May 1^st 2012 Alberta SAQA Parlour Meeting:

Place was Red Deer Alberta, Patti Morris Rep home

Attendees; Dawn Hunt, Barbara J. West, Debbie Bray, Bush Eastep, Margie Davidson, Wendy Klotz, Ilse Anysas-Salkauskas, Wendy Greber, Margaret Blank, Patti Morris, Meredith Helgesm, Lorraine Lindenbach, Diane Duncan, Karen Jurek, Trudy Cowan, Jan Scruggs.

First off it was wonderful to have such a big group. Thank you to those that travelled up or down Hyw 2 even with the road being closed due to an accident.

The meeting was called by Patti Morris at 1015 even though we knew a few members were caught in traffic.

An Introduction to those present;

 Margaret Blank began by showing:

#1 Her beautifully executed Trunk show piece circulated #2 Her City & Guilds project module 6 out of 8 which was Red & White blocks hand stitched in honour of Mirror, (home town) 100 anniversary.   #4 A handwork project of 50 crazy quilt blocks to make a coat called “Garment of Praise” for the loss of her late husband of 5 years. Each block was made up of recycled ties, ribbons, lace and buttons. Very nice work.

Wendy Greber: New member from Red Deer, Wendy is a very gifted individual that has taken all the classes from Earthly Goods/ Master program. She comes to SAQA with wonderful skills and talent. An artist on the move!  Winning lots of ribbons for her original pieces of fabric art work in Central Alberta. Wendy showed us her Trunk Show piece, truly inspirational and very well done!               

lIse; spoke about her Art Degree in weaving / Calgary.  Since 1980 she has been involved in different Art groups out of Calgary. She has been member of SAQA 5-6 years. Her Art studies involved Printing & Collage. Her Trunk Show piece called “Emerging” was passed around for members to admire.  A very beautiful piece!

Wendy Klotz; “The Edge” Regular Quilting done in new way. Working from the inside out. Blueberry Field. Very interesting and nicely done. Passed around along with “Grandmother Flower Garden with 3 D centers again working from inside out making her centers stand out! Unique and thought->provoking.

Margie Davidson; Began quilting 27 years ago. In 2002 at Quilt Canada she was inspired by a fiber Artist. Thus her 6 year part-time job moved from teaching at a school to a Quilt store teaching surface design. Margie then spoke about her knitting project x 1 year and a bit.  She just returned from India and brought out some wonderful fabric art purses, wraps and blankets. Beautiful garments. Her Trunk show piece was passed around, another beautifully executed piece of fabric art!

Venture Card: was brought up. A card you can pick-up at any postal outlet. It’s free and available to anyone that has a business. Just ask for it and fill out the form. It allows anyone shipping parcels for their business to receive a discount.

Bush Eastep;  Spoke about her trunk show piece, but not very happy with it as something happened to it when placed on a cloth to be ironed? Bush’s intent is still open to enter. Were so are sorry for what happened as it could happen to anyone of us!

 Lorraine Lindenbach; Thank you for bringing a van-full of members from Calgary! Lorraine said she was a West Coast Fiber Artist belonging to FOG. Her (FOG) Calgary Fabric Art group meets once a month. She then circulated a piece she & members made with fabric, metal & beading. Very nice! 

Debra Grey, A new member to SAQA from Calgary. A Biologist/ Geologist. Has been sewing much of her life. All her own clothes and in now involved with City & Guilds. At module 3 & finding it a challenge as much of it is paperwork. Showed the group “a Prairie Scene based on pointillism “Indian on Horseback with Buffaloes” done in pen & ink dots, outline in center of quilt. Very nicely done. 

Barbara West; spoke about the use of the grid in quilting and art with her trunk show piece. Had a flap in it to represent the male and how it still dominates the traditional art world! Colors used: black & greys to emphasize what was us at the beginning of the Cubist period in art (early 20^th century) Barbara incorporated red into her piece to represent women! That we deserve it for being so bright! Good for you!  Awesome piece of Art! 

Meredith Helgesm; Visitor to our group. Member of FOG out of Calgary. Nice to have her attend.

Dawn Hunt; 1975 began quilting as a traditional quilter. Now a certified National & International appraiser. Brought up how SAQA is thinking of giving up the PAM judging or juried in! Emphasised how SAQA needs to have a group geared for just professional appraisers, curators, financers and other art venue professionals added separately to PAM membership.

Big discussion on if as PAMS if you are not juried into the Art World then you are not considered a true artist!   This is a major reason why PAMS belong to SAQA.  If this was taken out then the Alberta PAM members felt they would no longer be a need to be part of SAQA.

Jan Kuruggs: Member of FOG from Calgary. Showed the group a 3 D Flower Leaf design. Beautifully done.

Discussion 2: How are the pieces of our Trunk Show going to be shipped, hung & distributed safely? Explicit Instructions for hanging to members was requested.  Will follow-up with a fan-out once I speak to other 2 Western Reps.

Trudy Cowan; 2 months a SAQA member. Spent the past 6 years doing Art quilts. Had a beautiful photo album of work she has been working on. A mommy tummy expecting pillow quilt. Members very impressed.                                     Trunk Show piece: Cedar Trees with paper cut technique. Very nicely done!  

Karen Jurek:  1990 began art quilting.  Finds designing an art piece it to be a challenge. Moving from traditional to the art side.  Showed her brilliant Fiery Red beautiful Trunk Show piece, executed with colorful beading to the group. Truly exciting and wonderful! 

            

Diane Duncan; Comes originally from the East moved to Calgary. Since 2009 been travelling with husband in a motorhome, so her sewing is limited. Truly an inspirational individual. Taught me not to complain if I feel cramped in my sewing room!

5 minute break coffee & tea break 

Barbara West: Guest speaker; Talk about her 6 year School of Textile Art from “The Julia Capara Middle Sex University in Great Britain”. Barbara received a BA with Honours in 2011. Unfortunately, The Julia Capara School has gone into bankruptcy due to high tuition costs.  Barbara talked about feeling humility after going into the program she felt the more she learned the less she knew in textile art as an artist.

She spoke about “Artists in the Art World” the demands for criteria in the Art World. Content, what we’re doing; research, why we are doing what we’re doing. Work from past quilters is mostly anonymous, no names on pieces or history trail. Picasso became famous because he flogged his work. All famous painters were men.  Male dominated Art. Women were just as good back in Picasso time, but were never revealed. Unknown. Women artists are drawn to women works. For years women were not allowed into the schools of art to paint nude female models.

Copy Work Trace; Work now demands an original sketch-> for research photography a running history to prove it’s your own work of art!

Work needs to be juried by your peers. Art work councils will not submit any work that is not juried in!

Why do fabric artists sign their work on the back of their pieces? Why not sign our names to the front of our work like painters?

Only 15% of work done by women is in museums.

Art World Afghan World; Barbara showed us a piece done on Anti Macastor, Hangs on the sofa. Piece reflects her living far away from the Afghan war zone. Feeling out of touch of what can be done. This piece represented a war hat to be hung over a sofa to remember. The purpose of the piece was to allow us to expand outside our boundaries.

`` Be creative``  Final exhibition  Barbara had it displayed at The Triangle Gallery Calgary last year. The piece was 18 feet long: Based on a young girls 21^st birthday game that moved through sections. Bra & panties out of condoms, Hat drinking game, Cosies comments for each drink. Pillow, Date rape, Tea-bag and gang rape. Ended with crime scene-> hole in panties Evidence who did it, mother, daughter, culture…..                                                                         A very thought provoking Textile work of Art!

After Lunch

Dawn Hunt, an AQS certified quilt appraiser and an accredited member of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA) gave a very powerful talk on “Why we need to have our work appraised”.
Very inspiring and thought provoking. She high-lighted appraisers do not provide critiques of the works being appraised.
A common misconception is that antique quilts are more valuable than newly made quilts (either art or traditional). Appraisals can be used to acquire insurance coverage as well as to settle claims.  Market value appraisals can also help an artist establish a reasonable asking price for their art. Donation appraisals are based on the fair market value of the donated item. Items used for prizes for charity raffles auctions are also appraised for their fair market value. In Alberta, if the prize value is overstated on a raffle ticket then the group running the raffle would be liable for the difference, in cash, between the fair market value and the value stated on the raffle ticket. Very interesting. Certain criteria established by CRA must be met, but at a Charity Auction the successful bidder of an item may be eligible for an income tax receipt if they pay more than the stated fair market value of the item. Appraisals are also useful for Estate & Divorce settlements, and to provide as gift enclosures.  Appraisals also provide a personal Quilt record documentation!!!

Quilts that are lost, stolen or missing in transit can be listed at www.lostquilt.com <http://www.lostquilt.com>   HUB International is an Insurance company that provides coverage for quilts. I will connect with them in regards to our Meet the Best of the West Trunk Show. I will check with Karen Goetzinger from Synthesis 2 as to what she did for coverage for their travelling show.

Follow –up for our Travelling Trunk show;

All pieces submitted have been asked to have a finished 2 inch seam placed on top back with 1 inch from each end open to allow our wooden dowel to slide through. If your sleeve is wider than 2 inches not to worry, it still allows lots of room for our dowel to slide through. All pieces will have fish wire placed through them attached to each other for security reasons. If someone were to try and steal 1 the entire show would come down! When the show is not in use it will be sitting at one of the 3 Western rep homes. Preferably with Patti Morris Alberta.  Our goal is to have a Trunk Show dates listed on our Western Blog site. This way it will be up to you as members involved to checking your saqawesterncanada.blogspot.com  for updates. This way you are not inundated with emails!

Also any shows members are involved in please forward to your rep and we would be happy to list them with your name on the Blog.

Shipping of The Travelling Trunk Show will be through Canada Post by Venture Card and through the rep. that has the show. Cost to ship the show will be provided up to $500 from our SAQA grant.

Patti will look into how Synthesis 2 regarding Insurance coverage. I have business insurance while they sit in my home. Again I would have to ask Dawn Hunt if all piece need appraisals to be covered.

If any members have further concerns please send an email to your closest rep.

Current Fiber Art Show in Calgary: I forgot to mention that 2 of our very talented PAM members have work in the DaDe Art & Design Gallery Lab  called “Fabricated “ April 20^th->June 3^rd Ilse Anysas-Salkauskas, & Margie Davidson.

Thank you all. The pieces that I have received are ALL truly amazing. I personally would have put a ribbon on each one of them if they were in a juried show!

Lastly, I had mentioned that for 2013 I am in the throes of organizing a Burgess Shale Donated Fossil project for all those interested in leaving a legacy .I am hoping to have more information on this idea in the next few months. Updates will be posted on our Western Blog regarding this project.

So everyone make sure you stay connected to www.saqawesterncanada.blogspot.com

Warmest regards,

Patti Morris