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There is currently a series of butterfly-inspired exhibits going on at the Texas Quilt Museum.  The exhibits are housed in two of their galleries, and the show has been going on since the beginning of April and will run through the end of this month.  As part of the show, the Museum released its first ever exhibition catalog featuring all three exhibits.  I was very honored to get an invitation from Sandra Sider, Curator, to exhibit my quilt, “Monarch: About to Fly,” which is part of the “Invitational: A Flutter of Butterfly Quilts” exhibit.

The catalog from the exhibit is available for purchase from the Texas Quilt Museum’s website, where you can also find more information about the show.

Poster created by Cindy Friedman

A collection of work from the Fiber Revolution group will be heading to Johannesburg and then to Botswana. My piece is in the second row, second from the right (orange/blue piece)

I’m thrilled to have two pieces that were juried into the Art Quilts Year XVII: Integrating A Paradox show in Chandler, Arizona.  My pieces included are Another Journey and Lost In Illusion (both of which are included in my online gallery). And I’m thrilled to share that I learned in late December that Lost In Illusion was a Chandler Center for the Arts $5,000 Purchase Award winner!  For more information, see the Chandler Center for the Arts website.

8 that Create: Sue Bleiweiss, Jane Davila, Jamie Fingal, Gloria Hansen, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Liz Kettle, Carol Sloan, Kathyanne White

Exhibition Admission: $8/$4 members & groups of 6+; children under 12 Free
Hours: Mon – Thurs 10am-4pm; Fri – Sat 10am-5pm; Sun Noon-4pm

Opening Weekend Festivities start Friday, October 12; 5-7pm Preview Reception. Enjoy music, refreshments, and a silent auction.

For more information on the View, click here.  For more information on 8 That Create, visit the blog or the main website.

“Fashion Lines” by Gloria Hansen

This is the second piece I made for the show which is based on a torn images from fashion magazines that I collaged, photographed, manipulated, and printed onto silk fabric.

A close up.

My piece shown in the post card is called “Yesterday’s Vogue.”

Lisa Ellis kindly sent me this photo of my quilt, “It’s Time,” with an honorable mention ribbon that it won in the Innovative division.  It’s on display at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival XXIII in Hampton, Virginia.  The show is going on through Sunday.  Thanks Lisa!

This is the poster for Fragmentations, the latest Fiber Revolution show that will be traveling around for the next few years.  My piece, Refracted Lily, is part of the show (no. 10 on the card).  It will make its premiere as part of a show called Kalahari Quilts with Fiber Revolution present 2012 Exhibition, Gaborone, Botswana running March 3rd through the 11th.  It will then travel to the Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University in Waco, Texas from July 10th to August 18th.  More venues are being added.  For more information, visit the Fiber Revolution website.

Carol Schepps, a West Windsor, NJ artist, curated the “Uncommon Threads” show held at Trenton Art Works in Trenton, New Jersey which features the work of several NJ artists, including Rayna Gillman, Joan Dryer, Judy Langille, Kevan Lunney, and others. I was pleased to sell one of my art concentrated pieces.

I was pleased to see my quilt, "Witley Decay 1" near the opening.

A view looking at one main room.

Another view.

"Es-tu comme moi," by Donna Ruff

A hallway showing some of the Art Concentrated pieces for sale.

My art concentrated piece on the left and one by Carol Schepps on the right.

Another room; on the back wall is work by Virginia Abrams and Joan Dryer.

"Earth Matters," by Hollie Heller - dyed and stiffened silk.

"Fragment 15," by Kevan Lunney. I love this piece!

On Saturday Rich and I went to the Fiber Revolution show being held until at the West Windsor Arts Center in West Windsor, NJ.  It’s somewhat pathetic that I didn’t get there sooner, being it’s only about a 15 minute drive from my house.  Talk about being lazy!

Poster of show.

As soon as we got to the building, Rich immediately noticed that my quilt, Circles Collide, is used for the background poster art.  Carol Schepps, another Fiber Revolution artist and one of a handful of people responsible for the creation of the center (a project that she tells me went on for several years), showed me a version on the computer of what it would look like.  However, seeing the actual poster was very cool.

Textures II

Once inside the large room where the exhibit was being held, I immediately saw a red dot next to a small, framed work of mine for sale.  It sold!  There were three others from other members that also sold, which is great.

My quilt is the second from the left.

Another wall of art.

There are more images from the show on the Fiber Revolution website, here.  You can read more about Fiber Revolution and see images of members’ work here.  The show is open until the end of the month.  If you’re in the area, you may want to check it out.  More information about the West Windsor Arts Center is here.

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!

I am off to San Diego to attend the opening of the Quilt Visions Biennial 2010:  No Boundaries at the Oceanside Museum of Art.  On Sunday I’ll be one of four panelists giving a talk.  The subject is “The Art of Being an Artist.”

Of course prior to leaving I had to get a toothache which I learned only yesterday needs a root canal.  I’m so glad I got the prep work done prior to leaving.  I would have been one unhappy camper otherwise!

This past weekend, my business partner and I attend the Knitting & Stitching show that was held in Alexandra Palace (nicknamed Ally Pally).  The venue is in North London and is some 7 acres in size and is surrounded by 196 acres of parkland!  Generally there are picturesque views of London.  However, it was very overcast the day we arrived (luckily, the next day we spent in London was beautiful).

The show is subtitled “The Best Textiles Exhibition in Europe.” While I have nothing to compare it to, I will say it was a fantastic show.  I was very impressed with the quality of work, the originality of it, the huge number of vendors offering all types of stuff — a wide range of art supplies, unusual yarns, beautiful threads, fabrics, and so on.

When I think knitting, I think afghans and the like.  Yet the knitting on display at the show was jaw-dropping.  Look at these dresses! Wow!

Like with the Birmingham Festival of Quilts show, the show features many individual white-walled galleries for individual artists or an artist group to display their work.

I’m told they generally get over 40,000 visitors.  At times the crowds very dense.  I later learned that the best time for shopping is very early or about an hour before the show closes.

Ruth Isset of Art Van-Go was demonstrating various surface design techniques.

A close-up.

Frances Pickering was signing her new book, Page After Page, on journals.  It’s a fun book that illustrates her approach to journal making.

The wonderful Maggie Grey was demonstrating and selling her books, including her latest Mixed Media: New Stuido Techniques (another winner).

Above Gwen Hedley is selling and signing copies of her book, Drawn to Stitch. I ordered my copy in the States.  She tells me it’s a different version, with American spellings and such.  It’s also a softcover while the one she is selling is hardback.  The photo above shows many of the pieces that appears in the book.  She was very happy to allow photography (as were most).

A batik demonstration.

I also met a woman, Jamie Malden, who hosts Talking  Threads, a UK TV show.  She was lots of fun and we had a lot of laughs.  I’ve got to get the photo of her up here.  In the meantime, you can learn more about the show here.

All in all, it was a great show!  I came away feeling creatively recharged (which is always a good thing) and with lots of goodies.  Tomorrow I’ll be heading back home to NJ.  Hopefully later in the week I’ll post more pictures of the weekend adventures (alas, the rest was all work, work, work).

This past mid-September, I spent some time in San Jose, CA to attend the 2010 Zero 1 Biennial Festival, which is a combination of art, live music, tech, and so on.  While I wanted to share more photos of the various exhibits going on, I’m getting so behind on my posts that I’ll keep it to the primary reason I went, that was to see ITAB: International TECHstyle Art Biennial, an exhibit at The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.

On route to San Jose, I could not resist taking photos out of the plane’s window.

I stayed at the Saint Claire Hotel, which is in downtown San Jose and is in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.  My room had a great view.

The outside of the Museum.

I’m very happy that my book is being featured and sold in the museum’s bookstore.  Being the goal of the the Zero 1 Festival is to explore “the intersection between technology, digital culture, and art,” the bookstore seems a great venue for it.

ITAB is an exhibition of work by artists combining fiber with various forms of technology.  I cannot find my notes with the names of some of the artists, but a few of my favorite works include a large airy grid created entirely out of twisted cassette tape that has the word Obsolete woven through it.

Another is a large piece that at first looks like a traditional sampler embroidered in large letters in an outline stitch.  It was a letter.  My first thought was why such a traditional-looking piece was a part of the show.  I read the letter.  It was about a woman whose husband died; how she inherited money; how she was now ill; how found religion; why she wanted to donate her money to a church since she only had months to live.  It then requested a bank account to hold the money.  I  broke out into a large smile when I realized it was actually a spam letter, complete with the email address and all.  Apparently the artist collects actual spam to create her artwork.  I got such a kick out of how her piece drew so many in to read it, all of whom eventually also broke out in smiles and even laughter.  While most of us immediately trash spam, especially the pitches for money, her meticulously and time-consuming stitched piece managed to captivate people to stand and read it in full .

There was a weaving created with fiber optic thread that seemed to change color and pattern depending on the angle viewed , and a coiled basket created with video tape.  If I didn’t read the basket was created with that material, I never would have realized it.  Very clever.

Also showing is TECHstyle SoftWEAR, which is an artwear installation that explores Silicon Valley life.

I’m standing with Deborah Corsini, the Museum’s curator, in front of my piece “Circles Collide.”  I had the pleasure of working with Deborah in 2008 when she curated my solo show at the Museum.  I am incredibly flattered by her write-up of my work: “Gloria Hansen’s Op-Art piece is a beautifully complicated and intertwined image of overlapping layers of circles.  She skillfully uses Photoshop to manipulate her digital drawings in her continued exploration of geometric shapes, color and illusion.” Nice, huh!

For more information on the show, which continues through the end of October, vist SJ Museum’s website.