"Inherent State" exhibit

Inherent State is a unique exhibition that features the work of two sets of sisters, Brooks Harris Stevens and Jennifer Harris, and Sarah and Cathy Wagner. Each pair consists of one sister who is a fiber artist and one who is a creative writer. Their works are based on experiences rooted in their childhood, and share the connection between creative writing and visual art.  The Exhibition opens on Friday, February 10th when a reception will be held from 6:00 - 8:00 pm in the Ann Arbor Art Center’s Exhibitions Galleries.  In conjunction with the Exhibition, The Art Center will also be hosting a workshop entitled TEXTural Object, with fiber artists Brooks Harris Stevens and Sarah Wagner on Saturday, February 18, from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm.

 

Brooks Harris Stevens works incorporate objects, images and materials that evoke specific ideas or memories about events from a specific time period - the same time period that inspires Jennifer Harris’ short stories. Abstract works by Sarah Wagner focus on unnatural environments creating models for sisters' parallel worlds, incorporating Cathy Wagner’s exploration into the realm of experimental poetry.  Both sets of sisters work in individual manners that are truly affected by their inherent characteristics as siblings, yet they closely connect through their methodologies, imaginations and experiences. Just as there are similarities within the roots of all of the work there are all enticingly diverse.

TEXTural Object  Workshop
Saturday, February 18, 2012, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Taught by exhibiting fiber artists Sarah Wagner and Brooks Harris Stevens this workshop will introduce students to basic three-dimensional fiber construction and surface embellishment using a variety of materials. With ideas stemming from their exhibition Inherent State, a discussion of the link between text and textile will serve as a starting point for art-making. For workshop details go here.

The Ann Arbor Art Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to engaging the community in the education, exhibition and exploration of the visual arts.  Offering studio art classes, workshops, exhibitions, art camps and more, the Art Center is the place where creativity and community meet.  For more information please visit please visit our website. Or stop by the Art Center located at 117 W. Liberty in downtown Ann Arbor. M – Sa, 11-6, Sun., 12-5.

The Ann Arbor Art Center’s Exhibitions are supported by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

MI Annual XXXVII at Anton Art Center

Michigan SDA member Dolores Slowinski's artwork,  Threadline Sketchbook: #36 + #37, is one of 38 out of 217 pieces selected by juror, Andrea Eis, for the 38th Michigan Annual at the Anton Art Center in Mount Clemens.

Opening Reception details:

Opening Reception: Friday, January 27, 2012
from 6-9 PM

Awards presentation: 7:30 PM  

Hope to see you there!

Ohio + 5 2012 exhibit at the Dairy Barn Arts Center

Michigan SDA member Xia Gao has an piece in this exciting exhibit.

From the Dairy Barn Arts Center website:

63 works by 54 of our region’s most talented artists will be on view at the The Dairy Barn Arts Center’s OH+5 exhibition. OH+5 2012 is The Dairy Barn’s eighth biennial, all-media, juried art exhibition featuring artists from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  OH+5 was created with the goal of featuring a wide array of contemporary art that varies in size, style, and media. This year’s OH+5 exhibition will expand viewers’ awareness and appreciation of the variety of media, techniques and innovative trends in contemporary art.

Please visit the exhibit!

"Exploring Summer & Winter" weaving workshop

 The Michigan Weavers Guild is presenting a class with Nancy Peck.

 

 

“EXPLORING SUMMER AND WINTER” 

With Instructor  NANCY PECK

 March 22-March 24, 2012

Nancy is well-known in the weaving world for her handwoven garments and for her various positions in the Handweaver’s Guild of America.

Summer and Winter offers an excellent opportunity to explore a weave structure, allowing a variety of patterning possibilities from one warp.  

A very useful, shaft efficient, threading arrangement, it can be used to produce exciting fashion and decorator fabrics.  We will start with traditional summer and winter weaving methods and go on to learn how to weave  variations.  A 4 or more shaft loom is required for the workshop.

The workshop will be held at Peace Lutheran Church in Southfield, Michigan from 9:30 – 4:00 p.m. on March 22 and 23 and 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. on March 24.

A lecture on Summer and Winter  by Nancy will follow the program on Saturday, the 24^th from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

The fee for the workshop is $125 for Michigan Weavers Guild members and $150 for non-members.  

Deadline for registration is February 21, 2012. You can register online here.

Fiber, Nuts & More exhibit

From the Huron Valley Arts website:

Join us on January 6, 2012 from 7pm-9pm for the opening night reception of our January exhibit and sale "Fiber, Nuts and More." This exhibit features the extrordinary work of three Michigan fiber artists: Loretta Oliver, Marilyn Prucka and Sue Walton.

This collaboration began when three fiber artists inherited three boxes of black walnuts, left to them by another artist who moved out of state. Loretta, Marilyn and Sue took on the challenge to explore the range of color and possibilities using the black walnuts. In addition to color each artist developed a body of work that expresses a concept related to walnuts.

Loretta sees color and concept integrated into a series of organic shaped vessels referred to as "Nut Cases." The vessels are seamless and created with felted wool fibers, a variety of mixed media materials and walnut dyes, the color alterd with metals and other natural elements.

Marilyn connects with nature especially the flow of a river and the ever changing environment. She uses layers of fabrics, adds and subtracts color from walnuts and other natural dyestuffs, such as indigo. She cuts, stitches and produces organic works of art on cloth.

Sue uses natural dye colors on yarns. With computer aided design skills, these yarns are manipulated and arranged into complex weave structures. The yarns are then hand woven on a loom to create fabrics that are suitable for fiber art, wearable art and home fashions.

The exhibit and sale runs through January 28th and is open to the public daily.

"Textile Figures: Coming Full Circle" exhibit

Pisces Woman by Jennifer Gould

Textile Figures: Coming Full Circle

an exhibit of Textile Figures from Jennifer Gould

January 4 - February 10, 2012

Opening Reception: Sunday January 15 from 2-3:30pm

Byron Center High School

Gainey Gallery

Van Singel Fine Arts Center

8500 Burlingame Ave., SW

Byron Center, MI 49315

(located at the corner of 84th St. and Burlingame Ave.)

*****

Please meet Jennifer:

 

I grew up playing with fabric, thread, and yarn. I learned to sew at an early age and made clothes for dolls, hats and dresses for my mom, ties for my dad, and clothes for myself. Then in high school I taught myself to weave tapestries. As a junior in college, I spent a year in Japan and had the opportunity to study weaving at a kimono factory. I began designing dolls in the early 1980s after spending years both hand-spinning wool and tapestry weaving.

Doll making has allowed me the opportunity to explore my love of fabric. I am continually fascinated by the techniques and fashions that our cultures have worn to express themselves - from medieval and Renaissance clothing to today's experiments in spinning stainless steel into thread. I take my inspirations from nature in my garden, to people walking down the street, and from my own personal experiences.

I make a wide variety of dolls, both production pieces as well as one-of-a-kind dolls which have needle-sculpted faces, often including articulated hands which have all five fingers that are poseable and my own hand-printed and hand-painted fabrics.

I also love fabric collage which not only appears on my dolls' clothing but in collage cards as small abstract studies or special seasonal cards, such as my favorites: hearts for Valentines Day and Christmas trees for holiday cards. 

You can visit Jennifer at her website and blog.