The Southwest School of Art All-School Exhibition opened last Thursday, and the show is a lovely, varied, strong one, and not just because I'm in it. It was great to see Rosa Vera's Crow piece open the show, a mixed media fiber and paper work she shared during a March workshop out here at El Cielo.
Detail of Rosa Vera's Crows.
With such a diversity of media and approaches, its remarkable how well the curatorial staff does at getting this show on the walls of the galleries. If you are in San Antonio this summer, be sure to stop in and see the exhibit. You'll also so a beautiful piece of Lisa Kerpoe's art cloth, a fiber piece by Miki Rodriguez of Laredo (also a participant at one of my workshops) and a host of other beautiful masterly works of craft/art.
This art quilt is titled Just Beyond My Reach. It is about 3 feet by 4 feet (measurements are somewhere!) and is fused, raw edge applique and free-motion quilted. I used fabrics that were hand-dyed, stamped, stenciled, batiked and created with monoprinting, as well as a few pieces of recycled ethnic textiles from thrift store finds. I decided quite a long time ago to only buy fabrics at thrift stores, with the exception of Indian silks, indigenous textiles and cotton batting. So far, so good! I use my own body as a template pattern (which in itself is an interesting process sometimes.)
If you are a working, selling, making-a-living somehow artist you can probably figure out what this one is about. But I guess it even has a more universal text, as well. We are all probably living with that feeling, and it's one that generally does no one any good, but, hey compassion for one's foibles is a necessary kindness.
Here is a detail from Lisa's art cloth work:
And here is a shot of Miki Rodriguez' work, Arroz con Pollo (chicken with rice)
