Saturday, April 30, 2016

Courageous Souls, Turbulent Times

Courageous Souls, Turbulent Times

We members of the Connecticut Fiber Arts Collective are on the move.

Today, April 29, we hung our sixteenth art quilt show, Courageous Souls, Turbulent Times, at the Unitarian Society of Hartford, 50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut.  Less than a week ago, we took down our fifteenth show, Soulful Journeys, which hung at the Windsor Art Center, Windsor, Connecticut, from March 12 to April 23, and which was memorialized on local television  http://www.wfsb.com/clip/12373367/turning-quilts-into-works-of-art


This show focuses on social justice issues, a timely theme in this election year. 

Here's a look at us as we hung our art quilts today in the ambulatory of this iconic building.


Here's Carol Vinick hanging Homage , a fabric collage tribute to Martin Luther King by Linda Martin.

A better look at Linda Martin's Homage.  You can see more of Linda's work on her website, Colored Girl Art, http://www.coloredgirlart.com/


Here's Carol Vinick's The Long Walk, a tribute to Nelson Mandela.

Here's Diane Cadrain's contribution, Fragile Ties, a statement on the fragility of interracial relations.



 You can see more of Diane's work in the quilt gallery on her blog at http://stitching-it-all-together.blogspot.com/p/quilt-gallery.html


Here's Christina Blais' quilt, Determination, inspired by a quotation from Rosa Parks.

For more of Christina's work, check out her website at http://www.onebobbin.com/



Here we are, collaborating. That's Linda Martin's piece, Righteous Soul, in the center.

Here's a better look at Righteous Soul.

And here's a better look at Linda:

 


Linda Martin and Carol Vinick, collaborating.

Courageous Souls, Turbulent Times will hang during the month of May 2016 at the Unitarian Society of Hartford.  To view the quilts, stop by on a Sunday morning when the building will be open and occupied.  But that's not the only time for viewing:  for other opportunities, call the Unitarian Society of Hartford's office at 860-233-9897.

Friday, April 22, 2016

The Connecticut Fiber Arts Collective: Hanging Together

We members of the Connecticut Fiber Arts Collective:  Not only do we hang together, we get around.

Recently, for example, we co-hosted a meeting of a national group of which we're all a part:  the Studio Art Quilt Associates  (SAQA).  The Connecticut chapter of SAQA meets a few times a year, and our April 2016 meeting took place at the Windsor Art Center, which is also the venue for the Collective's latest exhibit, Soulful Journeys.

Here's a look, not only at some of the folks at that meeting, but also of our work on the wall:

Here's our own Christina Blais, standing on the right in this photo, chairing her first meeting as SAQA's co-chair for Connecticut, an honor she shares with Kelly Chin  Caldwell, standing next to her.  Both are framed by my quilt, Buddhist Temple I. That's me, seated, center rear, with my head framed by Buddhist Temple II.


We all have so much to learn from one another at these meetings.  I think everyone agrees that Show and Tell is the best part.

Here's Dawn Allen with one of her fabulous three-dimensional flowers:


I'm going to let Dawn speak for herself on these beautiful creations, so I'll give you a link to her website:
www.dawnallen.net

Here's Dwight Lopes, showing off his marbled fabric.  That's his spouse, Maureen Lopes, on the left.  This photo is evidence that the author of today's blog post is far from the world's best photographer.




Here's Clara Nartey.  You have to see this lady's work.

www.ClaraNartey.com


And take a look at her blog while you're at it:  http://claranartey.com/blog/

Here's our new fearless leader, Kelly Chin Caldwell, who recently, along with Christina Blais, took over the reins of our Connecticut chapter of the Studio Art Quilt Associates.

Check out her work at http://kellyissuperneato.com/

Below, here are our lovely selves. Left to right, Carol Vinick, Karen Loprete, Mary Lachman, Carol Eaton, Christina Blais, Linda Martin, and Wanda Seldon.  Not present for this photo: Diane Cadrain, Rosalind Spann, Antonia Torres.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

And now we're on Connecticut TV!

We members of the Connecticut Fiber Arts Collective have a show, Soulful Journeys, hanging in the Windsor Art Center, Windsor, Connecticut, until April 23, 2016



And now, we've had local television coverage of our show!

Here we are with Scot Haney of WFSB, the local NBC affiliate:



And here's a link to the  airing of our little piece of fame:


http://www.wfsb.com/…/1237…/turning-quilts-into-works-of-art


Please take a look!