Many Voices from One: Work from the Graduates of the 2019 Art Cloth Mastery Program

Many Voices from One Work from the 2019 Art Cloth Mastery Program Graduates

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Participants Jane Bishop

Roberta Brunet Leanna Chase Lisa Chin Lorinda Freeman Anna Faye Korngute Jeri Pollock Jo Russavage Kim Svoboda Nan Travers Libby Williamson

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

I am delighted to share the work of the 2021 Art Cloth Mastery program graduates with you.

In 2019, we started the two year program in high spirits. Participants come to my San Antonio studio twice a year for six day sessions. Our goal is to refine work and perfect surface design techniques.

No one ever expected our second year to be upended by a pandemic. This tenacious group chose to continue meeting online. Instead of two weekly sessions in 2020, we transitioned into weekly classes and discussions. Each rose to the occasion and kept working diligently on her body of work.

The best of what was accomplished is shared with you here.

I hope you will enjoy the myriad of processes and palettes – each an indication of the maker’s evolving visual language.

Congratulations to these eleven artists, as they advance into a changed world that is still charged with vision and hope.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Leanna Chase Artist’s Statement

What has always captivated me about life is the soundtrack that underscores experiences with or without my conscious awareness. In nature, this audible understory fills the spaces – bird song, the rustle of the trees, even the bass note of a distant highway.

In my work, it is my hope to engage the viewer’s heart, memory, and experiences. Yet, pieces on the wall may not engage the invisible sense of hearing – that which supports and rounds out my life experiences. The memory of which enhances my personal experience of the work.

In this series, entitled “SHH …?” I have endeavored to bring dimension to the pieces using fabrics of all types – hand-dyed cotton, linen, and jacquard table linens as well as textural commercial cottons and linens. Color play and stitch techniques have been used enhance the experience of dimension.

Most importantly, a prompt is provided in the title to allow the viewer to hear the piece as well.

Biography Leanna Chase started life with parents who were creative makers who influenced the upbringing rooted in “why,” “what if,” and “try it.” Chase was the eldest of four skilled problem-solvers and makers that flew from that nest.

Adolescent rebellion led Chase to a practical career in human resources, with a solid dose of athletics on the back side. An accidental visit to a quilt show busted her world wide open. Soon she found a home in art quilt pursuits – drawn to a new arena for those comfortable what-if’s.

After semi-retiring from the corporate arena, Chase has continued to explore new skills based in the world of fabric and textiles. Her focus on original art quilting projects blossomed in 2015 with skills and focus further honed in the Art Cloth Mastery Program (with Jane Dunnewold) as well as classes with Jean Wells and Rosalie Dace.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

SHH ... crunch?

2020 Art Quilt using primarily hand-dyed fabrics with hand stitching 22” x 17” NFS

SHH ... crunch? (detail) 2020 Art Quilt using primarily hand-dyed fabrics with hand stitching 22” x 17”

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

SHH ... morning overture?

2021 Art Quilt combining hand-dyed fabrics with textural commercial solids stitched with commercially-available independent dyed yarns 16” x 32” NFS

SHH ... morning overture? (detail) 2021 Art Quilt combining hand-dyed fabrics with textural commercial solids stitched with commerciallyavailable independent dyed yarns 16” x 32”

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Lorinda Freeman Artist’s Statement

I work from my studio in Numurkah, Victoria. My work is my voice and is heavily influenced by world events.

Fabric manipulation, dye, stitch, textile paints and appliqué combine to narrate my thoughts.

Meaning, stories and my own truth is shown, sometimes in an abstract or realistic form.

Light at the End of the Tunnel Family visits and travel plans devastated for 2020, however, there was a glimpse of hope, a way out, borders reopening and vaccinations.

Shattered Hopes and dreams of many people are shattered as a result of COVID 19, the more the numbers rose the further away people and places became.

Keeping Tally A mark made for every Victorian diagnosed with COVID 19 until the task became too onerous and depressing.

Biography The 1988 Australian Bicentennial Quilt exhibition was Lorinda Freeman’s first introduction to quilt making and textile art. Since then, Freeman has enjoyed a journey filled with colour, shape and texture whilst continuing her childhood love of stitching.

Freeman has slowly moved away from the traditional bed covering into textile art, discovering the joys of mark making and creating distinctive art cloth pieces, however, stitch also plays a very important role in her work.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Light at the End of the Tunnel 2021 43” x 26.5” Silk and cotton fabric, stitched resist, hand appliqué, and hand quilting $650.

Light at the End of the Tunnel (detail) 2021 43” x 26.5” Silk and cotton fabric, stitched resist, hand appliqué, and hand quilting $650.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Shattered 2021 42” x 25.5” Silk and cotton fabric, stitched resist, fabric paint, hand-stitching $650.

Shattered (detail) 2021 42” x 25.5” Silk and cotton fabric, stitched resist, fabric paint, hand-stitching $650.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Keeping Tally 2020 39” x 25” Cotton fabric, machine stitching, over-dyeing, transfer dyes $500.

Keeping Tally (detail) 2020 39” x 25” Cotton fabric, machine stitching, over-dyeing, transfer dyes $500.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Jo Russavage Artist’s Statement No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.

– Heraclitus My art, like permaculture, is about diversity and the connections between things. Between me and nature. Between form and function. Between textures and colors, materials and techniques. Between the art and the viewer. My work features re-purposed materials that are dyed or painted, collaged, layered, stitched, or assembled to reflect my world view. Each time I dip into the well of creativity, I fetch up something new, and the well is refilled from diverse sources.

2021 has been designated Global Water Year, and I am focusing on water and its qualities in this body of work. A figurative Body of Water. Materials and techniques for this exhibition where chosen with the ethics and principles of permaculture in mind. I have dyed with plants I have grown, and in collaboration with the rain, using fiber reactive dye powders applied directly to the surfaces.

Biography Since making her first doll dresses at age five, Jo Russavage has had an affinity for textiles and fiber.

As a permaculture practitioner who relates strongly to the Dilettante archetype, she practices diversity in her creative interests and skills, focuses on subjects in nature, and embraces mixing media.

Russavage grew up in a big family a few hours drive from Amish quilt country. Learning from her mother, grandmother and older sisters, she self-taught by watching them doing. She has studied with many artists in the US and has taken Master Classes at TEXTILE Fiber Art Forum events in Australia.

Relocating a lot with her career, Russavage found like-minded people by taking classes – quilting, design, printmaking, mosaics, ceramics, weaving (baskets & cloth), collage, dyeing… While living abroad, she exhibited in group shows as well as in commercial galleries. Stranded back in America after the 911 bombings, she remade her life and started a permaculture design business.

Furthering her interest in surface design, Russavage recently completed a two-year Art Cloth Mastery Program with Jane Dunnewold. Her work has been exhibited in the United States and Australia, and is featured in numerous private collections. She has taught courses in creativity and design. She prefers to work in a community art context, in small to medium-sized groups, and in collaborative studios to enrich her solo practice.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Siren 2021 14” x 21” Reclaimed display mannequin, rain-dyed NFS

Siren (detail) 2021 14” x 21” Reclaimed display mannequin, rain-dyed NFS

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Water Under the Bridge 2021 28” x 20” Recycled clothing, rain-dyed $495.

Water Under the Bridge (detail) 2021 28” x 20” Recycled clothing, rain-dyed $495.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Weaving the Waters 2021 20” x 28” Recycled clothing, rain-dyed $495.

Weaving the Waters (detail) 2021 28” x 20” Recycled clothing, rain-dyed $495.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Kim Svoboda

Artist’s Statement

North Woods Boogie is a series of nine collaged fabric drawings created with intention and commitment, inspired by my daily walks in Central Park. The “intention” of working in a series. The “commitment” of a uniform size, a (primarily) muted palette, incorporating similar shapes, using techniques learned or advanced in Jane Dunnewold’s Art Cloth Mastery Program.

The materials: digitally-manipulated photographs printed on organza with a home computer; hand-painted felt, over-dyed cottons and silk, and one gaudy commercial copper lame that insisted on her inclusion. And, of course, because I made it, threads and a needle that say, “I was here.”

The process was slow, experimental, often cautious – layers fused on a felt backing. Unsure of my next steps, I waited. Then like the rush of a breeze, I knew what to do next.

Like every walk in the same woods, each is different. You may see the same trees, the same rocks and water; you may follow the same path, but the light and the scent and the warmth/coolness are never the same. Looking at these works as a whole you see the dance, the movement; you can feel the wind; you might even hear the sounds. Look at just one, and it invites you to come closer, to feel and touch it, to see its own uniqueness -- and to see anew every day.

Biography Kim Svoboda is a visual ar/st living and working in New York City. She creates abstract, energe/c fabric drawings and thread pain/ngs. Not afraid to “try things out” her work is improvisa/onal and eclec/c. The results are detailed, textured, layered, oDen small in scale yet bold.

Svoboda chose fabric and fibers as her material of choice in 2004. Since then, she has taken every opportunity to learn both tradi/onal and contemporary applica/ons of her craD. In turn, she has been a popular teacher of some of those skills – embroidery, kantha and sashiko s/tching, and free mo/on quil/ng.

The tex/le community is important to her. Svoboda is a member of SAQA, SDA, the ManhaPan Quilters Guild and the Tex/le Study Group of New York.

Svoboda has par/cipated in juried exhibi/ons throughout the United States, Korea and Japan. Her work hangs in both private and public collec/ons.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

North Woods Boogie 2021 Triptych 40” x 38” Nine individual fabric collages (each approx. 12” x 9”) Mounted on three stretched (painted and stenciled) canvas frames (40” x 12” each) Organza, cotton, silk, felt, misty fuse, assorted threads and embroidery floss NFS

North Woods Boogie (Panel 1) 2021 40” x 12” Organza, cotton, silk, felt, misty fuse, assorted threads and embroidery floss NFS

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

North Woods Boogie (Panel 2) 2021 40” x 12” Organza, cotton, silk, felt, misty fuse, assorted threads and embroidery floss NFS

North Woods Boogie (Panel 3) 2021 40” x 12” Organza, cotton, silk, felt, misty fuse, assorted threads and embroidery floss NFS

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

North Woods Boogie (detail) 2021

North Woods Boogie (detail) 2021

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

North Woods Boogie (detail) 2021

North Woods Boogie (detail) 2021

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Felt - Abstract 2021 12” x 9” Fabric collage. Felt, organza, cotton, misty fuse, assorted threads, embroidery floss, gold pen NFS

Felt - Abstract (detail) 2021 12” x 9” Fabric collage. Felt, organza, cotton, misty fuse, assorted threads, embroidery floss, gold pen NFS

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Lisa Chin Artist’s Statement

My eye is always drawn to “messy” art images with their texture and use of color. As each piece evolves I build texture with improvisational piecing of hand dyed fabrics, printed images from hand carved stamps, and the ever important hand stitching.

In this series each composition begins with a theme. As I work, the art talks to me and lets me know where it is going. I often end up somewhere different altogether.

These four pieces were created during the 2020-2021 Covid Pandemic, and the epidemic weighs heavily in each piece.

Don’t Forget About Me - The rapid spread of the Covid 19 virus demanded we stay apart from each other in order to slow the spread and keep each other safe. Some people enjoyed this quiet time, but it created a time of loneliness for others. A time of wondering if anyone knew they were still alive.

Apart Together - People found ways to reach out to each other and make the separation bearable. Stories went viral of musicians serenading their neighborhoods, and people reaching out to each other across roof tops, to help bring some sanity to the insanity of a world suffering together.

Is it Safe Yet? – The sun is shining, and the vaccine has arrived, but is it really safe to go out yet?

Point of View – Everyone might have a different viewpoint, but we can flow together to make everything work out for the best.

Biography Embracing creativity and a desire to learn have always been Lisa Chin's passions.

Her work as a textile surface design artist include drawing, dyeing, painting, screen printing, and hand carving stamps. She studied art at the University of Utah, and recently completed a two year Art Cloth Mastery Program with Jane Dunnewold.

She has appeared on Quilting Arts TV, has webinars at The Quilting Company, and has written articles for numerous magazines and books.

Her art has been displayed nationally and internationally, and is held in private collections. Chin is active on social media, @SomethingLisaMade, where she shares her artwork and encourages others. She currently lives in Utah, and collects inspiration from the picturesque scenery around her.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Don’t Forget About Me 2021 18” x 18” Art Quilt $500.

Don’t Forget About Me (detail) 2021 18” x 18” Art Quilt $500.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Apart Together 2021 18” x 18” Art Quilt $500.

Apart Together (detail) 2021 18” x 18” Art Quilt $500.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Is it Safe Yet? 2021 18” x 18” Art Quilt $500

Is it Safe Yet? (detail) 2021 18” x 18” Art Quilt $500

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Point of View 2021 18” x 18” Art Quilt $500.

Point of View (detail) 2021 18” x 18” Art Quilt $500.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Nan Travers Artist’s Statement

I began playing with fibers and dyeing at a very early age with my mother, who was a weaver. I have fond memories of the family, mountain climbing to collect plants for her dyes.

After trying many art media and different uses of fibers, I became fascinated with using paint brushes to apply dye to fabrics (especially silk) and experimented with creating layers of color and shapes, which I have done for the past 30 years. Over a decade ago, I began felting and fell in love with the sculptural qualities of felt while still being a fabric.

My latest work brings dyed fabrics and felting together in the Mother Tree series. Research

by Dr. Suzanne Simard and others have shown that Mother Trees are connected to thousands of other trees in the forest below-ground through a vast fungal network. Much like our own mothers, Mother Trees can send nutrients to offspring and other ‘friendly’ trees to help them grow and prosper or pull nutrients away from or send toxins to other trees that threaten her offspring. The Mother Trees series explores different emotions of being a mother and of being mothered.

Our relationships with our mothers are complex; even the best of relationships have their moments. Our relationships with our mothers embody natural tensions as we both try to hold on to what we want to believe, and at the same time differentiate ourselves to be independent and separate from each other.

The title of each piece in the Mother Trees series is chosen to reflect those complexities: She Can Be Magical – Our mothers are very magical to us at a young age. They feed and protect us when we are most vulnerable and can make sense of the world around us in ways we cannot yet. As we grow older, we may see less of the magic in our mother, but nevertheless yearn for the days when life was simpler and she was still magical to us.

She Leads You Down A Path – Our mothers have hopes and wishes for us and can often be vocal about the path they wish we would follow. For some, this path works; for others, this path can be a struggle and develops tension within the relationship.

Moments With Her – The times we spend with our mothers can range from peaceful moments, like watching a sunset, to more difficult moments, like a mid-winter gray evening. At these different times, we may feel we are embracing, holding on tightly, or being clutched.

Stepping Out With The Sistas – The first realization that our mother is independent and doesn’t exist just for our own sake is a hard lesson and can feel like a betrayal. Yet, there is something about the excitement of how we, too, can step out in our own way that becomes a driving force propelling us to our own future. Letting go of our mother to let her be herself is a way we learn to be our own selves.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Biography Nan Travers has been an accomplished fiber/fabric artist for over 30 years.

Her focus is on art cloth, silk painting, felting, and botanical printing, as well as mixed fiber media and collage. She has exhibited in multiple shows throughout the northeast, including Creation Myths, Fiber of Our Being, and Outside of the Circle.

She has also been a featured artist at SUNY Empire State College’s Creative Expressions and has shown in one of their galleries. Travers teaches fiber arts through the Adirondack Folk Art School, SUNY Empire State College, and her studio.

She has demonstrated felting for the past ten years at the annual Southern Adirondack Fiber and Art Festival. She is also co-president of the Northeast Feltmakers’ Guild.

She Can Be Magical 2021 24” x 44.5” Felted Mixed Media $650.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

She Can Be Magical (detail) 2021 24” x 44.5” Felted Mixed Media

She Leads You Down a Path 2021 70” x 43” Felted Mixed Media $1800.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Moments with Her 2021 41 x 49.5 Felted Mixed Media $1200.

Moments with Her (detail) 2021 41 x 49.5 Felted Mixed Media

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Stepping Out with the Sistas 2021 42” x 73” Felted Mixed Media $1800.

Stepping Out with the Sistas (detail) 2021 42” x 73” Felted Mixed Media

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Jeri C Pollock

Artist’s Statement

I am a tactile person, and my work allows me to make physical contact with the world around me, to touch and feel things that may otherwise be out of my reach. My thoughts take me to distant places and intimate spaces, and my hands interpret this journey in cloth and paint, in folds and stitches, in contour and line.

Women’s Work is a new series examining the role of females in our society. The spaces we occupy, the work that we do, the evolution/revolution of our roles. In this piece, Madame Vice President, I depict Kamala Harris, who now occupies the second highest office in the United States. She has become an icon of the achievements and possibilities for women and people of color.

Harris embodies the contrast and conflict of the traditional role of females in society with the diversity of goals that they have, the power and strength they are capable of wielding, and the changes they make possible.

Her portrait is created in filet crochet, a simple craft, and one which historically is associated with women and the home. It is traditionally used for items around the house such as curtains, tablecloths and doilies. In using it for a portrait, typically used to immortalize the rich and powerful, it embodies the conflict faced by women like Harris

Biography Unexpected viewpoints filled with color and texture are hallmarks of fiber artist Jeri C Pollock.

Pollock fell in love with cloth and thread doing counted cross-stitch and needlepoint which later morphed into quilting. Conventional quilting frustrated Pollock, as her use of bold color and pattern did not fit with traditional norms.

After studying with Nancy Crow, Linda MacDonald and other quilt artists Pollock gained confidence in her vision and began exhibiting in 2006. Exhibitions included Doing Small Things, Metamorphosis, My World in Black and White Revisited, and Fragments: Urban Decay – all with the Fiberarts Connection of Southern California. In 2007 Pollock’s piece Julia Krichkowski: An Immigrant’s Journey, based on her Grandmother’s life, was included in the first contemporary quilt exhibit, She Made Her Mark at the Quilter’s Hall of Fame Museum. Bridges 1 Simple Arch Distorted was juried into the Tactile Architecture Exhibit at the International Quilt Festival the same year.

Her works appeared several times in the Fine Art of Fiber at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. While her early quilts drew on family memories and a modern take on traditional quilting techniques, more recent study under Katie Pasquini Masopust, Fran Skiles and Jane Dunnewold moved her in more experimental directions adding paint, dye, collage and other techniques to her repertoire and increasing the importance of texture and color. These pieces often feature copious amounts of hand stitching. Newer works were part of the Milagros and Turning a Blind Eye exhibits, both in 2013. A retrospective of Pollock’s work appeared in a solo show at the David Adler Arts Center in 2014. Pieces have appeared in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine and 1000 Quilt Inspirations edited

by Sandra Sider. The addition of crochet in her latest piece is an exciting new direction for Pollock.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Madame Vice President 2021 35” x 35.5” Mixed Media Textile NFS

Madame Vice President Details 2021 35” x 35.5” Mixed Media Textile NFS

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Roberta Brunet

Artist’s Statement

I love color —playing, designing and creating with color. I have been a traditional quilter for over 40 years and have also used color as an expression in quilts for over 40 years.

Color wheels have been an obsession and in my current project, created as part of Jane Dunnewold’s Art Cloth Mastery Program, I have created a hand dyed color wheel, again using my dyed fabrics. This time I was able to create colors more accurately than I have in the past.

The pieces in this collection encompass design and color to show the various aspects of color. From contrast to value, to shades and tints, each one tells a part of the story.

Years ago I presented a paper on the Value of Value in quilting and color design, and showed how important this was. I feel that these pieces express that theory.

Biography Roberta Brunet, a self taught quilter, has been quilting for over 40 years. She has an education in Business and calls herself a retailer. This extends from selling sewing machines to real estate. Her retail career ended with owning a fabric store, Your HomeTown Sewing Center in Marina, Ca for eight years.

Fabric has been the passion in Brunet’s life for most of her adult life. She has created over 200 traditional styled quilts. She started doing wearable art in the 90’s when it was first popular and won a 2nd Place award, and magazine article with a coat at the National Pfaff Dealers Contest in1997. She has shown her work at local quilt shows and in two City shows on the Monterey Peninsula where she lives.

Brunet has been teaching for many years. With her education she taught college courses in business and retail and then in the stores where she has worked, With beginning quilting courses. Her interest was is to work with students who were beginners, teaching them the basics with a special interest in color and value.

Currently Brunet has finished the two year Art Cloth Mastery Program with Jane Dunnewold. This has led her to perfect her dyeing and surface design skills, giving her more fabric with which to create.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Color and Value: Red-Orange and Green 2021 28” X 28” Art Quilt. Natural Fibers $350.

Color and Value: Red and Green 2021 28” X 28” Art Quilt. Natural Fibers $350.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e Color Wheel 2021 28” X 28” Art Quilt. Natural Fibers NFS

Color and Value: Indigo Blue and Red-Orange 2021 28” X 28” Art Quilt. Natural Fibers $350.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Color and Value: Blue and Violet 2021 28” X 28” Art Quilt. Natural Fibers $350.

Value Study: Tints in Orange and Blue 2021 28” X 28” Art Quilt. Natural Fibers $350.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e Color and Value: Orange and Turquoise 2021 28” X 28” Art Quilt. Natural Fibers

Blue Stripes and Blue Stars 2021 28” x 21” Art Quilt. Natural Fibers $350.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Anna Faye Korngute

Artist’s Statement

During this last year of solitude I have come to realize how integral dance is to my art making process. As an improvisational dancer, movement is where my artistic process begins: I close my eyes and allow myself to move to that place where we feel intensely vulnerable.

Where our primitive secret feelings live.

That jagged, frenetic, outburst.

An eruption of euphoria, ecstasy.

A secret place because it’s personal.

Revealing.

I translate movements into gestural figurative calligraphy. I do this on cloth using liquid dye. This work is two-sided representing the face of what we present and our inner vulnerable side that we keep hidden. The dye process itself, furthers the relationship of my work to the body. I feel the similarity between how dye merges, uniting with cloth and how experiences bleed into us on a cellular level. I embrace the effects of time and imperfection, celebrating the scratches and frayed edges like wrinkles and silver strands of hair.

For some of us, the memories of this time alone has become imbedded into our skin making us hesitant to touch each other again. It has become vital to me that my work can be taken off the wall, put on a chair or bed or serve as a prayer shawl to wrap around us and bring comfort.

Standing in as the embrace we have all been missing from our loved ones, reminding us that there is still beauty in our humanity and frailty.

Biography Anna Faye Korngute is a mixed media artist who uses her experience as a modern dancer to influence her art making process. Whether in her painted cloth, ceramics, large figurative charcoal drawings, watercolors, collage or video work — the influence of movement in her work is expressed.

She has been a choreographer, lighting designer, physical therapist, interior designer, film editor and producer. She is a Los Angeles Area Emmy Award-winning videographer as well as winning other awards for her visual work. She is one of the founding members of the original Los Angeles Bookarts Center, and illustrated Rainbow Finds Love, a children’s book about a rainbow finding its true self. Korngute’s work is also found in the book, Best of Both Worlds: Enhanced Botanical Printing (Jane Dunnewold 2019).

She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and son. You can view her work at thecanyonstudio.com and on Instagram @anifaye.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

The Red Line 2020 67” x 25” Silk broadcloth and black silk noil painted with textile dye and hand stitched NFS Detail above

The Rape of the West: California Wild Fires 2019 40” x 14” Cotton, felt and batting dye, acrylic, stitch and burning NFS Detail above

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Movement One 2019 42” x 16” Silk noil painted with textile dye NFS Detail above

Blue Figure 2020 70” x 27” Two-sided silk noil piece, painted with textile dye and stitched NFS Each panel depicted on the left.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Blue Figure 2020 70” x 27” Two-sided silk noil piece, painted with textile dye and stitched NFS Details of each side.

Waiting 2020 68” x 18” Silk broadcloth painted with textile dye and hand stitched NFS Detail above

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Libby Williamson Artist’s Statement

Spirals of unclaimed days, courage in small doses, and the quest to unearth truth; I resolved to take a hard look at how I tick. Covid-19, quarantine, and the cancellation of my year of travels brought about long stretches of quiet. As a contented introvert, I was not bored. I relished the hours alone. Stitching. And thinking. And stitching some more. I dipped into this new territory with guarded contemplation and discovered new bits about myself.

Grids and circles frequently find their way into my work. Their structure and shape intrigue me but I am drawn more to broken and misshapen pieces, crooked lines, messy stitches, and circles not quite round. It makes sense, then, that archaeological digs fascinate me. The systematic division of terrain, labeled quadrants, discards and fragments, and the scribbled field notes — they all appeal to me. Part rebel, mischief maker and stubborn rule breaker, I gravitate to the quirky and flawed.

This is a self-portrait of sorts. Reluctantly scraping away of my own layers has exposed unexpected truths. Tangled lines, frayed edges and crusty old paint — I’ve unearthed plenty.

Their interpretations -- I’m reluctant to decode. Revelations were surprising, some embarrassing, and some too painful to expose. (Those holes were refilled with fresh layers and stitched tightly closed.) Gratefully, I’ve glimpsed new patches of beauty and grace.

Within this series of work, Field Notes, I continue in search of my authentic self.

Biography Libby Williamson, a mixed-media fiber artist living in Southern California, pushes the boundaries of her art, incorporating metal, rope, paint, vintage relics, used tea bags and assorted fabrics and fibers into her artwork. She relishes the challenge of constructing fiber art that entails stitching (with pliers) through rigid and coarse materials. Though technically quilts, her works are rarely categorized as such.

Williamson’s award-winning work has traveled internationally in numerous invitational and juried exhibits, most recently in Quilt Visions 2020 at Visions Art Museum, San Diego, CA. She has published articles in Quilting Arts Magazine, with cover artwork on Fiber Arts Now and QA Magazines. Williamson has been featured on THE QUILT SHOW with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, and has filmed a series of episodes on Quilting Arts TV. Traveling extensively as a teaching artist, she presents workshops at museums, shops, and destination art retreats, and developed online classes as a way to reach her students during the 2020 global quarantine.

Williamson was nurtured and encouraged in all craft and art forms as a young child, embracing all forms of needlework as well as metal sculpture, ceramics, and painting. Her advanced art education began in college, with a BA in Studio Art, concentrating in printmaking. She spent a semester in Kenya studying East African batik fabric printing. She is a credentialed art teacher in New York and California. Continuing her studies, Williamson recently completed Jane Dunnewold’s two year Art Cloth Mastery Program. Though she pursues many art forms, Williamson’s passion and primary focus remain on fabrics and fibers.

Libby Williamson is a Juried Artist Member with Studio Art Quilt Associates and is professional affiliated with Surface Design Association, Textile Artists of Los Angeles, and Visions Art Museum.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Field Notes: No. 4 Excavating Truth 2021 67” x 48” x 2.5” Mixed Media Fiber Art NFS

Field Notes: No. 4 Excavating Truth Detail 2021 67” x 48” x 2.5” Mixed Media Fiber Art NFS

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Field Notes: No. 4 Excavating Truth Detail 2021 67” x 48” x 2.5” Mixed Media Fiber Art NFS

Field Notes: No. 4 Excavating Truth Detail 2021 67” x 48” x 2.5” Mixed Media Fiber Art NFS

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Field Notes: No. 4 Excavating Truth Detail 2021 67” x 48” x 2.5” Mixed Media Fiber Art NFS

Field Notes: No. 4 Excavating Truth Detail 2021 67” x 48” x 2.5” Mixed Media Fiber Art NFS

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Jane Bishop Artist’s Statement

My collections of textiles, including laces, vintage linens, scraps from the past and other pieces bought, handed down and given to me, has found itself in my latest mixed media fiber wall pieces.

In this series – Sun, Moon, & Stars – I used the same background fabric. It is the perfect base to capture the variety of fabrics I incorporated onto the surface.

I arranged, re-arranged, and changed my layout countless time’s using reproduced imagery from Queen Elizabeth l’s Hardwick 1592 portrait skirt fabric. Finally, happy with the layout and the play between texture, found objects, scraps, dyed screened fabrics, vintage linens, buttons, and beads, I started stitching.

The sun symbolizes time, life, birth, death, divinity, royalty and power; its power to create warmth and growth.

The moon represents the rhythm of time as it embodies the cycle. Phases of the moon symbolize immortality and eternity, enlightenment, or the dark side of nature herself. The crescent moon is youth and adolescence. The waning moon represents the decline of life and sleep.

The stars have guided people through the dark for ages, and ultimately guide us to personal growth, hope, purity, ambitions, and dreams. Stars can also symbolize new beginnings.

The sun gives people their spirit, the moon gives people their soul, and the stars twinkle as if saying all is fine. I hope each will mean more to you now, when you see them in the sky.

Biography

Jane Bishop is an artist and gallery owner in San Antonio, Texas. Since 2013, she has been the curator and creative force behind Mockingbird Handprints – showcasing and promoting a bevy of local artisans in a great venue – with monthly shows and a prominent website.

On March 5, 2020, a date Bishop will never forget, Mockingbird Handprints moved into a larger space to better accommodate its growing business. Two weeks later the gallery was shut down by countywide order, due to the pandemic. She survived.

Before jumping into owning a retail space in Blue Star Arts Complex, Bishop worked with her husband, serving as vice president of their commercial sign company for ten years. Prior to that she was a partner in a textile-specific cooperative retail store, Textures, where she wore many hats, one of which was head of display. She learned hands-on how to manage an art space.

Bishop took her first surface design textile class in the mid 90’s after attending an informal presentation by a “fiber artist.” Not sure what that was, but intrigued, Bishop left that evening with a big desire to learn more. This was the start of her entry into fiber art.

In addition to tending her ever thriving gallery, Jane works with clients designing unique upcycled upholstered furniture that showcases her skills in hand-dying, silk screening, and otherwise manipulating new and vintage cloth – merging her love of all things fabric!

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Sun, Moon, Stars: Sun 2021 30” x 20” Mixed Media Textile $800.

Sun, Moon, Stars: Sun Detail 2021 30” x 20” Mixed Media Textile $800.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Sun, Moon, Stars: Sun Detail 2021 30” x 20” Mixed Media Textile $800.

Sun, Moon, Stars: Moon 2021 30” x 20” Mixed Media Textile $800.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Sun, Moon, Stars: Moon Detail 2021 30” x 20” Mixed Media Textile $800.

Sun, Moon, Stars: Stars 2021 30” x 20” Mixed Media Textile $800.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Sun, Moon, Stars: Stars Detail 2021 30” x 20” Mixed Media Textile $800.

Sun, Moon, Stars: Stars Detail 2021 30” x 20” Mixed Media Textile $800.

a n y Vo ic e s f ro m O n e

Contact Information Please contact artists directly to purchase work or discuss a commission.

Jane Bishop mockingbirdhandprints@gmail.com website: mockingbirdhandprints.com Roberta Brunet sewtoomuch@aol.com Leanna Chase elchase7@gmail.com Lisa Chin somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com lisachinartist@gmail.com Lorinda Freeman glenlorin@hotmail.com Anna Faye Korngute Anna@TheCanyonStudio.com Jeri Pollock jeriptoo@gmail.com Jo Russavage joruss13@gmail.com Kim Svoboda kimsvoboda@mac.com Nan Travers Nan@nanmade.org www.WoodsidePondStudios.com Libby Williamson libbywilliamsondesigns@gmail.com

Copyright 2021 Jane Dunnewold Studios Artists retain ownership of all images.

Contact the artist if interested in purchasing artwork.

Permission required for reproduction of text or images.