Sculpture is Everything! exhibition at QAG

A wonderful day with  SAQA friends at the Queensland Art Gallery then a chance to look at Sculpture is Everything!  and purchase the catalogue ... drove home listening to the Queensland Writer's Festival broadcasts which were being hosted along the Brisbane river, nestled between the Art Gallery and GOMA. It was the best of days ..... in the best of company.

Meanderings

It has been a weekend of unexpected things, including some time spent working on a piece of art cloth - stitching a story of life, loss and wandering thoughts ... meandering in stitch.

Vital Signs @ QRAA

There are so many entries in this year's Queensland Regional Art Awards - and just as many interpretations of this year's theme "Vital Signs".  Watershed (left) interrogates the divide between those with access to water and sanitation and those who do not. The log cabin block represents the traditional concept of home, hearth, safety and protection. One half is comprised of hand dyed fabrics rubbed and printed in a modern, western style shower using the shower head, drain and mat. The other half of each block is comprised on mono-printed fabrics taken from scrubbed glass, representing the idea of cleaning the shower, removing those things that bring disease, infection and compromise good health.Watershed has been quilted with the shapes of germs and bacteria - from the perspective of under the microscope.

You can see all this year's entries, and vote for Viewers Choice here.

This is work?

It is hardly what I call work! A glorious end-of-winter weekend with the WMBM and Rebecca Staunton Coffey dyeing and hand printing fabrics. As the WMBM says "It's another stitch in the rich tapestry of our lives". And so it is ....

A few of my favourite things ... from Perth

Back from Perth where Dad and I spent a few days doing all the things that really matter - being with our people as another friend would say - family, friends, friends who are as close as family, family who are also life long friends. Rebecca Staunton Coffey and I tested our range of art fabrics and sold out in a frenzied but orderly stampede on Day 1 of the WA Craft and Wood Show, we caught up with the effervescent Caroline Sharkey whose laughter filled our end of the show building for three days, the SAQA exhibition was a hit, our community cloth from Open Studio got a little closer to being finished and as always, some magical treasure to be found at The Thread Studio - thank you Dale and Ian for an inspirational time. A little top up of Wonderfil threads from the gorgeous Helen Rhodes - it was a wonderful trip and can't wait for next year!

What is it worth?

Community Cloth - work in progress
from Open Studios 2014

For the last few weeks I've been working with Jolanta Szymczyk   professional photographer and Queensland  President of ATASDA (Australian Textile Arts and Surface Design Association Inc). While I've learned a lot from fellow art quilters who are also gifted photographers, I simply don't have the equipment or expertise to take sufficiently high quality images of my work for submission to magazines and the like.  I have also come to appreciate that I don't need to acquire those skills in this lifetime.
Media outlets no longer have the resources where I can assume they will arrange for photography of my submission. That is where Jolanta gets involved. I followed up on her offer to photograph the Queensland Quilters Art Quilt Group quilts for this year's State of the Art Quilt exhibition. We spent a gentle morning together at her studio, chatting and sipping tea before it was time to let Jola and her camera get to work.  I cannot say I was comfortable with the process to start with - and that's where Jola works her professional magic. In the end the session  was thoroughly enjoyable. I now have a collection of fun, serious, and thoughtful images of me that can be used in a variety of settings, as well as having my art quilts appropriately and digitally documented.
This exercise is one of the best investments in my work I can make right now. Aside from the affordability, my decision came down to some enlightenment from 1996 (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells):  "sometimes honey, you just can't afford not to!". Thank you Jola.

In full retreat ... at Boonah

Three days of magic time spent with friends at The Outlook in Boonah last weekend let me finish a quilt top (that has travelled with me to at least three retreats), share the SAQA 25th anniversary exhibition of art quilts, hand dye about 14 yards of fabric and collect enough scrim for a gorgeous bowl. Thank you ladies.