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All dressed up and ready for the Visions 2010: No Boundaries opening at the Oceanside Museum of Art in Oceanside, California.  The 39 pieces that make up the show, selected from over 600 submitted, will be on exhibit through March 13, 2011.

Rich and I flew to San Diego from NJ on Friday, October 22nd.   My brother and sister-in-law live in San Diego.  We were able to stay with them, and all of us were able to share in the festivities.

The opening was packed ...

... with artists and with patrons.

Here I am with my piece, It's Time -- an appropriate title since it's taken some 15 years to finally have a piece accepted into the show.

My soul sister Benedicte Caneill and her piece Units 21: Jungle Fever.

Deborah Bein with Oh Say Can You Cell.

Judith Plotner with River Notes, winner of the President's Choice Award.

Barb McKie with Crested Barbet

Deidra Adams with Façade VI.

Vision Artists in Attendance: Back row, left to right: Jette Clover, Kathy Weaver, Sue Cavanaugh, Sandra Poteet, Lura Schwarz Smith, Deidre Adams, Betty Busby, Kirby C. Smith, Debbie Bein, Velda Newman, Sharon Bell, Susan Willen, Gloria Hansen Middle Row: Margaret Anderson, Benedicte Caneill, Joan Sowada, Katie Pasquini Masopust, Nancy Condon, Valya Front Row: Judith Content, Jane LaFazio, Judith Plotner, Rachel Brumer

Here's another group shot. In this you can see Debbie, but not Velda.

Deidre Adams gave me permission to share the above photo that her husband took.  You can read her blog post about the opening and view all of her pictures on her site.  Rich also took several group shots, some being better than others.  But this one works.  Thanks Deidra!

Velda Newman and Zinnia, which won the Quilts Japan Award.

Katie Pasquini Masopust with Cadence.

Sue Willen with Ordered Cacophony V wows the crowd.

Jette Clover from Belgium with White Wall 5.

Joan Sowada with Flight Zone, winner of the Sponsor’s Award.

Kathy Weaver with Strategic Alliance.

Kerby Smith and Lura Schwarz Smith with Graffiti Series: Nailheads 2 (which is hard to see). Loved spending time with both of them!

French fries, Fred Flintstone ... what am I saying here?

Margaret Anderson with Curvilinear.

Valya with Cell Memory BABA, which won the Brakensiek Caught Our Eye Award. Valya invited several artists to her fantastic home after the day's events. More on that below.

Sunday morning was an artist breakfast. Here's Benedicte, me, my sister-in-law Sarah, and my brother, Bob. Jette Clover's back is to the camera.

Me and Barb McKie signing books after the artist breakfast.

Barb's husband Jim caught this big grin!

Charlotte Bird, Quilt Visions President and exhibition coordinator, with Judith Content, moderator and Visions artist, and panel speakers Deidra Adams, me, Jane LaFazio & Katie Pasquini Masopust.

The panel discussion was called, “The Art of the Artist.”  When Judith asked me to be a panel speaker some months back, I was extremely honored but very reluctant.  Since it took me over 15 years to finally have a piece of work accepted into this show, it became clear that I should say yes as it’s very possible that I’d never have the opportunity again.

I then labored over how to approach the talk, which needed to have a PowerPoint presentation (or in my case, Keynote presentation).  By sheer luck, I came across a quote, “Don’t apologize for who you are or the art you create,” and I decided to use it as my theme.  I expanded the quote into three sections: don’t apologize for where you make your art; don’t apologize for how you make your art; and don’t apologize for where you get your inspiration.   The first section showed a fabulous studio contrasted with the places I work within my house and how I eventually learned that it’s the art the matters, not the place where it’s created.  The second showed how my approach to creating evolved and that it’s not tools that make the art. The third went through how I use photography for inspiration and how my friend, Rosemary, described my latest piece as “frightening and hopeful” which seemed the best way to conclude — my art of being an artist is both frightening and hopeful.

I’ll add that the other panelists gave very enjoyable talks.  I was honored to be among them.

Who knows what came out of my mouth at that point!

The beautiful and very gracious artist Valya, who shared her home and wine with several artists. This is part of her outside studio ...

... a section of her inside studio.

Another section (and there are others not shown).

I look so happy. But I was on serious pain medication. Why? I needed a root canal!

On Thursday, the day before I flew out, I went to the dentist.  I learned I need a root canal.  Because I was leaving the following day, I had some initial work done and a temporary filling put in.  However, about an hour into the flight, I felt tremendous pressure in my tooth and then, pop, a piece of filling came out, the nerve was exposed, and the pain amazing.  Saturday and Sunday I was on a lot of pain medication.  Even if it wasn’t obvious to others, in several of the photos that I tossed into the garbage, I could see the pain in my eyes and a bit of  swelling in my face.  It wasn’t until Monday that the medication my dentist prescribed started to work.  Plus I put into the tooth some over-the-counter temporary filler to block the air from hitting the nerve.  By Tuesday, my birthday, the swelling and pain was just about gone.  However, that was a couple days after the event concluded!  Timing is everything.

Despite it all, I am so honored to be a part of this exhibit and am very glad I was able to attend the opening and speak on the panel.   I thank everyone who made the show possible and especially thank the jurors Penny McMorris, Linda Colsh, and Jason T. Busch for seeing something in my work to make it worthy of inclusion.

To learn more about the exhibit, visit the Visions website or the Oceanside Museum of Art website.  Deborah Bein has a long blog post complete with images of most of the pieces from the show, and Deidra Adams also share images and more on her blog.  You can purchase the full color 100 page book, Quilt Visions 2010: No Boundaries here.

Rich, Sarah, Bob, and me

At some point I’ll add some photos of a sunset taken from a cliff.  Rich actually saved some little running kid from possibly going off that  cliff.  Rich grabbed him, pulled him back, and the kid fell backwards onto him.  Rich smacked into some kind of rock formation.  Rich told the grateful mom that he was okay, but come the next morning, nosiree!  He is one hurting puppy.  He may have a cracked rib or two.  But, I suppose if the kid went flying off that cliff, it would have been way worse.  Rich, our hurting hero!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 at 1:36 am and is filed under Exhibitions & Quilt Shows, Misc. Art/Quilt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.