Surface Design: Alberta

February's News

I begin this newsletter with an invitation to support the students from ACAD in Calgarywho will be putting on their Artawearness show THIS Friday!!!

Take a look at Artawearness. Sign up for your ticket and perhaps we will meet there.

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Surface Design Association is in Selvedge Magazine

The current issue of Selvedge Magazine has a bit of Canadian focus: Trade Routes to Trading Post: Beyond the Blanket - Textiles in Canada, by Joe Lewis, contains a potted history of some Canadian textile facts. We are happy to say that we received mention as one of the highlights.

The same issue contains a wonderful article by Ptolemy Mann on Jacquard weaving and what it means to revert to manual when your "dobby" (a computerized loom) fails. Carol Outram contributes a story on traditional clothing of the Arctic with remarkable photography by Karim Rholem. We've just added issue # 44 to the online store so you can pick it up here.

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Call for Entry

Deadline approaches.

ACC Call for Entry: Pulp Paper Pages, Edmonton  Deadline to apply: February 15 Exhibition dates: April 14 - July 7     Click here or visit our website for more information on this call and to download the entry form

I have taken this entry from the web of the Alberta Craft Council.  Their e-Newsletter is full of information about events, shows, calls for entries, the work of the Council.  The council can help with many aspects of being an active artist.  For example, workshops on taxation, advice on selling your work and so on.  Go to Craft Council website to learn more.

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Linda McBain Cuyler's work is featured in the members E-news of the Craft Council.

Images (L-R) Carved TEapot, Mindy Andrews, detail of Alpine Meadow, Linda McBain Cuyler, Paper and Pearl Brooch, Gillian Hillerud

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Alberta Craft Council News    In the Discovery Gallery... WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO? Felted hats by Virginia Stephen that explore life's issues. February 18 - March 24 Opening reception: Saturday, February 18, 2-4 pm  Edmonton fibre artist, Virginia Stephen, explores a variety of life issues she faces through hand felted hats in her exhibition What's a Girl to Do. The inspiration for Virginia's exhibition began with a felted hat, "What's a Girl to Do?? - less is less" created for the 2011 Alberta Craft Council In the Red group exhibition. Virginia's felted hats are designed not to be worn on the head but to explore many of those life issues that affect the headspace of this artist. Individual themes include issues of balance, work stress, keeping the magic, dealing with weather, keeping up appearances, and the relationships between 'less' and 'more'. Underlying the work is the notion that it is 'ok' to laugh at ourselves and our circumstances, and it is also 'ok' to laugh in a gallery, with or at the art. Virginia Stephen holds an MA in Visual and Performing Arts Education and undergraduate degrees in both art history and arts education. Currently Executive Director of Liberal Studies, Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta, Virginia brings to her practice over 25 years of experience as a painter, arts and museum educator, senior arts administrator and consultant.

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Web Trawl

I subscribe to this site : It is a nice way to see lots of art during a coffee break from the loom, screen or sewing machine.... just a scroll away. 

Here is what they say on the website about the site and the opportunity is there to subscribe.  And below a couple of items that I selected... because I thought they were interesting, informative or just fun.textiles.

Quote

"Our art news magazine is updated DAILY with new articles, and is published FREE to subscribers worldwide. We are sponsored by the Art Appreciation Foundation. AKN brings to its readers unbiased art information and news about art, the art world, museums, artists, exhibitions, articles reprinted from renowned art publications, art resources, special features, photos, commentary, and a vast array of art images found nowhere else in one source. Subscribe today!"

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And here are some examples of things textile, that I saw in one week... Firstly notification of the exhibition in Toronto from Feb. 8th till May!

Dare to Wear Love February 8 - May 6, 2012 Textile Museum of Canada

Dare to Wear Love is the first exhibition devoted to the celebrated work of top Canadian fashion designers who have created original pieces to raise awareness and funds for grassroots organizations who are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Speaking to the potency and poignancy of artistic expression within a global context, this installation showcases designs created from African cloth by Canada's top fashion designers including Brian Bailey, David Dixon, Fashion Crimes and Linda Lundström as part of Dare to Wear Love, an innovative creative platform initiated by Jim Searle and Chris Tyrell, founders of Hoax Couture.Launched in 2009, Dare to Wear Love challenged 24 designers to create unique couture using 6 yards of African cloth, designs that were then showcased on the runways of Toronto Fashion Week. As a successful design showcase and celebrity fundraiser, the annual event has built awareness and resources for the Stephen Lewis Foundation and their support of community-level organizations that provide care and support to women, orphans, grandmothers and people living with HIV and AIDS.Part of the TMC's ongoing interdisciplinary and cross-cultural initiatives, the one-of-a-kind collection of original designs will be on view in its entirety. Celebrating the powerful association of creativity and social responsibility, the exhibition not only speaks to the vibrancy of contemporary Canadian design, but to the long-standing connection between the fashion community and grass roots activism.Presented by the Textile Museum of Canada in collaboration with Hoax Couture, the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and the Fashion Design Council of Canada, with the generous support of the Bank of Montreal and Seven Continents.Textile Museum of Canada55 Centre AvenueToronto ON M5G 2H5t. 416-599-5321e. info@textilemuseum.caw. www.textilemuseum.caPhotos: Brian Summers.

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Pets are always popular....

I thought you would like these dogs. (the image was downloadable and copiable… so I hope it is OK to reproduce it here for educational purposes.  If not please let me know and I will remove it.  (Ed.)

Portland, ME.- The Art Gallery on the Portland Campus of the University of New England in Portland, Maine presents "Critters", a mammoth show that fills all three floors of the gallery, the foyer and the grounds. It includes about 300 works by almost 100 artists. “Critters” represents three groups of work – wildlife, farm animals, and pets – in situations that may be heartwarming, entertaining, or even poignant for the viewer. The exhibition is on view through 20 July.

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And this....

What it says below the image incase you can't read it (too small)... Studio Armadillo: Hadas Kruk (Israeli, b. 1970) and Anat Stein (Israeli, b. 1972), Hevruta-Mituta, 2007, Plastic chess board with thirty-two knitted skull caps.

NEW YORK, NY.- Artists and designers’ rising interest in ritual since the 1990s inspires Reinventing Ritual: Contemporary Art and Design for Jewish Life, the first international exhibition to survey this phenomenon. On view at The Jewish Museum from September 13, 2009 through February 7, 2010. Reinventing Ritual features nearly sixty innovative works, created between 1999 and 2009 by leading artists in diverse media. Visitors will see outstanding examples of industrial design, architecture, installation art, video, drawing, metalwork, jewelry, ceramics, comics, sculpture, and textiles, revealing the intersections of creative freedom and Jewish life. A mix of emerging artists and accomplished leaders in the field, most of whom are American and Israeli, with a smaller number of Europeans and South Americans, are represented. 

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Check out Julia Ramsey and her mega-knits

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A different sort of Quilting 

Click this

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Suppliers and Services

If you want your designs printed try here

http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome

Would you like to have a suppliers page linkable from this blog, let me know  your thoughts....

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Fibre Arts Week in Pincher Creek    Dates: July 16 – 22, 2012 With classes, demonstrations and lectures... see the website Fibreartsweek.com

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Notes from Surface Design BC - with huge thanks to Jennifer Love for her input.

Exquisite Corpse Lives Again! 

Helena Scheffer just sent me this link so we can see pics of the Exquisite Corpse show on at her gallery, Galerie Ouest, in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. She got the idea from our show (and based her Call for Entry on ours). BC SDA member Wendy Browne contributed.

http://www.galerieouest.ca/

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I continue to be impressed by the quality of the artists being featured by the World of Threads people. Here's the latest:

http://www.worldofthreadsfestival.com/artist_interviews/046_anastasia_azure_12.html 

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There is new information about Sue Hiley Harris's visit to Vancouver (organized by Julia Manitius of Urbanity) at: http://www.urbanity.ca/SueHileyHarris.htm. There will probably be a second workshop on Saltspring Island on the weekend of March 3/4, 2012. 

An article "The Bare Bones of the Bags" about Sue's recent work appeared in the Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers239, Autumn 2011 pp 16 - 19.

If you are interested in either of the workshops or the lecture, please contact Julia at julia.manitius@gmail.com

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Woad dyeing workshop in Seattle: http://botanicalcolors.com/woad-workshop-with-denise-lambert/

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Anyone interested in learning encaustic techniques? Here's an all-inclusive encaustic retreat just outside of Portland: http://www.encausticamp.com/ 

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Thought you might be interested in this brochure by a felting artist: http://issuu.com/feltingfibres/docs/feltingfibres_brochure. Pretty impressive marketing!

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CHAIN OF LIFE: DOCUMENTARY SCREENING AND DIRECTOR’S TALK

The Japanese movie Chain of Life (Meguru) will be shown for one night only at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, February 7 at the Chan Centre’s Royal Bank Theatre (6265 Crescent Road, Vancouver). See attached poster.

Chain of Life examines an artisan’s effort to renew the craft of kimono design using a cherry woodblock printing technique called mokuhanzome..

Since admission is limited, reservations are recommended by calling the Consulate General of Japan at 604-684-5868 ext. 370 or e-mailing kimono@consuljpnvan.com.

For more information on the movie, see http://www.gulicreates.com/meguru/.

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Info from Susan Purney-Mark:

Some members (...of SDA) might be interested in the interview I did with Diane Shink – a collector from Quebec. Check the blog post: http://susanpm.blogspot.com/2012/01/meet-diane-shink-collector-and.html

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Sad to report the death of  Walter Nottingham

here is an oral history - scroll down to read the transcript.

http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-walter-nottingham-12090

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Please DO send me any info you would like to share with your fellow Surface Design enthusiasts. Send pics too, if appropriate. We all love to see what everyone else is doing.

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Jennifer