Maggie Weiss Thermofax Workshop

Greetings All,

Sunday afternoon on April 22nd I spent a wonderful time at Maggie Weiss's studio for a workshop on thermo-faxing.  There was great food, drinks, and lots of creativity flowing and I had a grand time.  Below is a small slide show of the group doing their thing and I hope that you enjoy it.

New Picture Heading Right Hand Column!

Announcing:

The picture of Clairan Ferrono's work titled "Blue Mountain: Saugerties" is the new headlining piece at the top of the right hand column and will be up for the next month. If you wish to see more of her work check out her website here.

Fabulous Art Auction in Edwardsville April 12

Confluence Over Ogallala Reservoir c2009 jacquard textile by Laura Strand

For all who live in the St. Louis metro area and Madison and St. Clair Counties and beyond in Illinois, the 33rd Annual Friends of Art auction will be held Thursday April 12 in Edwardsville.  Proceeds fund the visiting artist program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and benefit several other concerns for the art department.  All kinds of art will be auctioned from every department--paintings, drawings, prints, graphics, photography, sculpture, glass, ceramics and several fiber pieces.  Donations have come from current students, faculty, alumni and friends in the community. 

The fabulous weaving above was donated by Professor Laura Strand, head of textiles at SIUE.  The work was originally woven for her solo show at Jacoby Arts Center in Alton for the 2009 Innovations in Textiles event.  It is nearly 50 inches wide and absolutely gorgeous!

I have donated a length of shibori rusted silk in partnership with a friend who has pledged to make a custom garment for the lucky winner of the bid.  You can read about and see pictures of my donation as well as some of the other textile donations for the auction in my latest post at Sentimental Pentimento, my blog.

I got my MFA at SIUE in 2003 and have been involved with the auction for about 6 years.  For the last 2 years I've been in charge of photographing every item donated so that we can create a visual catalog for our website and facebook page.  That's turned into quite a lot of work this year as we've had over 270 works of art donated!  195 of them will be in the live auction, 75 in the silent auction.  Wow that's a lot of Photoshopping!

Consider yourself invited!
When:  Thursday, April 12--preview starts 6pm, live auction begins 7 pm
Where: satellite campus of Lewis and Clark Community College, 600 Troy Road, Edwardsville, IL
(This location has sentimental value for many alumni as it was the former home of the SIUE art department for over 25 years-known as the Wagner Complex.)
Admission:  $5
Cash bar, free snacks, tons of fun.

LIKE us on Facebook where you can see the entire catalog online
Visit our website (ditto for the catalog, filed by medium)

Hope you can make it!

FAC Blue Workd/Green World exhibit

Greetings All,
Fiber Artists Coalition (FAC) proudly presents BlueWorld/GreenWorld opening in conjunction with Common Threads at the Riverfront Arts Center, 1200 Crosby Avenue, Stevens Point, WI 54481 Exhibit runs 20 April -27 May 2012 with opening reception 20 April 5-7:30.

Blind Eye: The Result of Doing Nothing - SDA-IL Exhibition Call for Artists

Hi all Illinois SDA members!

Exciting news! SDA-IL is going to be conducting an exhibition to showcase the artwork of Midwest SDA members this fall and we are formally sending out a "Call For Artists" right here and now. You should also be receiving an email blast from our representative Jeanette Thompson regarding this over the weekend. Here is a chance for Midwest SDA members to show their stuff.

The exhibition title is "Blind Eye: The Result of Doing Nothing".

The exhibition concept is as follows: "Too often today we see tragic situations that result from the lack of action. This exhibition hopes to explore the destructive results of ignoring a situation or people's ignorance to thinking everything will be ok when they choose to not get involved in making the world a better place."

Here is the link to the prospectus, application and more information link (this is a google doc, google users may have to sign in. Anonymous viewing is allowed). This exhibition will be juried and is to be held at The Human Thread Gallery in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago link. We have some real talent here in Illinois so please apply and show us what you've got!


(EDIT 7/4/12: Call to Artist is now open to all Midwest SDA members in the U.S.A.)

June Meeting Plan

Hi everyone,

Jeannette, Pat Kroth and I have been working on a great meeting idea for June16. Kathy Weaver will be having a solo show at the Art Center in Highland Park. We would like to meet at the Art Center, see Kathy's terrific show and then go to Kathy's studio for a meeting and lunch. We plan to have this be a combined meeting with SAQA/Illinois and Wisconsin so it should be a wonderful meeting.

Meeting time: 11:00 am
Meeting date: Saturday, June 16, 2012
Meeting location: The Art Center, 1957 Sheridan Road  Highland Park, IL 60035
(847) 432-1888

Kathy Weavers address:
2713 Port Clinton
HIghland Park, IL 60035 (about a mile or so from the Art Center).

We plan to order box lunches. More details to come as we get closer.

Here is more information about Kathy's exhibit. Note the Opening reception
information as well!

Kathy Weaver: The Robot’s World
Mixed Media and Drawings

Kathy Weaver, “Cyborg Female 5″ (detail), 2004

June 8th – July 14th, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, June 8th from 6:30pm – 9:00pmKathy Weaver – artist, educator, and Highland Park resident – exhibits her version of the future. Robots and cyborgs in textiles, paint, papier mache and bronze portray Weaver’s fantastically imaginary world.