goals scored. We’re judged by strangers. I can’t control winning a medal. What I can control is competing to the best of my ability and leaving a piece of my soul on the ice. That’s what’s important to me – leaving my soul and opening my heart for my fans. An Olympic medal would be icing on top of my cake, but in no way does a medal define me. I define myself.”

I offer this for other artists who didn’t make the Visions show.  And I’ll keep it here because later in the year I’m going to enter Quilt National, another show my work has never been accepted into.

In today’s mail I received a packet from the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center containing a pile of postcards advertising the Quilts=Art=Quilts show.  I am thrilled that my quilt is one of the five included in the card.  I’m also very honored that my quilt won the award for machine workmanship.  The award makes me chuckle a bit and hammer home the years flying by.

When I learned to quilt, I hand pieced and hand quilted everything — even a log cabin wallhanging.  It took some time to start using a treadle machine.  In those days I drew the sewing lines the same way that I did for hand piecing.  While I eventually started adding the 1/4″ seam allowance, I quickly adapted to paper piecing because I never was good at sewing a straight line.  Although I used a computer to help me design quilts from the early 1990s on, I continued hand quilting until about 2001.

Back then I used a number 12 needle, threading it with ease, and often working into the wee hours of the night without any eye strain.  The hand quilting I did on my piece called Awakenings (which is my gallery) is the best I achieved, and I doubt I have the hand dexterity to achieve those teeny stitches again.   Eventually in 2001 I finally ventured into using a machine for quilting a large wallhanging, Going in Circles.  While I struggled with it, I was honored that the quilt won some awards, although my critiques said my machine quilting needed improvement.  It took several more quilts and plenty of small journals to finally get comfortable with the machine.

Today threading a number 12 needle take several stabs with the thread.  At first I was sure my needles were defective because I couldn’t see the hole.  It was my husband who thought I might need to get my eyes examine.  Funny, I never ever considered it.   I now wear reading glasses.  And, I now love machine work.  My machine has a bright light attached to it, I have reading glasses on while sewing, and I take breaks to give my eyes a rest.  While it’s always been far more important to me to have work recognized for its visual appeal, winning the award for  machine workmanship  is a first for me.  And it’s certainly been a long time in the making.

For more information on the Quilts=Art=Quilts show, visit their website here. On the site is also a PDF with images of the entire show.

Transformations 2009: Reflections - exhibit catalog cover

I am one of the 34 artists with work juried into the Transformations 2009: Reflections show.  It premiered at the Festival of Quilts show in Birmingham, UK.  I am very honored to have my quilt, Witley Decay 1, on the cover of the  exhibit catalog.

The exhibit will next travel to:

• Guilford Art Center in Guilford, Connecticut: November 13 – January 3, 2010;
• Alaska Fiber Festival: March 5-14, 2010;
• Grants Pass Museum, Grants Pass, Oregon: June-July 2010;
• Visions Gallery, San Diego, California: August 6 – October 10, 2010

You can see the full quilt above.

"On the Edge"

While I want to post more pictures from the Festival of Quilts show, I thought I’d instead post my journal quilt from the Journal Quilt Project II: Elements—Earth, Water, Air, and Fire exhibit, which just arrived home.  The quilt is 17×22 inches and was seen in the Fall 2008 International Quilt Festival show in Houston, the 2009 show in Chicago, Illinois, and the 2009 show in Long Beach, California.  The 2008 show was different than the journal quilt project shows  in the past. It was one 17×22 inch piece to represent a theme, rather than a series of 8.5×11 inch pieces without a theme.  Additionally, the quilts were juried.

My piece is called “On the Edge.”  The inspiration for this quilt came from a photograph I took at St. James Park in London, England.

You can see my quilts from past exhibits here.  Give it a moment to load.  It’s a Flash-based gallery which at the time seemed a good idea, but which now tends to bug me as it takes a while to load (so much for that idea!).

close-up

Each year the Festival of Quilts show held in Birmingham, UK features a “virtual studio” – a large wet studio where various types of complex cloth are created.  This year Claire Benn, Leslie Morgan, Linda Maynard, Claudia Helmer, and Elaine Griffiths worked using four main processes.  The only thing better would have been the addition of Jane Dunnewold.  Her presence was there, in spirit,  as co-author of some of the books being sold.

Demonstrations included breakdown printing, which is a way of using a silkscreen (or silkscreens)  and Procion MX dyes to create patterned cloth.  Paper lamination, which uses photographic imagery and/or newsprint with matte medium to create design on sheer polyester fabric.  Screen printing and tray & bucket dyeing.

The above images show a long piece of sheer polyester over several photocopied black/white images — a “paper lamination” in process.  We were told that the cheaper the paper used to copy onto, the better.  The screens have a design on it – this can be a temporary design or a permanent screen, whatever your preference.  Matte medium (she was using Liquitex) is then squeegeed through the screen.  After the entire cloth is thoroughly dried, the paper is washed out.  More information about this process is in the book, “Paper & Metal Leaf Lamination,” which you can get in the US through Jane Dunnewold or in the UK through Committed to Cloth.

Various improvisational screens for printing.

I love looking at art journals, especially when they are crammed with clippings, samples, notes, ideas, and the like. The above journal  filled to the brim with various discharging samples and notes.

The point of the Virtual Studio is to expose people to different methods of creating patterened cloth.  It’s part of the Festival of Quilts show, meaning once you pay admission to the show, you can hang out at the wet studio for as long as you want.  It’s fun watching the artists work, listening to the questions and to the answers.  And photos are allowed.  And of course there are also books and a DVD or two available to purchase.  I bought the latest book from Committed to Cloth, “Screen Printing: Layering Textiles with Colour, Texture & Imagery.” It’s pricey, but good.  If creating art cloth is up your alley, be sure to check out what Jane Dunnewold offers.

Anne Peck graciously sent me this image of my quilt, Blushing Triangles 4, which won first place in the 2009 American Quilter’s Society show in Paducah, Kentucky.   I’m honored to win this award.

Blushing Triangles 4 – ©Gloria Hansen 2008.  (registered 2008)

I was very fortunate to win the Best Wallhanging award at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival XX in Hampton, Virginia. I wasn’t able to make the show, but several people sent me photos.  Thank you to Katherine McNeese, Lisa Ellis, Trish, Judith Gleason Glover, Robin Koehler, and Benedicte Caneill. If I’m missing, tell me!

Witley Decay © Gloria Hansen 2008 (registered 2008)

Benedicte was also at the New Jersey Quilt Fest show in Somerset, New Jersey.  I was very pleased to learn that I won a 2nd place for one of my newest pieces, Witley Decay.  Witley was also juried in the SAQA Transformations ’09: Reflections exhibit which will premiere in Birmingham, UK this summer.  I was happy to get the opportunity to display it in my home state and very honored to win an award for it.

I wasn’t able to attend the International Quilt Festival show in Houston, Texas this year.  However, Lisa Ellis graciously took some photos and sent them to me!

This is Blushing Triangles 4, which won 1st place in the Digital Imagery category.  I’m thrilled and humbled to get this award!  I’ll post more images of this quilt in my gallery section.  It’s hard to see the quilting in this piece, but the entire thing is covered in thread.

Lisa also sent this image showing a couple of my quilts and my new book, Digital Essentials” that is featured in the Electric Quilt Co. booth.

I feel a zillion miles away from all of the excitement in Houston, but I’m very grateful to get the photos.

This is part of the walkway that goes into the National Exhibitions Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, UK.

This past August, the NEC hosted the annual Festival of Quilts, self-described as “The Leading Quilt Show in Europe”  While it’s not Houston, it is a venue filled with over 200 vendors, competition quilts, and – my favorite – many classy gallery displays featuring the work of leading UK and international artists.  This year two American quilters had gallery displays: Ricky Tims and Susan Brandeis as did Dorothy Caldwell from Canada.  To learn more of the various artists and works included, visit the Festival of Quilts website. Currently the list is available here.  However, I’ve no idea how long this link will be available as I suspect when the 2009 show rolls around, the page will be updated with new information. Two other eye treats were SAQA‘s Transformations 2008 exhibit and the European Art Quilt Foundation‘s Art Quilt V.  When visiting their website, click the “Gallery” and the “2008″ link to see their display at the show.  It nicely shows off the gallery setting of the special exhibits.

Quiltart and SAQA member Sandy Snowden had a booth display entitled “Sandy Snowden: Two Years On.” Last year Sandy won the Student Category with “Distressed and Deconstructed”, “a skirt design inspired not only by erosion and decay in metal, but also by the aging seen in corsets from the Tudor period.”  I wanted to take it home with me!

In addition to the variety of exhibitors, there are several artists demonstrating their techniques. Ruth Issett, author of several excellent books, such as “Print, Pattern & Colour,” was again at the Art Van Go booth demonstrating some of her printmaking techniques.  The Art Van Go store is located in Herfordshire.  I’ve not yet been there, but I plan to.  Their site also shares several surface techiques (you can find there here).  If you’re planning to go to the Knitting & Stitching show in September at the NEC, Ruth will be demonstrating at the “Artists in Action” space (along with other instructors).  It looks so good that next year I may plan work meetings around that time!

I’ve attended this show several times, and each time Ruth generously shared her techniques, answered questions, and even allowed people to page through her various journals.

She also graciously allowed me to take her photo and another of the work she was creating.  This piece was first dyed.  Then it was stitched.  Then additional color was added using Shiva sticks and other paints.

Another treat are the various art cloths being made in a studio area open to the public to peruse, ask questions, and simply admire.

Leslie Morgan and Claire Benn from Committed to Cloth demonstrated surface techniques such as break-down printing in a studio area (they welcomed photos).  You can learn more about Committed to Cloth here.  I purchased their latest book, Paper & Metal Leaf Lamination, which is in collaboration with Jane Dunnewold.

Another treat was meeting Maggie Grey.  I recently wrote an article for QuiltWow, the new sister publication of Workshops on the Web.  Both online quarterly publications are edited by Maggie.  I thought I’d just say hi, but instead we immediately hit it off and chatted up a small storm.

Maggie has written some excellent books, including  “Raising the Surface with Machine Embroidery,” “Paper, Metal & Stitch,” “Stitch, Dissolve, and Distort” with Machine Embroidery.  I was thrilled to buy an autographed copy of her latest, From Image to Stitch.  I enjoyed seeing many of the examples used in the book, and was very impressed with the amount of time she spent with various people asking questions.  She even had an inkjet printer set up so that she could demonstrate what she was doing and how.

Sue Reno recently attended the National Quilting Association show in Columbus, Ohio. She surprised me with sending pictures of my quilt. Thanks Sue!

At the AQS show, there was a chair next to my winning quilt (which you can see lower on this page). I wasn’t able to attend the show, but several kind people sent me images. I was also asked the question: Do you get to keep the chair? The answer: Yes. It was a pleasant surprise when it arrived in the mail. It’s very nice quality, too.

I also received this beautiful crystal bowl with a wooden engraved plaque. The bowl is heavy – like 8-9 lbs heavy, and it makes a beautiful ring when I ping it with my finger.

While not a particularly good picture, the bowl glistens.

I am SO honored that I won this year’s Best Wall quilt award at the AQS show. Wow! This is my 23rd year entering the show. That’s right. 23 years. Yes, I started entering the show at age two. Okay, so that’s a stretch — it was three.

This is a purchase award, and the quilt will become part of the permanent collection of the Museum of the American Quilter’s Society.

It’s hard to see in the picture, but the entire thing is covered in thread. You can see a detail of the quilt at the top of this post and below.

Sadly for me, despite the generous offer of hotel and such, I wasn’t able to attend the show. The chair with my name on it (wow, my name is on the chair??) is empty. However, Anne Peck graciously took some photos and sent them to me. I am very grateful to her! Thanks Anne!

I was interviewed today by telephone for the next issue of American Quilter magazine. This is all quite exciting. Did I mention it’s been 23 years of trying? :)

Here’s a picture of the quilt while it was being quilted.

Here’s a detail shot.

I was not able to attend the Lancaster Quilter’s Heritage Celebration this year. However, quilt artists Sue Reno and Michelle Verbeeck both very graciously took some photos for me. I’m using the picture Michelle sent to keep in my journal, and I’m posting here one of the pictures Sue took for me.

The quilt is called “Blushing Triangles 3″ completed January 2008. My first 1st place, after 20 years of entering!

Twenty-one years ago (could it really have been that long?) on one sunny spring day, my husband and I were taking a drive in Lancaster County. We saw a sign for the QHS and decided to stop to see it. It was an amazing experience for me, and I was overwhelmed by everything. The following year I entered a quilt and was incredibly happy to be accepted.

I made this in 1988! Twenty years ago and my first entry into the Lancaster show.

I call it “Eastern Violets.” It’s made of Japanese fabrics and solids, and it’s pieced on a treadle machine and hand quilted. It’s a basic design that I did on graph paper.

“Reflections” made in 1989, my second entry into the show.

The following year I entered this “Reflections.” I designed it on kaleidoscope paper. But since I didn’t know about the kaleidoscope block, I made odd shaped templates and did a lot of set in seams! It’s also pieced on a treadle machine and hand quilted. The quilt is around 55 or 60″ square. Again, I was extremely happy to have the quilt accepted. That’s something my partner told me — the secret to happiness: expect nothing, be grateful for everything.

Here’s a close up. I have a dyed fabric in this quilt!

It’s now 20 years later. A lot of things have changed, but I am still thrilled when accepted into a show and a win is icing on the cake.