Saturday, June 27, 2009
Laura Ann Beehler
My work is inspired by words, phrases, sights and sounds. The work in this exhibition developed while I listened to Caroline Myss’ tape, Sacred Contracts.
The concept of pre-ordained destinies and Earthly commitments fascinated me. Images of pacts, agreements and contracts being put together by a higher life force began to emerge on the fabrics.
Through use of color, repeated images and shape I began the journey of exploring Sacred Contracts. This journey has only begun and there are many more paths yet to explore. I look forward to continuing the journey and all the discoveries along the way.
Biography
Laura Ann Beehler is an International and award winning fiber artist, who has studied and created Art most of her life. Beehler has specialized in Art Cloth since the late 90’s. In 2002 she walked away from a successful career to pursue her artistic passion full time. As this journey takes her across miles of fabric she continues to explore new pathways. Beehler is currently a partner in Fiber Artspace Gallery and is a working artist member of Art Cloth Studios, both located in San Antonio, TX. Her work is included in several private collections in the United States and England.
Annette Blair
I began my journey with Art Cloth in Jane Dunnewold’s correspondence course and discovered the enjoyment of layering both colour and images to create my own cloth. I enjoy the boldness of contrast with colour and simplicity of leaf shapes, many of the latter have been taken from my own garden. Lately I have begun to explore the use of stitch as a design element. It is the potential for complexity that emerges as you layer with dye and paint on white cloth that draws me back time and time again.
Biography
Annette Blair is a practising textile artist with a specialty in mixed media. Since graduating with a City and Guilds Creative Studies in Patchwork and Quilting (Opus School of Textile Art London, U.K.) Annette has studied Art Cloth extensively with Jane Dunnewold in San Antonio. Using her garden as her inspiration she uses the leaf and its many variations in her work, inviting the viewer to appreciate this integral part of a garden. Annette considers herself a life long student. “There is so much to learn.”
Sue Cleveland
Sixteen thousand years ago someone painted a horse on a cave wall. I am humbled every time I see the images of the Lascaux paintings from France. And while I will never know why the artist braved that dark cave to draw on the walls, I do believe that veneration of animals played a part. I believe this because I, too, want to honor the spirit of the horse.
The horse has been a recurring symbol of strength and freedom in my work for 30 years. Since moving near to the Weminuche Wilderness Area in Colorado I have witnessed the constraints placed upon the wild by humans. As we continue to harness nature are we also redefining our symbolic imagery?
What better way to examine this question than through a visual narrative? This series on cloth begins with a painted representation of a wild horse charging towards its future. The stitching represents the unanticipated results of human touch upon nature. Throughout the series I alter and manipulate the printed imagery, layering the consequences of ownership and monitoring upon my equine symbol.
In the end the strength of this iconic creature is always present - even in the ethereal silhouettes of the Gold Rush pieces. It is perhaps no happenstance that sixteen thousand years ago an artist painted a horse on a cave wall.
Biography
Sue Cleveland, a Colorado based artist, has exhibited nationally over the last 30 years. Her award-winning artwork has been featured in the Austin American Statesman. Cleveland's creative successes also include her work as a writer of both fiction and nonfiction work. Since joining forces with Dixie Evatt in 1998 as 39 Stars the writing partners have written two mystery novels, a screenplay and procured the movie rights for Red Roundtree's life story for Love Spell Productions in Burbank, California. When asked why she is as likely to interview a 92-year old bank robber in prison as she is to study complex cloth for two years with Jane Dunnewold, Cleveland replied, "Both the writer and artist base their symbolic narrative on experience. They then create art by their translation of those experiences."
Laurie Dodd
Textures and patterns have always intrigued me. After leaving my business career in 2004, I found the opportunity to explore my own perceptions and preferences for design, color and texture. I began experimenting with techniques to produce unique contemporary cloth pieces that focused on the open space of the background as well as the applied surface design.
From small pieces to whole cloth, my work has evolved into layered designs incorporating geometric and naturally occurring shapes and symbols. My cloth is hand dyed, screen-printed and stitched to emphasize the textures and patterns in the piece.
Biography
Laurie Dodd is a mixed media textile artist living in Denver, Colorado. After completing a successful business career in 2000, Laurie turned to her creative pursuits exploring textiles, surface design and dye printing. Always intrigued by textures and patterns, Laurie began to create unique contemporary cloth pieces that focused on the open space of the cloth as well as the applied surface design. Her work has been displayed in two Denver Galleries and she has a June ’09 exhibition at Gallery Nord in San Antonio Texas. Laurie is a member of a design group in Colorado whose work can be seen at www.artstrings.org.
Jane Dunnewold: Program Instructor
One of my goals is to honor the subtlety and fragility of the natural environment by adopting a meditative attitude during the creation of the work, and by striving to make that meditative quality visible to the viewer.
Biography
Jane Dunnewold is the author of Complex Cloth (1996) Improvisational Screen Printing (2003), co-authored Finding Your Own Visual Language (2007) and is currently working on a new surface design volume for Interweave Press, to be released in the spring of 2010. She teaches and exhibits widely and was awarded the Quilt Japan Prize in the 2002 Visions exhibition, and the Gold Prize, at the Taegue International Textile Exhibition. Dunnewold maintains Art Cloth Studios, in San Antonio, Texas. Additional information and exhibition experience can be found at complexcloth.com.
Mary LeBlanc
I have spent many years doing didactic, scientific and evidence based work. As I have lived my life and as I began to really hear my own voice, I realized that I also have a great well of creativity within myself that is joyful, spontaneous, and passionate. I express this through textile art. This is yin to my yang, the creative balancing the analytical, a part of each within the other. This work is how I feed my spirit.
I am intrigued by belief systems and how beliefs are expressed through symbols. Existence is shaped by beliefs. What we do to ourselves and to others are shaped by beliefs. Learning about the beliefs of others leads to understanding, acceptance and celebration of our diversity. My interpretation of some of the beliefs and symbols of Native Americans is expressed in the pieces exhibited. Their love and respect of the earth, the cardinal directions, the elements and creation are the themes explored with these pieces. There is a universality to these themes that transcends cultural, ethnic and time lines and connects us to one another.
Beginning with white cloth the formed resists of Shibori; stitching, binding, folding, clamping, and wrapping using traditional techniques where possible supports the addition and removal of color, and the addition of pattern, texture, imagery and embellishment. It is a time of reflection, contemplation and synthesis. There is ritual and mystery, discipline and magic. The work concludes when the cloth is transformed with energy, depth, and complexity only to begin again with the next piece. This transformed cloth is my gift to the viewer, drawing them close, and as they look deeply hearing the secrets within.
Biography
Mary LeBlanc is a New Hampshire-based artist. She uses color, pattern, texture, and imagery to explore belief systems as expressed by their symbols, to learn and understand both the diversity and universality of these systems, which show us how we are all connected in spite of our differences. Her work has been exhibited nationally and most recently will be seen in the Exhibit Twelve Voices From One later this year at Gallery Nord in San Antonio. In addition to her love of textile art, she is a pediatric dentist working with the underserved children of her community where she is able to bridge cultural and language barriers through the love and appreciation of cloth.
Patti Pitts
I am a woman, a weaver, and a textile artist, working in fiber to express what I see in the world. I work primarily with silk, which I treasure as a fiber that symbolically reflects both the softness and strength of women. My goal is to share a woman's perspective of the world around me.
Biography
Patti Pitts is a mixed media textile artist in Salt Lake City, UT. She works to express her woman’s perspective of the world in her art cloth. Pitt's exhibition experiences include the upcoming "Twelve Voices from One" (Gallery Nord, San Antonio, Texas) and the 2009 Member’s Exhibit at the Surface Design Conference in Kansas City. She has won awards locally and at the 2008 Conference of Northern California Handweavers. Pitts was one of the principal artists in the development and creation of the Wilderness Quilt, a traveling installation of the Women Protecting Wilderness Organization.
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