Coming Up in Alberta This Week -- and in November

Opening Reception in Lacombe

Alberta member Margaret Blank's three-part installation, Mark on the Body, is now on exhibit in the second floor gallery (visible from the foyer) of the Lacombe Memorial Centre - 5214 - 50 Avenue, Lacombe, Alberta.

The Opening Reception and Artist's Talk for exhibit will be held in that gallery at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26.  Margaret will be signing and selling copies of her book of the same title, with all proceeds going to Type 1 Diabetes research (JDRF Canada) and education (Canadian Diabetes Association).


TREX* Comes to Lacombe

The Ties that Bind exhibition, which began travelling in September as part of the Alberta Society of Artist's TRavelling EXhibits program, features the work of four contemporary Alberta artists who, through needle and thread, explore our ties to the past, present and future and to the ‘family’ of man. 

Alberta members Margie Davidson and Diane Duncan are two of those artists; currently on show at the Darwell School, Darlwell, Alberta (through November 2), yours truly will get to see their work in The Ties That Bind when it moves to the Main Level Gallery of the Lacombe Memorial Centre, November 9 through December 7.

From Lacombe it moves on to Belgravia Elementary School, Edmonton, Alberta, from December 14 through January 18, 2017.


On the Wind Coming to Camrose

Wind Play, Wind Power
Mary Wilton

On the Wind is a touring exhibit mounted by Western Canada's Fibre Art Network, and for the month of November, it will be on show at the Chuck Maclean Arts Centre, 4809 - 52 Street in Camrose, Alberta, installed by  Alberta SAQA and FAN member Mary Wilton and her associate, Jane Cherry Lemire, Arts Director of the Camrose Arts Society.  The Opening Reception will be Saturday, November 5, from 1 - 3 p.m.

SAQA WC members participating in this exhibit include Terry Aske, Helene Blanchet (now relocated to Atlantic Canada), Joyce Brown, Margie Davidson, Diane Duncan, Dianne Firth, Jaynie Himsl, Karen Johnson, Judy Leslie, Judi MacLeod, Terry Phillips, Susan Selby, Katie Stein Sather and Mary Wilton.

Mary will also be teaching her workshop, "Fibre Art Creations", on November 18 and 19 to introduce techniques for painting on fabric.  For more information or to register for the workshop, please click HERE.



*Editor's Note: TREX was also the program through which our successful exhibit, The Burgess Shale, curated by former Alberta Co-Rep, Patti Morris, travelled Alberta from September 2012 through August 2014.  The Burgess Shale now has a permanent home a the Burgess Shale Interpretive Centre in Field, B.C. 

Missing Quilts!!!

In a recent post, we shared that Katie Stein Sather and Karen Johnson of B.C. were mounting a new exhibit in Vancouver this month.

The show was hung a week ago in the Unitarian Church, 949 - W. 49th Avenue, Vancouver.

When Katie and Karen arrived for their Opening Reception yesterday...to their horror, several pieces had gone missing!!!  Katie has posted these photos on Facebook, and thankfully the post has been shared by several hundred viewers.  For those of you not on FB, please keep your eyes open for these beautiful -- stolen -- pieces of artwork in the Vancouver area in particular:

(L) Two Paddles - Katie Stein Sather
(R) - work by Karen Johnson (title not provided)

Alberta Poplars - Karen Johnson

(L) (Title not provided) - Karen Johnson;
Centre - C'est l'aviron qui nous mene - Katie Stein Sather;
(R) - Three Paddles - Katie Stein Sather

Manitoba Poplars - Karen Johnson

(L) Mud Bay - Karen Johnson;
(R) - Alouette Stump - Katie Stein Sather

Katie has reported that the pieces were all still in place on Tuesday, but appear to have gone missing sometime Wednesday or Thursday.   There were pieces hung in the Sanctuary which were untouched; the missing pieces were taken from the exhibit in the Parish Hall, which is across the atrium from the Sanctuary.  If anyone has any information, please contact Hunter, the church's office administrator.

Contact information:

Tel.: 604.261.7204, Ext. 224 - Congregational Administrator

E-mail: info@vancouverunitarians.ca

SAQA Members "Travel" to La Conner with FAN

In a recent blog post, we shared the information that Alberta SAQA member Margie Davidson, whose piece, "Remembering" is part of the Ekprhastic exhibit recently debuted by FAN -- Fibre Art Network, the Western and Northern Canadian fibre art co-operative.  Of course, Margie isn't the only SAQA member who is also part of  FAN... :-)

B.C. SAQA -- and FAN -- member, Judy Leslie, has shared the wonderful news that this exhibit is now up at the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum for an extended time -- through the end of this year.  The Opening Reception is Saturday, October 15, at 2 p.m.

Congratulations to all the participants!  

From British Columbia...

                

The Edge of the Pond
Terry Aske

Mindful Shadows
Gloria Daly

Seasonal Forlorn
Donna-Fay Digance

Woodsmoke and Whiskey
Marcy Horswill

Remembering Our Stories
Karen Johnson

                                                      

In Praise of Shadows
Judy Leslie

A Moment in Time
Judi MacLeod

     

Hoping
Pippa Moore

October's Fragile Beauty
Terry Phillips

There is a Season
Katie Stein Sather

From Alberta

Winter Sprites
Joyce Brown

Call for Redemption
Alison Cowitz

Remembering
Margie Davidson

The Promise
Diane Duncan

Poem on the Stairs
Dianne Firth

Visitors at Dawn
Mary Wilton

From Manitoba

Winter Deer
Dawn Piasta

  

Winter Deer
Susan Selby

From Saskatchewan

My Turn
Jaynie Himsl

To see all of the pieces in the Ekphrastic exhibit -- if you can't get to La Conner -- click HERE.

Thanks again to Judy Leslie and Co-Rep Coleen Adderley for forwarding the photos.

SAQA's 2017 Trunk Show: An Opportunity to Create and Educate

Detail, Circle Play - M. Blank, Alberta
from "This is a Quilt!" Trunk Show, 2011-2013
Commercial & hand-dyed cotton, sequin waste

Very shortly, I'll be submitting my third contribution to the SAQA Trunk Show.  Since 2011, I've used this travelling exhibit as a vehicle for experimenting with an idea, for playing with shapes, colours and materials -- and it's been a lot of fun.


It wasn't until I worked with a SAQA Trunk -- one of eight filled with pieces created to celebrate SAQA's Twenty-fifth Anniversary -- that I really understood the Trunk Show's other purpose: public education.

Alberta Debut - Red Deer -
November 2014

In the fall of 2013, then B.C. Co-Rep, Katie Stein Sather, booked a Trunk to come to Western Canada the following spring.  The trunk toured in B.C. from June through October, and then came in to Alberta before moving East to Manitoba, then back to B.C. and Alberta, where it ended it's year-long Western Canadian tour at Quilt Canada 2014 in Lethbridge.


While it was here in Alberta I was able to get some photos.  The first stop was the Central Alberta Guild in Red Deer, with thanks to members Wendy Greber and Patti Morris for helping me arrange this.

There was a similar fascination with the pieces at the Sylvan Lake Guild...

But not everyone was enthralled, and I overheard a couple of quilters distinctly unimpressed with this "art stuff".

Ah well... You can't win 'em all!

In Cochrane in May, there was modest enthusiasm, though one of their own -- Karen Jurek -- is a SAQA member who has a piece touring in Radical Elements.  I'd just returned from the Portland Conference and had with me the catalogue of that exhibit, which was well received indeed.















The final stop at Quilt Canada was a three-day affair, and the booth was full much of the time.  I am thankful to SAQA WC members, Coleen Adderley, Jaynie Himsl, Karen Johnson and Val Wilson for spelling me off at the booth even though many of them were also working at the Fibre Art Network booth immediately behind the Trunk Show booth.

These photos were taken of the booth before the show opened -- after that, there were too many people in there!

Half the pieces here

Half the pieces there

SAQA materials for sharing

In each and every venue, the fascination, the curiosity, and the surprise on the faces of viewers -- quilters and non-quilters alike -- was fun to watch.  Though the pieces are wrapped in clear envelopes so they can be picked up and examined. people had to be encouraged to do so because folks aren't used to being able to handle artwork this way.

Therein lies a great "plus" for Trunk Show participation: your work gets "out there" into the public eye, shown around the world to those who share your passion, those who might want to make art with textiles but are hesitant, and those who've not seen much artwork at all, ever.

The next SAQA Trunk Show will be rolled out at the Conference in Lincoln, NE in April 2017.  Everyone who is a SAQA member can participate; there's no jury and no entry fee.  The only cost is shipping the piece once its entered.  Your piece can also be offered for sale.  The pieces tour for up to three years, and receive wide exposure, travelling to such places as Taiwan, Australia and Europe -- not to mention around the U.S. and Canada.

This year to encourage participation, SAQA has initiated a Regional competition.  At the Conference the Trunk Show pieces will be displayed by Region -- and the Region that has the highest percentage of contributors will win $250 USD to put toward a Regional event -- such as a Regional Exhibit, Regional Retreat or Regional Conference!

Let's show our stuff, Western Canada!  For full information about the 2017 Trunk Show, and to see its prospectus, click HERE.  And thank you for your support!

Detail, Tree Study III - M. Blank, Alberta
25th Anniversary Trunk Show - 2014-2016
Commercial cottons, acrylic paint, dryer sheets

Congratulations, Lesley!

SAQA member Lesley Turner of B.C. has created a piece that's been accepted into this year's World of Threads Festival in Ontario.  Her work "Earth Repair" will appear in the "Late in the Season" exhibit at the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre, Oakville, from October 29 through November 27.


To see a photo of the work and learn more from Lesley, check out her blog HERE.

A New All-Canadian Call for Entry

A Canadian textile art exhibit is being mounted at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, B.C., this spring.  The Call for Entry to this juried show is now open, and I quote:

Call for entry

(in)finite: A juried exhibition inviting submissions of artwork of a spiritual nature from artists working predominantly in textile and fibre media, including perspectives from First Nations artists and a range of faith traditions.

The timeline for the exhibition is as follows:

• Exhibition Dates: May 25 to June 4, 2017
• Call-For-Entry available: September 2016
• Submission Deadline: Friday, February 17, 2017
• Artists Notified by: Early March, 2017

Work selected for exhibition to be received at the exhibition venue no later than Friday, May 12, 2017. Work will be return as soon as possible following the close of the exhibition.

 For more information on this new opportunity, please click over to the website HERE.

-- With thanks to my dear friend and art lover, Deb, for passing this along.

Creating a Design Wall

Design Walls

I saw this informative post on The Quilt Show and thought that you might be interested. There are a bunch of ideas on how to create a design wall, no matter what space you have for a studio.

Check it out on The Quilt Show Blog  - October 3, 2016. Just scroll down a little bit to find it.

Do you use a design wall? If so, what is it like? Do you have other ideas for a design wall?

Here is a picture of my design wall:

I used foam core sheets screwed to the wall. Pins go in to it easily and it is replaceable if it gets too many pin holes.

Valerie Wilson

SAQA Western Canada Co-Rep (Manitoba and Saskatchewan)

Winnipeg, MB

v_wilson@mts.net