Spotlight Auction Starts April 15th!

The SAQA Spotlight Auction is held during the SAQA Conference every year! The proceeds from this auction support SAQA exhibitions and programming. 

Anyone can bid, whether you are attending the conference or not. 

Details about how to bid can be found here.

Here are some of the pieces in the auction made by Western Canada Members. Support their work and add to your art collection.

Christine Johannink - From Scraps Comes Art

Janet Scruggs - Dendritic Dots

Jaynie Himsl - Floating

Margaret Blank - Spring Run-Off

Marie McEachern - G "Rounded"

Susan Selby - Garden Chives

Michelle Craigen - Purple Iris

Upcycle! on view in Spain

Outfit No Longer Available by Paula M. Jolly

Western Canada members Susan Selby and Paula M. Jolly have work in Upcycle! which was juried by Katie Pasquini Masopust.
The inspiration for this exhibit was the rich tradition in fiber art of incorporating elements that would otherwise be discarded into compelling compositions. Repurposing materials is one of the most effective solutions to deal with today's environmentally devastating waste issues. Full of creative energy, Upcycle! offers artwork with intriguing details and unusual materials and will surely spark conversations from viewers. 
Upcycle! will be on view at  International Patchwork Festival, Sitges, Spain from March 12 – March 15, 2020,

To view all the quilts in the exhibit visit this page.

You're Invited to Join the Conversation!

That was the "fall-out" from the First Ever SAQA WC Regional "Zoom" Meeting on Sunday, August 18th.  There were six of your SAQA WC colleagues in attendance -- and two of them were your Co-Reps, Jennie Johnston of B.C. and Susan Selby for MB/SK.  Three more were former Co-Reps -- Valerie Wilson, Dawn Piasta and yours truly (Margaret Blank).  Brigitte Red from B.C. rounded out the group.  Perhaps more of you might have been there but were out of town; nonetheless...we missed you!

It's hoped that there'll be another such online gathering in a few months, so please stay tuned for date and time - because you missed an interesting and inspiring hour of getting-to-know-you-better conversation.

One of the topics that took up a great deal of our time together was the subject of Entering Juried Shows: the themes, the size requirements, the costs, the benefits, the nerves (Rejection?!  Aaaargh!)  

Each one of us has experienced the highs and lows that come from Putting Our Work Out There in public -- whether in a group show, a solo exhibit, in a gallery or Show-and-Sale, or as an Artist in Residence.

Most recently, Susan's been celebrating the acceptance of a piece to the SAQA Juried Global Exhibit, Upcycle! which opens at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX, this fall.  I mentioned this in the post introducing her to our Region -- but now she's been able to share with us a photo of her piece entitled Riparian Autumn:

Riparian Autumn - Susan Selby

Specific to this discussion was the Call for Entry for the up-coming All-Canadian exhibit, Colour with a 'U'.   More than one of us expressed reservations about the theme -- mainly because, well, we just couldn't seem to "get it"!

But Susan?  She was excited!  She urged us to read the Prospectus at least a dozen times, slowly, carefully and thoughtfully.

After the Zoom call ended, I did just that...and got an idea for a piece that is now in the "research-and-sample" stage.  Clearly Susan's enthusiasm was catching...and so I'm sharing it with you now -- in her own words:

Colour with a U: You Should Read it Once More

...and then once more again.

I have been encouraging fellow fibre artists to enter “Colour with a 'U’", the upcoming SAQA Canadian exhibit opening in March 2020.  A few artists have told me they are having difficulty finding their creative inspiration for this show.  I have encouraged them to read theCall for Entry several times, focusing on one section at a time.  The theme is very broad, the size has very few restrictions and many interpretations are possible, making the choice challenging.

So, I encourage you to read the call again, find a phrase that speaks to you, let it simmer in your artistic brain and then be inspired to create. Some of the words I like are unusual, unexpected, unbound (you mean we don’t have to finish the edges?) and uncanny; all words to describe fibre art and fibre artists.  The theme is Canadian values of diversity and inclusion; our art is certainly diverse and includes anything and everything we can dream of. There are questions asked such as ‘How do you colour yourself into our Canadian culture?’ Your art can answer one of these questions.  

One discouraged member just wrote to say she has found her creative spark with a further reading of the prospectus and is off and running with enthusiasm.  We still have four months before the deadline of January 3, 2020, which gives us plenty of time to work.

And while you are visiting the SAQA site, watch out for more news about the SAQA 2020 Conference in Toronto.  I hope to see you there.

Now to find my own inspiration,

Susan Selby, 

SAQA Western Canada co-Representative (MB/SK)

Meanwhile, Valerie Wilson can help -- if you have an idea for the Call for Entry but...

• You want to know how to blend values;
• You want to be able to determine value in fabrics;
• You want to be able to select fabrics in the right values for a portrait; and/or
• You want to be able to to use shading to create dimension.

She asks you to imagine for a moment what it would be like to: 

• Easily identify value and choose fabrics effortlessly;
• Know how to blend values; and
• Create depth and shading in a portrait.

And she assures you this can happen!

Valerie has mounted a FREE Five-Day Values Challenge that offers to help you develop these skills -- which just might give you the confidence to answer that Call.  Check out her website HERE for more information.

Getting to Know Susan

In her June Newsletter, our B.C. Co-Rep, Jennie, introduced a new Co-Rep for our SAQA WC Region -- Susan Selby (MB/CA).  At last!  😊  Jennie's been working hard, flying solo for several years now, so it's great news for the Region that for at least the next ten or eleven months, she'll have a "partner in crime", so to speak.

You can see Susan's smiling face in the left-hand side-bar of the blog (scroll down).  To go along with her photo, I asked her to share a bit about herself for blog readers.

She reports that "[she's] lived most of her life on the Canadian Prairies and draws inspiration from the prairie landscape – the local skies, fields, valleys and forests provide the scenes she photographs and interprets in fabric."  She grew up in Thunder Bay, ON, where she still has family, but she's currently residing in Springfield, MB -- just east of Winnipeg.  Susan says she believes this makes her the Eastern-most member of SAQA WC.

Like many of us, Susan began working with fabric by sewing garments and home decor items, moving first into traditional quilting and then into art quilting.

Inspired by the landscape around her home, much of her work features the trees and forested areas of the prairies.  She uses a wide range of fibre materials and techniques to achieve the effects of her work -- preferring to create her own fabric surfaces and colours with dye, paint, stamps and stencils, and incorporating cottons, silk, cheesecloth and assorted found textiles.  Her current favourite?  "...well-used damask tablecloths and used napkins"!

Susan reports that she makes work almost every day -- though it's harder to manage in the summer, when, as for so many of us, the outdoors beckons.  Still, she says she "...feels a little lost" if there's nothing on her design wall or under her needle.  Ah...Susan!  We hear you on that score!  

Her goals include learning techniques that will "...give [her] work more depth", and, although she has work in private collections in Canada, the U.S. and overseas, she'd like to  "...[have] more of [her] work out in the world so more people can see it."  

To that end, she's thrilled to share that she's just had one of her pieces accepted into SAQA's Global Exhibit, Upcycle!, which premieres at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX this fall.  She is one of just three Canadians whose work was selected for this exhibit, and joins SAQA WC member, Paula Jolly, as part of that trio.  Congratulations, Susan!

Here are two pieces Susan has shared to show examples of her work:

Drifted Snow

Springtime in a Prairie Forest

You can see more of Susan's work in the photo gallery on her Facebook page.  And you can contact her via Facebook or by e-mail.

AND if you're able to attend, you'll be able to 'meet' Susan through the wonders of technology at our online SAQA Western Canada first-ever Zoom meeting on Sunday, August 18th!  Remember, the meeting starts at 1 p.m. in B.C., which is 2 p.m. in Alberta and Saskatchewan and 3 p.m. in Susan's home province, Manitoba.  And again, details of how to set up Zoom on your computer can be found here. You can also call in by phone if you’d prefer not to use the computer. Jennie will send out a reminder closer to the date and please email her if you need help with the technical details of how this works.

It's a New Year!

Time to make an Artist's Date!

Here are some venues for your consideration...

Member Susan Selby has a new show on in Manitoba, opening near the end of this month:

Her Artist's Talk will be February 3 at 2:00 p.m. -- at the Portage & District Arts Centre, #11 - 2nd Street NE, Portage La Prairie, Manitoba.


If you're travelling down East -- specifically to Sydney, NS -- you might visit this exhibit from SAQA Atlantic member Helene Blanchet -- who for many years was a Calgary resident and part of SAQA Western Canada's region.  (She was one who helped with our Calgary "Parlour Meeting" back in the day.)

If you find yourself in the vicinity of La Grange, Texas some time between January 10 and March 24, do take in SAQA's global exhibit, Season After Season, at the Texas Quilt Museum.  SAQA Central Canada member Joan Hug-Valeriot and SAQA WC member, Margaret Blank are the only two Canadians to have pieces in this show!

Rather uniquely, this exhibit also required each artist to provide a sketchbook/journal with his/her piece -- which can be viewed by visitors to the exhibit!

And if blustery, wintry weather's keeping you indoors -- get thee to thy studio and make some art!

Happy New Year to all our SAQA Western Canada members!  Please share your activities with your colleagues this year -- both in our Region and beyond.  Contact blog editor, Margaret Blank, with your news so she can share it in these pages.  Thank you for your support!