The Exhibit: Along Those Lines

My daughter was born in 1986, my oldest son in 1989, and my youngest son in 1993. Even though it is possible to find wonderful daycare, I didn't believe that anyone else could do a better job of raising my children than I could. I wanted to be home with them and I needed to work. At the end of my second pregnancy, I started a home based business.

I wrote Setting Up Your Sewing Space and then several other books - four in five years. I started out talking about the organization of sewing rooms and then moved into teaching the how-to of quilt making and eventually art and design along with creativity coaching with a focus on supporting women textile artists in creating individual, pattern free work and finding their voice. Along with traveling internationally to teach and speak, I wrote over twenty workshops and taught on-line for many years with up to 1,200 international students a year. At the same time, my textile work was on exhibit in several well known galleries and was beginning to receive increased notice and sales. It was fabulous work, I loved it, and, for various reasons, it ended.

The ending was unexpected and painful. I spent considerable time coming to terms with what had happened. For a while, I felt like I was falling apart in public and it wasn't a good feeling. After trying this, that, and the other thing with no real success, I eventually closed my business and began moving in new directions. That sentence doesn't come anywhere near to encompassing the emotional roller coaster involved.

My final official project was an exhibit called Along Those Lines in which I partnered with ceramic artist Megs Waterous. There is always a delay between contracting an exhibit and hanging it. We secured the exhibit over a year ago, I completed the works this past August, and it opens tomorrow January 16th and runs until March 21st, 2010 in The Cube at The Kamloops Art Gallery.




On Tuesday, after having these pieces arranged along the walls in my family room for MONTHS, I packaged them up and took them down to the gallery where Craig, the curator, and his assistants are now busy hanging the show. Yesterday, Thursday, Megs and I had an interview with the local cable station. While there, we saw bits and pieces of each other's work however, the show wasn't fully arranged yet. We'll see everything together at the opening reception on Friday, January 22nd at 6:30. Anyone who lives near enough to attend is welcome. It'd be great to see you.

My portion is nine pieces on three themes - color, texture, and line. Each set of three is the same height of 24" and combined length of 72" plus an additional 6" between pieces making each set 24" by 84".

The exhibit was a fabulous project to work on. Megs and I are both confident, professional artists. Our use of line and color is similar and complimentary and we chose to trust each other and the process without controlling the outcome. There were just enough guidelines to be fun and not enough to be constraining. Within them, we created our works independently. With the little bit we did see of each other's work yesterday, we're thrilled with how well they go together. It's exactly what we expected. Below are my pieces with a full and detail shot.

The Color Series:

Each of these pieces started with one of MY primary colors - an electric navy, a blue based lime, and fuchsia. While I attempted to include a variety of values, as you can see, my work tends toward the medium to dark range. The focal point is consistently a touch of the complimentary color and all three pieces feature vertical stitch work.

Yellow-Green with Purple
24" x 24" - $595.00

Blue with Orange-Yellow
24" x 24" - $595.00

Magenta with Green
24" x 24" - $595.00

The Texture Series:

There are two kinds of texture: tactile and visual. With this series, I wanted to incorporate both with more emphasis on tactile texture while maintaining good design components. The commonality between pieces is texture as opposed to color or line although they all feature horizontal stitch work.

Threads
24" x 12" - $315.00


Squares
24" x 24" - $595.00

Cording
36" x 24" - $925.00

The Line Series

This series began with an overall image that was divided into three unequal parts. My goal was to create individual pieces that both worked together and apart. What's particularly wonderful about this group of pieces is that they look fabulous in all directions, rotated vertically or horizontally. Each piece features curved stitch work.




This is the first of the three pieces illustrating how they are formed and mounted. For some reason, I don't have a finished image of the other two although below you can see them separated and in progress. They are called LS-One, LS-Two, and LS-Three and are 24" high by 36", 18" and 18" wide. The three pieces are $1,855.00.




After the opening reception, I'll have some more images to share. Our exhibit is in the smaller, open to the public, gallery. It's one of my favourite spaces. In the main gallery, will be an Emily Carr and Jack Shadbolt exhibit, which will be both delightful to see and bring more traffic to "our" gallery. Exciting.

After four months away from creating textile art, I have just a hint of a feeling that I'll be making some more pieces in the future - an idea for another joint show. We'll see what actually happens. Right now, I am REALLY enjoying the time spent making fashions. YES YES. For those of you who expected to see fashions, on Monday we'll return "to our regular programming". I'm hoping to start on the fuchsia plaid skirt this weekend.

Have a great weekend - Myrna

Grateful - The JDRF along with Animas Corporation have formed an innovative partnership to develop an artificial pancreas with a fully automated system to dispense insulin based on real-time changes in blood sugar levels. YES YES! This has the potential to improve my son's quality of life as well as extend his life expectancy. It's very exciting.

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Personal Growth - It's all in your imagination. As we discussed in the last chapter, we tend to underestimate the range of our senses and our intelligence. We do the same with our imagination. In fact, while we largely take our senses for granted, we tend to take our imagination for granted completely. We'll even criticize people's perceptions by telling them that they have an "overactive imagination" or that what they believe is "all in their imagination." People will pride themselves on being "down to earth," "realistic," and "no-nonsense," and deride those who "have their heads in the clouds." And yet, far more than any other power, imagination is what sets human beings apart from every other species on earth.

Imagination underpins every uniquely human achievement. Imagination led us from caves to cities, from bone clubs to golf clubs, from carrion to cuisine, from superstition to science. The relationship between imagination and "reality" is both complicated and profound. And this relationship serves a very significant role in the search for the Element. - from page 97, The Element by Ken Robinson

The Element is about how finding your passion changes everything. It's true. You live in a different field of energy. When I'm creating with fabric, I vibrate in a unique way not seen or felt in other activities. I'm in a separated and specific mood and frame of mind. It's been a relief for me to learn and accept that your passion is not always - and perhaps not often - a source of supportive income. It is NOT necessarily true that when you find your passion the money will follow. A little late. I wish I'd known that sooner and still I'm glad to learn it now.

I don't see textile art as my career ever again but I could be wrong. God has an even bigger and better imagination than mine. I do see it as a wonderful outlet for creativity and I have an idea for a year long, co-operative project. Maybe that's a beginning. I'm only going to concentrate on first steps. It would take the right artist to work with and she could take a long time to find.

It feels good to have a vision once again and I'm in no rush to follow it up. I'm thankful for that bubble of enthusiasm and the ideas that are beginning to play in my imagination and thankful for the calm spot that I inhabit at this moment. It has been delightful to not "be in business" for these past few months and to just rest away from the never ending marketing and constant search for a new exciting "buy me" idea. I like this space. LOVE sewing fashions. It's another playground.