St. Louis Artists' Guild- Nathalie Cortada

EXHIBITING GALLERY: St. Louis Artists' Guild

TITLE OF SHOW: Head to Toe: From the Funky to the Sublime

OPENING DATE AND CLOSING DATE: September 20th, 2009- November 7th, 2009

SHOW DESCRIPTION: A juried exhibition that will challenge the notion of functionality yet honor the tradition of wearable art. Work shown will range from head to toe, the Funky to the Sublime and the functional to the non-functional. All textile techniques are encouraged.

St. Louis Artists' Guild

Two Oak Knoll Park

St. Louis, Missouri 63105

314.727.6266

www.stlouisartistsguild.org

Submitted by Artist: Nathalie Cortada
Edinburgh, Scotland

www.atelierscortada.com

• Tell us a bit more about yourself: your location, professional affiliations, personal stuff…
  I am French, born and brought up in Lyon, silk capital of Europe and home of Jacquard and his famous loom. I can’t remember learning to knit, crochet, weave or embroider as a child, my mum does though! I do remember my little orange sewing machine and my brother and I hand-embroidering our own drawings on wee napkin pouches. These are still in use at my mum’s.
  I now live in Edinburgh where I learnt feltmaking and where my textile work has become a lot more three-dimensional, less functional and a lot more surreal.
• Apart from creating things, what do you do?
  I teach textile techniques (crochet and knitting) and papier mâché and card-making at weekly adult education classes. I also run freelance workshops in various crochet techniques, knitting, textile jewellery making, feltmaking and papier mâché.
  I occasionally work in a sewing and knitting shop and enjoy helping customers make the right choices for themselves. And I work for a mental health charity three days a week in an information management role.
• What are your favorite materials to work with?
  My all time favourite material is thick raw wool with the lanolin still in it. However I love experimenting with all sorts of materials and these vary depending on what I want to achieve and my mood at the time. Materials range from the traditional wool and cotton yarn to fancy yarns, via newspapers, network cables, video and audiotapes to fishermen’s warp and climbing ropes. I often have a minuscule project on the go alongside much larger work. I also like to mix materials, little and large, soft and rough, smooth and textured.
• If you didn’t work with fiber, what media would you work with? Why?
  I already work in mixed media and use a lot of recycled materials in my work, mainly plastics and paper. If I didn’t work with fibre and paper my main medium would be with clay for its versatility and malleability. My current textile work is very sculptural, so are my papier mâché creations and clay would allow me to develop the sculptural aspect of my work further. Clay is also a very tactile substance and a pleasure to work with. Firing the object can give unexpected results and the object is always a pleasure to handle.
• What is your next project?
  I always have multiple projects on the go, some have been ongoing for some time (my godson is 15 years old and never did get the cardigan, size 3 to 6 months, started when he was born…).
  I am two thirds of the way through knitting and crocheting a piece for the stitches on the Skye bridge project.
  I am a member of a group of Edinburgh textile artists with an exhibition inJanuary 2010 in Edinburgh. My contribution is based on an African legend my dad had translated from English into French when I was a little girl. The ancient theme is strangely enough very modern, about wasting natural resources for man’s selfish ends. I could easily have a whole exhibition to myself with such a theme!

St. Louis Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art- Christine Ilewski

EXHIBITING GALLERY: St. Louis Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art at Crossroads Gallery

TITLE OF SHOW: Made by Hand

OPENING DATE AND CLOSING DATE: September 8th, 2009 - October 8th, 2009

Opening Reception: Friday September 11th, 7-9pm

IT8 bus tour: Saturday, October 3

Felted Teka workshop with Nino Hecht: Sunday, October 4, 1-4pm

CURATOR OR JUROR: Jo Stealey

SHORT BYLINE/ DESCRIPTION OF SHOW: A regional juried exhibition sponsored by the St. Louis Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art. Juried by fiber artist Jo Stealey.Stealey is an art professor and head of the fiber department at the University of Missouri - Columbia. Featued in the exhibition into the exhibition: Roxanne Phillips, Pat Owoc, Jennifer Weigel, Virginia Dragshutz, Clairion Ferron, Nino Hecht, Lydia Brockman, Linda Elkow, Jean Mills, Janice Nesser, Kathy Weaver, Betsy Dollar, Christine Ilewski, Trish Williams, Lisa Becker, Marie Samuels, Evie Shucart and Leslie Hume

Crossroads Art Studios and Gallery

501 N. KingshighwaySt. Charles MO 63301

Gallery hours: Wed - Fri Noon-5pm; Sat by appointment

call 314 581-3748

www.wca-stl.org

Artist : Christine Ilewski

Tell us a bit more about yourself: your location, professional affiliations, personal stuff…

I am a mixed media artist living in Southern IL in a very old house on the edge of a bluff, 200ft above the Mississippi River. My studio is in the basement, though I tend to spread my work out throughout the house when I'm deep in it.

My work has been exhibited in the St. Louis Regional Arts Center, Quincy Art Center, Mt. Vernon Mitchell Museum, and St. Louis University’s Art Museum. She is represented by Brewington Fine Arts, Woman Made Gallery and the Il Artisan Shop, Chicago; B Studio, Three Oaks, MI; Swanson Reed, Louisville, KY; and The Contemporary Art Center in New Harmony, IN.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?

Beyond my studio work, I am a visiting artist for Liquitex. I give acrylic material and method workshops to university students and professional art leagues. I mother three daughters, participate in a Community Supported Garden, take long hikes and follow local bands with my husband.

What first inspired you to become an artist?

The stuff of a woman’s life has a way of building up; laundry, bills, dryer sheets, memories, photos, dust, paperwork, sketches of her daughters, wounds, rewards, sickness and health. I have long been interested in the way a bit of our spirit on the things we touch and how these things tell our story long after we’re gone. .

Please describe your creative process: how you create, when, where, with what materials…

A particular vintage pillowcase, sheet or curtain often inspires a piece. In "Beach", the floral pattern of the vintage sheet was like feeling a summer breeze and I could almost smell the sand and sun.

Currently, I've started a portrait project on vintage handkerchiefs. I blog have started painting the portraits of children who have died as the result of hand gun violence.

What possession do you most cherish?

My family.

St. Louis Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art- Clairan Ferrono

EXHIBITING GALLERY: St. Louis Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art at Crossroads Gallery

TITLE OF SHOW: Made by Hand

OPENING DATE AND CLOSING DATE: September 8th, 2009 - October 8th, 2009

Opening Reception: Friday September 11th, 7-9pm

IT8 bus tour: Saturday, October 3

Felted Teka workshop with Nino Hecht: Sunday, October 4, 1-4pm

CURATOR OR JUROR: Jo Stealey

SHORT BYLINE/ DESCRIPTION OF SHOW: A regional juried exhibition sponsored by the St. Louis Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art. Juried by fiber artist Jo Stealey.

Stealey is an art professor and head of the fiber department at the University of Missouri - Columbia. Featued in the exhibition into the exhibition: Roxanne Phillips, Pat Owoc, Jennifer Weigel, Virginia Dragshutz, Clairion Ferron, Nino Hecht, Lydia Brockman, Linda Elkow, Jean Mills, Janice Nesser, Kathy Weaver, Betsy Dollar, Christine Ilewski, Trish Williams, Lisa Becker, Marie Samuels, Evie Shucart and Leslie Hume

Crossroads Art Studios and Gallery

501 N. Kingshighway

St. Charles MO 63301

Gallery hours: Wed - Fri Noon-5pm; Sat by appointment

call 314 581-3748

www.wca-stl.org

Submitted by Artist: Clairan Ferrono

Tell us a bit more about yourself: your location, professional affiliations, personal stuff…

I am a textile artist living in Chicago. For the past eight years my work has been extensively shown locally in Chicago, throughout the Midwest, nationally in the US and internationally. In 2004 I was awarded an exhibition grant by the Illinois chapter of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Currently three of my pieces hang in the American Embassy in Côte d’Ivoire. In 2009 my work was shown in an international invitational exhibit in Taiwan. I am a Professional Member of the Studio Art Quilters Association (SAQA), and am currently curating their international exhibit “Reflections” which just closed at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. I am a founding member of Fiber Artists Coalition (FAC), an exhibiting group, and a member of the Surface Design Association (SDA) and The Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA) as well as the Chicago Artists Coalition (CAC).

Please describe your creative process: how you create, when, where, with what materials

I create fiber collages and drawings by piecing, fusing, stitching and quilting commercial fabrics and fabrics I have dyed, painted, mono- or screenprinted or shiboried; (shibori is a Japanese technique that is a very sophisticated tiedye).. Sometimes I begin with a piece of white cloth, paint or draw on it with thickened dyes or textile paint or Shiva oil sticks; then I stitch (by hand or machine) other fabrics on top. I use raw edge appliqué, fusing (which uses a paper backed glue web) or reverse appliqué. I may make just one or many layers. Then I add batting and a back and machine quilt to hold the layers together. The final step is to add a sleeve to the back so a rod or slat may be inserted to hold the piece up.

What first inspired you to become an artist? What possession do you most cherish?

I have loved needlework of all sorts all my life—I learned to knit and embroider before I was five. But my formal education has been in literature. I got a Masters and began but did not finish my Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago. For many years I taught English, writing, and ESL (English as a Second Language) at Roosevelt University in Chicago, The University of New Orleans, and Isidore Newman School in New Orleans.

In 1989, when my daughter was two, I learned how to quilt. My mother’s family was from the hills of Kentucky, so I had heard stories of quilts and quilting all my life. I cherish the Double Wedding Ring quilt my great-grandmother made for her own bed. But I never knew these relatives, and my mother did not quilt. I had to find out on my own. I was quickly caught up in the quilt world, but discovered early on that I didn’t like to follow patterns, but enjoyed working spontaneously. In 1997 I attended the Quilt Surface Design Symposium in Columbus, Ohio. In my family we call it “Quilt Camp.” It changed my life. In 2000, I decided to stop teaching and become a full time studio artist.

What is a typical day for you?

I have both a wet studio (where I paint, print and dye) and a dry studio (for designing and sewing) in my house in Hyde Park. I try to work in one of the studios every day. Even when I don’t want to, I tell myself “Just 15 minutes.” Of course, this is what I really love to do.

St. Louis Artists' Guild- Ann-Maree Walker

EXHIBITING GALLERY: St. Louis Artists' Guild

TITLE OF SHOW: Head to Toe: From the Funky to the Sublime

OPENING DATE AND CLOSING DATE: September 20th, 2009- November 7th, 2009

CURATOR: Lindsay Obermeyer

SHOW DESCRIPTION: A juried exhibition that will challenge the notion of functionality yet honor the tradition of wearable art. Work shown will range from head to toe, the Funky to the Sublime and the functional to the non-functional. All textile techniques are encouraged.

St. Louis Artists' Guild

Two Oak Knoll Park

St. Louis, Missouri 63105

314.727.6266

www.stlouisartistsguild.org

Submitted by Artist: Ann-Maree Walker

• Tell us a bit more about yourself: your location, professional affiliations, personal stuff…

I am an artist who lives in Saint Louis. I graduated in the Spring of ’08 with my MFA from Washington University. I currently teach in the Art departments of Washington U and Florissant Valley Community College and am the Research Assistant at the Saint Louis Art Museum for the Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs.

• Could you do your art without an audience? How important is feedback?

I think this is the most complicated part of my work that I want to continually evolve. I think that audience is the most essential part of completing a piece. I use textiles and fibers because of the “functional” and “wearable” qualities of the work. I want the viewer to think through the use and function of the piece and in some cases participate in the act of wearing and using the work. I want the work to go beyond the qualities of an “art object” and become more about performance and transformation.

• How does your process of creating an art object begin?

For better or worse my art practice always begins in my head. I am inspired by reading, movies, music and pop culture. I am not the type of artist who goes to the studio and explores and manipulates material until I feel like I have arrived at something (though I often wish I was free to be this way.) Through writing, sketches, calculations and a lot of cerebral manipulations I will finally commit to a nearly fully formed idea and begin the process of making the work. However, I prize the mystery and intuitive methods of some of my favorite artists and would like to move towards a more instinctive way of working.

• Name your top five: musicians, books, movies, websites, artists… (provide a link to websites or artists websites if at all possible)

This is a list of artists who I think have used fibers and wearable art in the most interesting ways.

Annette Messager: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/mar/05/annette-messager-hayward-retrospective

Rebecca Horn: http://www.rebecca-horn.de/pages/biography.html

Louise Bourgeoise (Stitches in Time): http://www.recirca.com/reviews/louisebourgeois/index.shtml

Jana Sterbak: http://www.janasterbak.com/images.html

Nick Cave: http://www.jackshainman.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=23

Lucy Orta: http://www.studio-orta.com/artwork_fiche.php?fk=&fs=1&fm=0&fd=0&of=4

Sara Lucas: http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue5/encounters5.htm

Ann Hamilton: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/hamilton/#

Tracy Emin: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturereviews/3557865/Tracey-Emin---dirty-sheets-and-all.html

Ernesto Neto: http://www.armoryonpark.org/index.php/programs_events/detail/ernesto_neto_in_the_wade_thompson_drill_hall/

Mona Hatoum: http://www.whitecube.com/artists/hatoum/

• Define fiber art through your lense as an artist or audience member.

Fiber art has a very specific history that, for better or worse, comes into play in the reading of an artwork. The history of women’s work, craft, fashion and industry all come together in the media of fiber art. I think the most successful artists are very cognizant of this tie to history and elaborate on or exploit these ideas. My interest in using the textile media stems from my interest in identity. Until recently, Western Philosophy considered our identities tied to our mind and souls. Current philosophers and theorists tie identity to the external. French Feminist, Judith Butler describes the body as a tablet where signification and identity are formed as external influences inscribe themselves into the flesh. I see the body as a canvas onto which we apply our identity, consciously and unconsciously. For this reason fashion, accessories and even technological devices become a vehicle for identity and the body a site for a variety of cultural power plays.

St. Louis Artists' Guild- Nina Ganci

EXHIBITING GALLERY: St. Louis Artists' Guild

TITLE OF SHOW: Couture Threads of Democracy

OPENING DATE AND CLOSING DATE: September 20th, 2009- November 7th, 2009

CURATOR: Nina Ganci of SKIF International

SHOW DESCRIPTION:

The designers selected for the show have maintained a reverence to reality throughout their fashion career. Their personal work stretches the conceptual boundaries of beauty, culture... and politics.

I appreciate that each designer has remained true to their ideal style . All of them work here in the United States and have significantly contributed to the evolution of our artistic vision.

The pieces in the show reflect our culture, history and fashion. As a collection, it represents an expansion of our perception of fashion and opens up a space in the viewer's mind to see both - the style and the design's structure to fit the human form.

As designers, we're responsible for making our own choices and creating clothing for the people we know. With western wear, we've inherited our sense of dress - a grand responsibility for the way we look, work, and behave.

St. Louis Artists' Guild

Two Oak Knoll Park

St. Louis, Missouri 63105

314.727.6266

www.stlouisartistsguild.org

Submitted by Curator: Nina Ganci

http://www.skifo.com/faskifo/Skif_International.html

If I didn't work in fiber...

I'd work in METAL, because it is indestructible.

What is my next project?

SPRING 2010, now

St. Louis Fashion WEEK, in OCTOBER

Apart from creating things, what do you do?

I create spaces for other ARTISTS to thrive.

What first inspired you to become an artist?

It's the only thing I could do.

nina's pick for cool videos:

Here is a link to the work of Robert Longyear- one of the designers presented in the exhibition Couture Threads of Democracy

http://www.youtube.com/user/flypigeoncamp1

top 5

http://www.corridor40.com/category/editorials

http://flypigeoncamp.blogspot.com

http://www.ted.com

www.woostercollective.com

http://www.global-mindshift.org/

St. Louis Artists' Guild- Chris Motley

EXHIBITING GALLERY: St. Louis Artists' Guild

TITLE OF SHOW: Head to Toe: From the Funky to the Sublime

OPENING DATE AND CLOSING DATE: September 20th, 2009- November 7th, 2009

SHOW DESCRIPTION: A juried exhibition that will challenge the notion of functionality yet honor the tradition of wearable art. Work shown will range from head to toe, the Funky to the Sublime and the functional to the non-functional. All textile techniques are encouraged.

St. Louis Artists' Guild

Two Oak Knoll Park

St. Louis, Missouri 63105

314.727.6266

www.stlouisartistsguild.org

Submitted by Artist: Chris Motley

www.motleyknits.com

• Tell us a bit more about yourself: your location, professional affiliations, personal stuff…

I’m a late bloomer in the art field. After a 30 year career in a left-brain job, I am exploring my right brain and using my life-long avocation of knitting and felting as the medium for my entry into the art world. After initial explorations with yarn as more than garments, I received great affirmation that I wasn’t crazy to use knitting as a sculpture form when I attended workshops with Karen Searle and Adrian Sloan.

I’d been selling scarves through small boutiques even before I left the regular work world. In the last three years I’ve moved into knitting as a means of sculpture, making neckpieces and three-dimensional sculptures, one of which is the picture accompanying this blog entry. I love living in San Francisco with my husband. I have two grown children and I love that they’re a bit intrigued and proud of my new venture. Having known me as a lawyer as they grew up, I’m enjoying that they, and others, can see how one can venture into new territory.

• What is your ideal day in the studio? What is your agenda? What music do you listen to?

I’ve made a studio from the front bedroom in our house. It has glass cube shelves to the ceiling on two walls which I got from a yarn store that was closing. The yarn is sorted by color and fiber. I have an armless chair with wonderful back support for hours of knitting. Many of my pieces use different yarns constantly and I can knit without bumping my elbows; I can sit for forever with a color scheme of yarn around me on the floor and reach whatever I need as I knit. I have no agenda, and always have more than one project going at a time so I can tap into the type of work that day that feels right. I often listen to books as I knit. My studio space is wonderful.

• How does your process of creating an art object begin?

I have two creative processes (that I am conscious of) for which I have totally different modes of operation. One is more of a production mode, when I’ve settled on a design and have developed the basic design. Knitting is a slow process and from this process itself a design idea can emerge; I often grab an idea out of what I’m working on and explore that. (I keep a notebook, of course.) I’ve worked a lot on sculptural pieces of hands and arms and a sculptural piece that deals with arms led to my thinking of the design for the scarf in this show—that a scarf should have arms to hug around like a scarf naturally does. Alternatively I see something either real or in my head, unrelated to yarn at all, that triggers a curiosity of what it would be in yarn. I knit intuitively and make a new piece just by starting to knit without pre-planning.

• Could you do your art without an audience? How important is feedback?

Feedback on my art is a crucial part of my process. My participation is an art group has been vital to me as I evolve into being an artist. We meet once a month to share our work and their feedback has been instrumental in my artistic development. Feedback from the people who want to purchase or show my work is also a wonderful affirmation. I would be knitting in any case, but I could never say I don’t love hearing that people like what I create.

• When do you feel you hit your stride as an artist?

I don’t think I’ll ever hit my stride as an artist. In fact, it’s interesting to that perhaps I hope I don’t ever hit my stride so there will always be a new exploration involved. That is one of the things I’m enjoying the most.

Florissant Valley Contemporary Art Gallery- Jessica Jones

EXHIBITING GALLERY: Florissant Valley Contemporary Art Gallery

TITLE OF SHOW: TEXTERE

OPENING DATE AND CLOSING DATE: September 8 - October 3, 2009

Reception: Thursday September 10, 6-8pm

IT8 bus tour: Saturday, October 3

CURATOR OR JUROR: Janice Nesser-Chu

SHORT BYLINE/ DESCRIPTION OF SHOW: Fiber work from the Appalachian Center for Craft, Tenn. Featuring the work of Jeanne Whitfield Brady, head of the Fibers Department, Jessica Jones and Aaron McIntosh, artists-in-residence and students: Deborah Tuggle, Bethany Kolp, Laura McCormack, Paula Rodgers, Emma Judd, Kristy Sullins, Kendall White, Lindsay Dunn, Dana Decereaux and Emma Self.

Florissant Valley Contemporary Art Gallery

STLCC-Florissant Valley, IR111 3400

Pershall Rd, St. Louis MO 63135

Gallery hours: M-F 10-4pm, Sat 10-3pm

Submitted by Artist: Jessica Jones

• Apart from creating things, what do you do?

I live and work on the campus of the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN as the Artist in Residence for the Fibers Dept. The ACC is part of Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville and is on a satellite campus in a remote and exquisitely beautiful part of middle Tennessee on Center Hill Lake. My main responsibilities as an Artist in Residence include making a large body of work, managing the Fibers Studio (including purchasing and inventory), mentoring students, and generally providing support for the department. I spend a lot of time working for the Fibers Department and the Craft Center as a whole assisting during the regular semester of Tennessee Tech as well as participating in other programs such as Outreach with local schools, and Spring/ Summer/ Fall Workshops.

• Please describe your creative process: how you create, when, where, with what materials…

Having been trained in painting, drawing, printmaking, fibers, bookbinding, and papermaking, I find that I am the most comfortable with Fibers because it is within that field that I can incorporate all of my interests. Fiber is open and broad and allows me to use mixed media, which I have recently been incorporating into my quilts. When I start a new project, I have a sense of direction and tend to visualize something that I want to make. It is inevitably the case that this idea fails in some way and I have to end up rethinking what I am making. I am forced to listen to the materials and pay attention to what they want to be, not what I intended to make out of them. I end up with a nonlinear process that is more like a dialog with the work. Having many different techniques/ tools at my disposal is an advantage in this process.

• Name your top five: musicians, books, movies, websites, artists… (provide a link to websites or artists websites if at all possible)

I am very curious and passionate about learning new things, and I love new information that challenges and inspires me. I can easily edit down to a single item in each category that has influenced me the most –without a doubt- over the past few years.

1. Musicians: Adem (Love and Other Planets)

2. Books: Proust Was a Neuroscientist

3. Movie: How to Draw a Bunny

4. Website: Seed Magazine

5. Artist: Ray Johnson

I am going to add the category 6. Podcast: Radio Lab

I find that listening to Podcasts keeps my mind very active while I am working- and my interests lean towards the sciences.

• What are your favorite materials to work with?

I have two very different answers to this. In my most recent work, I am rediscovering old materials I used when I was a painter and printmaker: pastels, paint, crayons, etc. I love how these things interact with quilting- for example, the way that pastel looks when used over stitching. I am also interested in found material- material that has been used and worn, and has a texture that cannot be achieved in any other way but through time.

• What is the source of your creativity? How much is from within? How much comes from outside sources

I have an intense curiosity and need some idea to pursue to keep me driven to make art. I tend to obsessively research topics that interest me and this not only inspires me, but filters into my work in some way. I have always been very enamored with scientific research that attempts to explain some of the things that are part of my own experience. Sometimes I just have an idea like “what is time?” When I start to think about something—like how I experience and perceive time, I often research how people have constructed time differently in different cultures and how my brain understands the past, present and future, or what cosmologists think that time is. Then I start to see these ideas emerge in my work- and I start to think about how fibers can incorporate the idea of time. Essentially, my creative source is both inside influence (examining my own experience and staying curious) and outside influence (discovering new things when researching an idea).

St. Louis Artists' Guild- Giang Pham

EXHIBITING GALLERY: St. Louis Artists' Guild

TITLE OF SHOW: Head to Toe: From the Funky to the Sublime

OPENING DATE AND CLOSING DATE: September 20th, 2009- November 7th, 2009

SHOW DESCRIPTION: A juried exhibition that will challenge the notion of functionality yet honor the tradition of wearable art. Work shown will range from head to toe, the Funky to the Sublime and the functional to the non-functional. All textile techniques are encouraged.

St. Louis Artists' Guild

Two Oak Knoll Park

St. Louis, Missouri 63105

314.727.6266

www.stlouisartistsguild.org

Submitted by Artist: Giang Pham

What are some of the things you do to keep yourself creative?

Research is very important for my work. In that process of browsing through past and current issues, further studies on topics of interests, and seeking other’s reactions for comparison, I am charged with my own beliefs that would inspire my creativity. Looking at other’s work is also crucial. I may have an idea on how to approach a project, but looking at others as examples can push me in new directions.

What is the source of your creativity? How much is from within? How much comes from outside sources?

Creativity always comes from within. My creativity is a reaction to the outside world. The outside world may inspire or questions my beliefs. But the act of creativity is a personal force; it is borne when one starts establishing a stance to an issue, and wishes to either explore it further or voice the stance through the physical process. I look to the outside world for inspirations, but I’m not creative until I act on my beliefs.

How does your process of creating an art object begin?

My process starts with a belief—an idea. That idea goes through a process of deep refinement in the sketching process. I think about the materials that would best communicate the idea, the aesthetic of the materials and the form visualized, and other pertinent issues that can be added to provoke further dialogues. I believe ambiguity and paralleling symbolisms are important, and I refine those as the physical process evolves. The physical process looks simple; collect the materials and combine their parts for a more unified whole. But within this meditative state, there is continual refinement—in idea, in approach, in details—even toward the last touch.

What are your favorite materials to work with?

In the current theme of my work—social commentaries through stuffed animals, fiber is a very attractive medium. I like combining fiber with other materials. As materials are very important in the communication of an idea, combining pertinent materials together will allow for a more diverse voice.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?

I like to watch science fiction such as Stargate SG-1 and children’s animation. They provide a good rest on the serious business of everyday life and that intense scrutiny and labor in the creative process.

Old Orchard Gallery- Pat Owoc

Exhibiting Gallery: The Old Orchard Gallery
Title of Show: Fibra Vive
Opening and Closing Date: Sept 18th, 2009 - October 9th, 2009
Juror: Becky Grass
Show Description: Fibra Vive celebrates today's artist's personal interpretation of their "magical journey" through Latin America in their own work.

Submitted by Artist: Pat Owoc

Creative process –

1. Personal library – store of images, impressions, overheard conversations, pictures, junk collected from the street, memories – a bank from which to draw
2. Fallow time – thinking, or not thinking, but having connections made at some below-the-surface level
3. Catalyst – the “itch” to make something, a deadline, a challenge, the need to make a gift
4. Activity – putting the idea to cloth – buying stuff, dyeing stuff, cutting stuff, sewing stuff, and finishing

Often pieces are imagined in the finished form before any supplies are purchased or any dyeing or cutting is begun. Occasionally, especially when I haven’t fully thought-out a piece or when my skills aren’t what I’d like them to be, I have pieces that will never see the light of day.

Things done to keep creative –

1. Being alert to possibility – ideas and images that are available by paying attention to what’s out there – friends, current events, art museums and galleries, human nature, media
2. Making connections between things that may not have had any connection except the ones that I imagine or make up
3. Experimenting with pushing what I know already – without making purchases of new equipment. I tend to work with what has been working rather than to go off into a new field or exploring new technology. The work that I do now is a logical culmination of processes learned years ago and of ideas started years ago. Little steps leading to refinements and, I hope, more command of materials. That’s not to say that I won’t someday buy some new goodie or learn to use new media, it’s just that it’s not what is necessary now.
4. Frequent coffee dates with Paul, my husband.
5. Not taking things so seriously that I can’t abandon work for times with friends and family.

Suitable environment for work –

1. I have a dry studio for fabric and ephemera storage, for cutting, for sewing. Beans the cat has a cushion of her own and keeps me company.
2. A wet studio on the lower level houses dyes, paints, silk screen equipment, and is a place that I can be messy.
3. There’s always a ritual cleaning of the studio when one piece is finished – a good time, a fresh start, then a new piece.

Methods of visualization –

1. I take lots of photos – hard copy, old-fashioned, non-digital photos and have my own library of images. They provide a source for pattern, for botanical work, for silk screen work and for chronicling the passage of time.
2. I keep a scrap book of images from print sources – images of finished work of other artists, news events, color combinations, satisfying lines, etc.
3. A notebook of personal ideas and overheard conversations and lists of events and quotes reminds me of things I’ve deemed important at one time or another. And, sometimes I wonder why I’ve written some those things.
4. Although I’ve taken a couple of design and drawing courses, I rarely draw or doodle as a way of recording image or of working out designs.
5. Art work is usually worked out in my mind before any cutting or dyeing takes place. Only when I’m concerned about the specific placement of a design element do I cut out shapes and place them on the work in progress.
6. Recent work has been of two types: landscapes using disperse dyed fabric and botanical pieces reminiscent of Mexican paper cuts using Ultrasuede and disperse dyed fabric

A little about me –

“Who you are is what you were when – when you were 10 years old.” This line, from a film I used when teaching, seems appropriate when answering a question about myself. I grew up on a farm in western Kansas. My two favorite pictures from my infancy are (1) me in my Dad’s arms -- he had come in from the field and was black with dirt on his hands and face and I’m sitting in his lap as a very clean child against his dirty clothes and skin, and the dog is sitting next to us. And (2) me in my Mom’s arms -- she is sitting on the dirt of our driveway and there is a flock of Leghorn chickens scratching in the dirt around us. Important factors – Dad, Mom, baby, animals, and dirt. I have a younger sister. Judy was born when I was three and one-half years old. Judy and I had great fun when we were children – playing house and making mud pies and sewing for dolls and playing with the kittens that frequently “appeared” on the farm. Now Judy is my true friend, my confidant, and my woe-is-me I-can’t-make-any-progress-on-my-­­­­­­______ (fill in the blank) buddy. Farm life involved lots of work and rules about caring for the land and for the animals. We were active in 4-H, church, and farm organizations. Family activities included playing cards and board games -- I remember especially games that had to be played by the light of a kerosene lantern because the electric power had gone out during a snow storm.

Enough of early times – fast forward through marriage, the birth of a daughter, and 30 years in public education as a teacher and as a high school counselor followed by retirement in 1996. It’s wonderful, retirement, with the chance to make art and travel and go out for coffee anytime one takes a notion. I have time for friends and reading and cooking and taking a nap in the afternoon if I want to.