Lisa Call and I have our work on exhibit at Dazzle, Denver’s premier jazz club, through Sept. 25. Next Sunday, Sept. 18, we’ll be talking about our work during the Docent Dinner. Details below.

Quilt National 2011 opened this past Friday. I am very proud to be a part of this most excellent show, and I was glad I had the opportunity to attend the opening reception and associated activities at the Dairy Barn Arts Center.

Along with 2 of the 3 jurors, an unprecedented 66 of 88 artists traveled to Athens, Ohio, for the opening. It was great to be able to meet so many artists whose work I’ve long admired, and to see others again whom I’d met before. There’s something really invigorating about being in the midst of so many creative minds all at once. I tried to get photos of as many of these artists with their work as I could. (A few of them escaped my efforts.)

If you haven’t already, you should get a copy of this year’s book, available directly from the Dairy Barn. (I know you can get it for less on Amazon, but it’s important to support the organizations who are so instrumental in providing exhibition venues for art quilts.)

Congratulations to all the exhibitors who participated in this exhibition, and especially to the award winners. I would like to extend my grateful thanks and appreciation to Quilt National Director Kathleen Dawson and to all the staff and volunteers at the Dairy Barn Arts Center, for all their incredibly hard work in making this exhibition a fantastic success and for planning the wonderful events for the artists. Thanks also to everyone who enters the show year after year, myself among them, making the exhibition a possibility!

Façade VII, acrylic on stitched textile, ©2010 Deidre Adams

Today I’m in Ohio for the opening festivities of Quilt National. Since the exhibition opens tonight, I figure it’s now safe to post a photo of my piece. As I noted here, their rules are very strict about the work being shown anywhere, including on the web, prior to the show. I can’t imagine anything more humiliating than being kicked out of the show, so I didn’t even want to post it here too early – it seems there was a prior incident where someone was removed from the show because someone copied her photo from her own web site and posted it on their own. Anyway, being included in this exhibition is a great honor, and I would not want to take any chances.

Façade VII, detail, ©2010 Deidre Adams

Hope to be back here soon with some photos from the reception.

Last Friday, the Longmont Museum in Longmont, Colorado, hosted a lovely reception for America Celebrates. The exhibition was beautifully designed, and the space is first-class. A good number of the artists were in attendance, several traveling from out of town just for this event. I was surprised at how large the opening night crowd was. Judith Trager deserves high praise for her skill in curating and producing this exhibition. Many thanks to her for an outstanding show!

Opening reception at the Longmont Museum gets a strong turnout

Judith Trager with Cinco de Mayo

Patty and Wes Hawkins with Patty’s The Red Truck: Fiftieth Anniversary

Linda Faires with Vaishaka Day (Festival of the Buddha)

Terise Harrington with The Run for the Roses

Elizabeth Davison with America Celebrates our Communities

Jamie Bolane with All Saints’ Day

Carol Watkins with Celebrating the Vernal Equinox

Anne Theobald with America Celebrates Tennis

Carol Waugh with Celebrate Our Differences

Lea McComas with Wrapped In Tradition

Gay Lasher with Diwali: The Hindu Festival of Lights

Carol Waugh, Patty Hawkins, Deidre Adams, Vicki Carlson

The Longmont Museum is offering a catalog of the exhibition for $10. The exhibition runs through March 13, 2011.

Quilt Visions: No Boundaries opening reception at Oceanside Museum of Art

The 2010 Quilt Visions exhibition opened last weekend at the Oceanside Museum of Art in Oceanside, California. I was excited to be able to attend the Saturday opening reception and associated activities on Sunday, including a special breakfast for the artists as well as  a discussion panel later in the afternoon.

The reception was very well attended by both artists and museum patrons.

Opening Reception crowd

We were not allowed to take pictures other than with the artist’s express permission, but since so many of the artists were in attendance, I was able to get a good selection. Sue Willen’s beautiful quilt Ordered Cacophony V was honored with pride of place at the exhibition entry.

Sue Willen with Ordered Cacophony V

Sue Cavanaugh with Ori-Kume #14: Rio Grande at Taos

Joan Sowada with Flight Zone, winner of the Sponsor’s Award

Kathy Weaver with Strategic Alliance

Jane LaFazio with Zen Eucalyptus

Velda Newman with Zinnia, winner of the Quilts Japan prize

Margaret Anderson with Curvilinear

Katie Pasquini Masopust with Cadence

Deidre Adams with Façade VI

The panel discussion, organized and moderated by Judith Content, centered around the theme “Balancing Act: The Art of Being an Artist.” The panel participants were Gloria Hansen, Jane LaFazio, Katie Pasquini Masopust, and me. We each gave a short presentation on our work, and then we responded to questions, discussing how each of us balances our time for making art with all the other things: work, family, friends, and the business of promoting the art. I was especially interested to hear about how different each of our approaches is to the actual process of the artmaking. Gloria and Katie make drawings and sketches or use the computer to plan everything in advance and use a controlled step-by-step process to create the finished work, and Jane and I work more intuitively, making decisions and adjustments as we go. I was honored to be chosen as a panel participant.

Balancing Act panel participants (Deidre Adams, Gloria Hansen, Jane LaFazio, and Katie Pasquini Masopust) listen to Judith Content’s introduction

We were fortunate that a large number of the artists were able to attend the opening events. It was great to have the chance to see some artists I already know, as well as to meet so many new ones whose work I’ve admired for a long time.

Back row, left to right: Jette Clover, Kathy Weaver, Sue Cavanaugh, Sandra Poteet, Lura Schwarz Smith, Deidre Adams, Betty Busby, Kirby C. Smith, Debbie Bein, Velda Newman, Sharon Bell, Susan Willen, Gloria Hansen
Middle Row: Margaret Anderson, Benedicte Caneill, Joan Sowada, Katie Pasquini Masopust, Nancy Condon, Valya
Front Row: Judith Content, Jane LaFazio, Judith Plotner, Rachel Brumer

I’m very grateful to the many hard-working individuals of Quilt Visions, including Charlotte Bird, Patti Sevier, Beth Smith, and so many others, for making this exhibit possible and for doing so much to promote quiltmaking as an art form. I’d also like to thank the Oceanside Museum of Art for hosting the exhibition in this outstanding and beautiful venue.

On Monday, we drove down to San Diego to make a special visit to the Visions Art Museum, as far as I’m aware, the only museum of its kind – dedicated to staging “exhibitions of outstanding quilts in museum quality settings” and the promotion of “quilting of the highest aesthetic and artistic quality.” They had a wonderful exhibition called “The Art of the Stitch,” an invitational embroidery show including the work of B.J. Adams, Gwenn Beope, Karin Birch, Susan Brandeis, Caroline M. Dahl, Jane Kenyon, Sarah Rockinger, Carol Shinn, Jill Spurgin, Melanie Testa, Robb Watt, Deborah Weir, Joan Wolfer, and Rita Zerull.

There was also a great exhibition of work by San Diego members of Visions, including a beautiful piece by Charlotte Bird called Life Stream. I was drawn by the rich, cool reds, and with a closer view, I was rewarded by the lovely hand stitching and delicate, lacy organza applique. (Click the image to see a larger version.)

Life Stream by Charlotte Bird

Other artists in the show are Kathleen McCabe (also a fantastic piece, but alas, no photo available), Karen Cunagin, Barbara Friedman, Bob Leathers, Jill Le Croissette, Dan Olfe, and Lisa Tan.

The museum is housed in a unique facility which is part of a large complex of arts organizations, restaurants, and other businesses occupying what was once a formal naval training center. The architecture is also interesting in its own right. I highly recommend a visit to the Visions Museum if you get a chance to visit San Diego.

Mining Chaos, 36 x 36 inches, acrylic on panel, ©2010 Deidre Adams

The past week has been a crazy emotional roller coaster, with extreme highs and lows. Briefly, one high was that I received notice that my textile piece Façade VII has been accepted into Quilt National 2011. This is just about the most prestigious juried show there is for art quilters, and it’s a great honor and achievement to be accepted. Readers who’ve been with me for a while will recall that I complained bitterly about being rejected from QN’09.

(Update 10/6/10: Note that the image above isn’t my QN piece. They have a rule that accepted works cannot have been published or shown on a web site other than the artist’s prior to May 2011. So even though this is my web site, I’m not taking any chances of being disqualified. The image shown here is a painting that will be part of the “Urban Beauty” show, details below.)

One very low was learning over the weekend that one of my favorite professors at Metro had passed away most unexpectedly. Eldon (“E.C.”) Cunningham was Professor and Printmaking Coordinator at Metro for many years; he was mostly responsible for building the shop and the department into a respected force in the printmaking world. He ruled the shop with a velvet-gloved iron fist, and while I can still hear him admonishing all of us to do our “shop jobs,” I also learned a great deal from him about being an artist, about developing intent and a strong work ethic. He didn’t suffer fools lightly, but he could find the good in all of his students and their work. He was incredibly generous with his time and knowledge, and he never hesitated to offer individual assistance. Critiques with him were an educational experience in which I learned some things not only about how to talk about art, but also how to deal with egos both overblown and fragile. Dear E.C., you will be missed!

Finally, I have good news about an exhibition. I will be participating in a group show called Urban Beauty at the CWCC Art Gallery. Details:

Oct. 20, 2010 – Jan. 5, 2011

Fall Art Show: Urban Beauty
Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce Art Gallery
1624 Market Street, Denver
Mon-Fri, 8-5

Last year, I was fortunate to be part of a group of students of Amy Metier who went to France for an art-immersion experience. I wrote quite a bit about my adventures and posted some photos from the trip:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

The best thing about the trip was being there to paint. It’s one thing to travel and see the sights, but I never liked the idea of running all over to different cities and having only a short time in each one. I much prefer the way this trip was organized. We stayed in Paris for 4 days, and then Giverny the remaining 8 days, with day excursions to nearby towns. While in Giverny, we went out on location to Monet’s garden and the surrounding areas to paint. I’m convinced that this is the absolute best way to travel and get to know a place, and I hope to have another opportunity to do it again some day.

If you are in the Denver area, I would like to invite you to join me and the other artists for the opening reception of an exhibition of paintings and photographs by the participants of the trip:

Evenings with Monet

Opening Reception:
Friday, Sept. 3, 6-8 pm
Alliance Française
571 Galapago St., Denver
303.831.0304

Exhibition dates:
Sept. 3 – Oct. 30, 2010
Hours: Mon-Thurs: 9-7:30, Fri: 9-5, Sat. 9-noon

One of the most important things we learn in studying design is that a balance between unity and variety can greatly enhance a composition. I find this applies to pretty much everything in my life – artwork process as well as daily routine. I’ve always been the kind of person who can’t stand doing the same thing the same way for extended periods of time, and a shakeup in routine is guaranteed to help me feel energized.

After concentrating exclusively on paintings for the last several months, it was good to have a reason to focus on textiles once again. A call for entry to Small Works, a juried exhibition for members of the Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming region of SAQA, was an opportunity for me to develop 3 small pieces, all 18 inches square. After focusing on much larger pieces for a couple of years, I found I really enjoyed working at this size. It involves a different set of challenges, the most pressing of which is trying to avoid associations with potholders and placemats.

I was pleased to receive notice that Composition XII (above) was accepted into the exhibition. Along with work by 12 other artists, it will be on view at the Aurora (Colo.) Municipal Court from July 16 – Dec. 17, 2010.

New gallery representation

Also along the lines of variety in life, I spent last week in Door County, Wisconsin, visiting family and exploring the local landmarks and art galleries. On Thursday, I gave an artist’s talk for the Trillium Quilt Guild. I had several of pieces of my textile artwork with me for the talk, and afterwards, while driving back to my aunt’s home, we stopped in a few galleries along the way. In one of them, my aunt discovered a long-lost friend of hers, now the owner of the gallery. To make a long story short, I now have a new gallery representing my work: The Paint Box Gallery in Ephraim, Wisconsin, where these 3 works are now available.

Composition X, 18 x 18 inches, ©2010 Deidre Adams

Composition XI, 18 x 18 inches, ©2010 Deidre Adams

Horizon XVII, 16 x 16 inches, ©2010 Deidre Adams

Adaptation, 12 x 24 inches, acrylic & mixed media on panel. ©2010 Deidre Adams

After a week of utter insanity, things are quiet now. I’m getting caught up on all that I’ve let slide, like answering emails and attending to other outstanding issues. A blog post seems in order for closure on the the thesis exhibition.

As mentioned, due to unforeseen difficulties, we had a big scramble finding and preparing a temporary space for the show. The one we ended up with was a beautiful space, but it isn’t intended for display of art and therefore had several issues. Some in the class objected strenuously to the rather lively blue and lime green walls. Personally, I think my work would have looked stunning on a lime green wall, but I’m flexible. Since the will of the majority seemed to be that we needed neutral white walls, a bunch of us spent most of Tuesday painting. On Wednesday, I hung my work. This took me pretty much all day, because I had to do it alone, and I was terrified of making a mistake and messing up my newly painted wall. So I did a lot of figuring and measuring and remeasuring before putting nail to wall.

On Thursday, I needed to prepare for an artist’s talk I was giving that evening. So much for my theory that planning the date a year in advance should make for a very comfortable schedule!

Finally, on Friday, only one problem remained: there was no lighting for the walls other than some very high-up fluorescent fixtures — a completely unacceptable situation. Fortunately, my husband was able to take the day off and help with this situation. After several trips back and forth to the Home Depot, we finally had something rigged up on the overhead beams with clamp fixtures and 120-watt halogen floods that was, if not ideal, at least much, much better.

Me with some of my work

The reception was exciting. We had tons of people and it was a big crush, and it was great to be a part of it. I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of my great friends who came out in spite of the crappy weather to support me. You are all fantastic!