Once again I have been fortunate to be invited to submit a piece for a show curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison and even luckier to be included in “The Space Between.”  You can read more about the show itself here, at their Dinner at 8 blog.  I’m in some rather heady company, so thrilled that my quilt, Clothed in Color, made it in! The show will debut at the International Quilt Festival held this summer in Long Beach, then we hope it will travel to Houston as did its predecessor, Beneath the Surface.

Clothed in Color, 36x48 inches

Jamie and Leslie have asked each of the participants to answer a set of questions, and I have LOVED reading the responses, here.  I encourage you to go visit the Dinner at 8 blog and see how our answers are similar and different—when I read my friend Susan Brubaker Knapp’s I had to write and tell her I had NOT read hers before I wrote and submitted mine!  We’re like twins separated by geography!  Anyway….here are  the questions and answers.

1.  What do you call yourself – art wise?

Quilter.  Art quilter.  Textile artist.  Interrupted by life!

2.  How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump?

Don’t know that I’ve had a slump per se.  Usually I am just too busy with life interfering with art or too tired.  That means I have a surplus of ideas and never enough time, so I just pick whatever quilt is hollering most loudly inside my head and let that one out next.

3.  If money wasn’t an issue, what would you do with your art?

Make more!   Give some of it away… I would love to do a “quilt mural” project for the local middle school (first panel is done), the continuation of “Be Inspired, No. 1” into a series of six quilts with people and places from around the world.

4.  Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.?

Yes.  I’m not as diligent as I would like—it’s that lack of time thing.  But I have learned how useful they can be, am constantly inspired by my friend Kathy Daniels’ journals, so am trying to develop my own better “noodling around” habits.

5.  Where can people see your other work this year?  shows, books, magazines, etc

My book (ThreadWork Unraveled), my blog (www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog) and website, in my classes, the 2010-11 Quilting Arts Gifts issue, and whatever shows I get in (as long as I remember to apply in time).

6.  Do you teach?  where?

Have paycheck will travel–yes, I definitely teach!  I prefer to teach places where I don’t have to fly—detest airports–will gladly drive 2-3 days each way instead!  But I’ve been all over, and would love to go more places even if it involves an airplane.  Australia or Hawaii anyone?  My current bookings are on my website at https://www.sarahannsmith.com/schedule.php.

7.  Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why?

Vincent Van Gogh:  COLOR!
Henri Matisse:  exuberance and line
Auguste Rodin:  passion and form
The artisans of the Sutton Hoo burial grounds (UK–in the British Museum): design and ornament
Edward Steichen:  The Family of Man book/exhibit; grew up poring over the photographs and still do
The 8th grade neighbor girl who made the apron for my Barbie when I was 6–that got me started with sewing!

8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday?

IQA-Houston, again I hope…
And if I ever make work I think suitable, Visions and Quilts=Art=Quilts, or if I can afford shipping the UK’s Festival of quilts and the Tokyo show.

9.  Describe your studio workspace

In progress.  We moved in February 2011, so at the moment most of the boxes are unpacked, but I still need to paint the floor (I have a large semi-unfinished space in the basement) and get some closet doors made before I can really settle in.  Despite only having four small windows near the ceiling joists (space is semi-finished, we spray painted the joists and under-floor white so it would look more ceiling-like), I installed good lights with daylight bulbs so it is bright and cheery.  I’ll have a 22 foot closet made by putting up design-wall-panels-as-sliding-doors on one wall for the detritus of art and teaching (file cabinet, teaching items, books for sale, art supplies and stored quilts  inside–don’t like working with too much visual clutter).  I hope to have a reading area, and my beloved Hoosier will be my desk.  I may even get to add a sit-down mid-arm machine this year….

10.  What 3 tools could you not live without?

MistyFuse.  Is MF a tool?
My Janome 7700 sewing machine.
Digital camera!
[and if they had allowed a fourth, my computer…my lifeline to the art quilty world and friends!]

11.  What drives you to make the work that you do?

I can’t NOT make my quilts–it would be like asking me to stop loving my kids and hubby or do without oxygen.  Just can’t be done!  I love to make things with my hands…to make something from inside my head become real.  There are so many things I want to learn how to do in terms of creating the image, both conceiving it and then physically making it.

12.  How do you balance your life?

Balance?  does *any*one have balance? (Picture Sarah ready to teeter off a rope while tossing a thousand items up in the air.)  I seem to lurch from one urgent thing to another, hoping I haven’t forgotten something important.  I know the insanity will slow down eventually, but right now I just try to make sure the family gets everything they need, and that I can still make enough art to keep myself sane!

I look forward to seeing all the quilts in the exhibit and reading all the artist interviews!  Well done, Jamie and Leslie and artists!

P.S.:  Since this post is long, I’ll do another tomorrow with some detail shots of the quilting.

Woooohooo!  (and OMG…two posts in one day?)  Doing the Snoopy Dance (despite the dank humidity and clammy temps here in usually balmy Maine):  Cookie?  PLEEEZE Cookie!, my portrait of our pug Pigwidgeon, got juried into the World of Beauty contest that is the heart of the IQA Quilt Festival in Houston this fall! (Click on picture for much larger view.)

In addition to this sweet pug mug, I’ll have the portrait of my son Joshua in the Beneath the Surface exhibit (thanks to MistyFuse our sponsor!), and two quilts in the special exhibit showing  quilts from Lark Books’ popular 5oo Art Quilts book.  WOOT!  Tippety tap, tippety tap…sounds like more celebrating…break out the ice cream!

Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison came up with the idea for the Beneath the Surface exhibit, got the sponsors, juried the show, and are now doing a totally cool thing on their blog!  My quilt is the portrait of my son, Joshua (recently blogged about at length, so only a small picture here):

Jamie and Leslie have sent each of the artists a list of questions, and it looks like we’ll hit 100 percent participation with the answers.  Day by day they are adding the responses of the various artists to these questions:

1.  How do you describe yourself?
2.  What is your creative process?  planning, drawing, notes, etc.
3.  What’s your style?  Abstract, pictorial, surface design, whole cloth, etc.
4.  How long have you been a quilt maker/fiber artist?
5.  Do you listen to music when you make art?  what kind?
6.  What do you do when you are blocked creatively?
7.  Do you teach?  What’s your favorite part about teaching?
8.  Are there artistic endeavors that you have yet to do?
9.  How do you balance your family life and art?
10. What is the best part about what you do?

If you’d like to see what I said, check out today’s post, here.

To see what all the others have said, go to the Dinner at 8 Artists blog and just keep going backwards through the posts!  It’s wonderful reading!

Thanks to Moore’s sewing centers of southern California and Brother Sewing Machines for sponsoring the debut of the exhibit at the International Quilt Association show in Long Beach and to MistyFuse / Attached Inc. (loyal readers KNOW  how much I love MistyFuse!) for sponsoring the continuation of the exhibit at International Quilt Festival in Houston this coming October/November.  I’m so glad it will travel to Houston, since that means I’ll get to see it in the cloth!

At long last!  There has been precious little time for making art quilts over the past few years.  What with family chaos, the hurly burly of every-day-life, writing a book and making all the samples, marketing the book, travel-teaching and whatnot, I’ve can scarcely recall the last large art quilt I made just for the sake of making it. Here’s a detail (you’ll have to keep reading to see the rest!  yes, I’m evil <GRIN>):

Last autumn, Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison of Dinner at Eight Artists invited me to submit a quilt for consideration in a juried invitational show called “Beneath the Surface.”  (Note:  a list of accepted artists is on their blogpost dated March 22…what fine company!) That means you make a quilt to theme and size (36 wide by 48 tall), and it still might not get in.  My first thought was…I have too much on my plate.  Then I realized the due-date (which always gets me in gear) was early enough in the year that I might actually have time to do it!

My first thoughts were underground waterways, roots, rocks, critters that burrow.  Then, thanks to the influence of my friend Kathy who loves the sea, I thought about under the sea.   But then I thought, no, everyone will do that…. I want to do a portrait!  Then I realized, it could fit the theme:  What is under the surface of a teenage American male?

I took about 65 photos one evening of my older son playing guitar, which is such an elemental part of who he is.  I selected two:  one for the overall body position, another for the face (angle of head, mouth closed, eyes looking down).  I ended up using a third picture because the proportions of the first two didn’t give me enough of the room for the measurements of the quilt.   Luckily, I finished on time and got in!!!

I’ll share the construction process (I’m always fascinated by how a quilt comes to life, but decided I’d show the results here, THEN show the process because, well, I’m impatient and want to share!) in future blogposts. So, here it is!

I think this may be one of the best quilts I’ve ever done; best of all, Joshua likes it too.  I was worried about the funky batik I used for the guitar neck, but when he saw it he said “If I could find a guitar like that in real life I’d BUY IT!” How cool is that?

My original statement for the quilt was (big surprise) a bit too long, so I’ll repeat all of it here:

What is beneath the surface of a 16 year-old male?  Some things are obvious:  music, food, girls, friends, food, school, guitar, food, video games, movies, girls, friends, food. Others are not so obvious.  There is the man he is becoming:  kind, compassionate, interesting, funny, breathing music in his soul, argumentative, loyal, passionate, tolerant, stubborn, smart, gregarious, curious, honest, loving and loved.   “Mom?  Can you fix me something to eat?”

Thanks to Moore’s Sewing Center (in southern California and online) and Brother International, who are sponsoring the exhibit at the IQA show in Long Beach, California; we are hoping the exhibit will continue on to the big IQA show in Houston in Fall 2010.  Thanks also from me to Iris Karp of MistyFuse for her generous support.  This entire quilt top was made with fused applique…MistyFuse ROCKS!

So far I know these artists have blogged about their quilts in the exhibit:

• Deborah Boschert
• Terry Grant
• Karen Rips
• Gerrie Congdon

Those of you who can, I hope you can take pics at Long Beach!  Enjoy, and again thanks to Jamie, Leslie and our sponsors!

I received quite the lovely e-mail a few days ago from Vou Best of the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) about the piece pictured above.  It said:

“Congratulations!  Your piece in “Meet the Artist: SAQA 20th Anniversary Trunk Show” has been chosen to be one of the 55 pieces archived in the permanent collection of the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.  It will be available to researchers and students as a record of the art quilt in 2009.

“Sandra Sider selected the works for the IQSC collection.  “One of the best parts of the 2009 SAQA conference was the three hours I spent in my hotel room, with the 20th Anniversary Trunk Show spread out over beds, tables, chairs, and floor.  What an explosion of creative energy! My curatorial task was to select approximately fifty pieces that would be donated in 2010 as a SAQA collection to the International Quilt Study Center. This collection documents the various techniques, processes, materials, and artistic styles in quilt art during the early 21st century, and the SAQA Board envisions these quilts as research tools, far into the future.  Your quilt was selected because it represents a particularly distinctive or original approach. Congratulations! Sandra Sider SAQA Vice President.”

“During the past year, many people have viewed the Trunk Shows in venues across the United States and in several other countries.  They have been shown at SAQA Regional meetings, to Quilt Guilds, in Gallery shows, at IQF receptions, and I’m sure to neighbors and friends wherever the trunks have visited. Everywhere they’ve traveled, they have received an overwhelmingly positive reaction.

“The SAQA Exhibition committee and I wish to thank you for supporting this endeavor during our 20th Anniversary year. Each and every piece represents the outstanding artistic quality present in the membership of SAQA today.

Vou Best

SAQA’s 2oth Anniversary Trunk Show Curator”

To say that I am thrilled is a serious understatement!  When I saw the names on the rest of the list, here…wow!  I am humbled, pleased and utterly astonished to be in such good company!