The good…
The 4” x 6” postcard tapestry, soul garden, I’ve been working on for Tohono Chul Park’s “Wish You Were Here” non-juried exhibit is coming along & I am close to finishing the weaving, can’t wait to get to that juicy lemon! The entries can be mailed in during the entire month of July, so there’s still plenty of time to weave one if you haven’t yet… take a look at the prospectus here.
Since returning from the Blue River tapestry retreat, Susan & I made plans to meet regularly for tapestry discussions & Ann has joined us. So far we’ve been meeting once a week for the last three weeks, each of us taking a turn to host the other two at our homes so we could see our respective weaving spaces & what we are currently working on. This week we are meeting at a local gallery to take in an exhibit of fiber art works.
After initially receiving two somewhat cryptic email messages from the IWC Fiber Celebrated 2009 exhibit stating that painted hills had been accepted for the exhibit, I assumed that my other entry, canyon night, had not. Lo & behold, when the exhibit paperwork finally arrived, I was pretty surprised to see that both tapestries had actually been accepted! I have been working on finishing up canyon night, sewing selvedges & getting it prepared for hanging. It will be exciting to see the two pieces together in this exhibit when I attend the conference with Susan & Janie. Tapestry will be well represented since Kathy Spoering, Jan Austin, Rebecca Mezoff, & Kathe Todd-Hooker also have had works accepted!
The disappointing…
I am quite sure my application for an artist-in-residence stint at the Grand Canyon was rejected. Not because I have received any sort of communication from them, but rather because of the lack of communication. At the beginning of June, there suddenly appeared on their website the little statement “selectees have been notified”, & I’ve yet to be notified of anything. This may be a bit of sour grape-ing on my part, but I felt it was a crummy way to discover I didn’t make the cut. Even though receiving a “Dear Artist” letter is also not very pleasant, at least it demonstrates the professional courtesy of acknowledging the effort one puts forth to apply for such opportunities.
The ¡muy fabuloso!…
My peevishness over the Grand Canyon incident didn’t fester for very long, however, because another opportunity suddenly appeared, dangling like a bright, juicy fruit, & I grabbed it with both hands! Thanks to some information passed along by Tommye Scanlin, I learned that Silvia Heyden will be teaching a 5 day workshop in Mendocino this July. Incredibly timely as I had just obtained a copy of Heyden’s book, The Making of Modern Tapestry after searching for it for the last two years & was right in the middle of reading it. After experiencing quite a bit of mental angst over the financial logistics of having already registered for IWC at the end of July, I decided this was an opportunity too important to miss. I went with my instinct of knowing it would eat away at me forever if I didn’t attend. Much to our mutual excitement, Susan & Ann have also registered & the three of us will be sharing a dorm apartment space with one other person right on the grounds of the Mendocino Art Center where the workshop is to be held. Heyden’s workshop is earlier in the month, giving me a couple weeks to absorb what I’m exposed to there before heading to IWC to study with Kathe Todd-Hooker in her workshop. Now I’m committed to pinching pennies in half to make up for the extravagance, or as they used to say in the South, “pinching the nickel until the buffalo takes a ……”
Jennifer, I am still pinching myself! I don't think I've been this excited about anything in a long time. If you don't already have Heyden's book, try to get a copy as there's a wealth of info in it!
Posted by: lyn | June 17, 2009 at 01:11 PM
The pieces are beautiful and I'm glad others are thinking so also. I agree you would regret not going to the Sylvia Heyden workshop - and to have the roommates in hand! I'm so jealous! Looking forward to seeing what comes from all of that!
Posted by: Jennifer | June 17, 2009 at 12:41 PM