Acceptance

Last month I wrote a post about rejection from a show. Today I have news about acceptance to a show. This post is much more fun to write! My piece, "The Cloth Remembers", above was juried into the national SAQA exhibit called "Redirecting the Ordinary." This makes me very happy! My first entry and first acceptance into one of the national SAQA shows. It is also a confirmation of my feeling about the piece. I am happy with it. It expresses the vision I had for it, which is not always the case.
My statement about the piece:

The Cloth Remembers

Cloth is cloth, whether it is new or well-worn, yet it seems that the clothing we wear carries memories of the life lived in that clothing. The shirt of a stranger becomes the raw material for a work of fabric art and imbues that work with mysteries and memories the artist can only imagine. For the past year I have been disassembling and over-dyeing mens' shirts, from which I make my quilted work. In the process of taking the shirts apart, clues like a broken button, a stain or tear are evidence of a past life. I fashion my own story from the recycled cloth, but there are stories, unknown to me, that live within the work. The ordinary holds layers of meaning.

 The piece is not made from a real shirt, but from shirting fabric—people always ask. And no, it is not 3-dimensional. The shadows are made using the same shirting fabric that was overdyed a slightly darker shade, plus a little shading with pastel pencil. Here's a detail that gives a better idea of how it was constructed.

 The exhibit will be debuted at the International Quilt Show in Houston and will travel to various exhibits, including (ta da!) Portland!