California Dreaming

Patricia Vivod Wildfire ©2015
95" x 30"

I think this year has been the busiest of my life in regards to my art. With five shows under my belt, including Material Revival which I curated and participated in, plus contributing a six foot piece to The Riverwork Project, an evolving 300+ foot quilt begun by Sun Smith-Foret, I thought it was time to reveal another project of mine that until now, I've kept out of the public eye.  

A most incredible thing happened this past April when I was contacted by an interior designer interested in my work.  Her project, on behalf of the architectural firm she works for, was designing and decorating a new spa being built in St. Helena, California.  

I sent them several images and to my delight they purchased seven of my large hangings! Last week I received confirmation that the work has been installed and the spa opened on November 2. The seven pieces were hung in public areas of the spa. Two of the pieces were created this summer, one of which is shown at left. 

With the confirmation of installation came word that my work was very well received and another invitation was extended to create eight more pieces. I am beyond thrilled to participate in this venture. The North Bay Business Journal recently featured the $60 million spa and renovation project at the Meadowood Resort in Napa Valley. You can read the article here.

One of these days, I hope to visit and see my work in its new home.  

Here are some of the other pieces purchased.  

Dying Grass Moon Imperfect Mirror
92" x 27"

Patricia Vivod - Fault Lines

Patricia Vivod - Heaven Hell Feast Famine
 

One of my favorite pieces I've ever made, done last year for From the Inside Out is now in California.  The triple layer organza piece Heaven Hell Feast Famine was destined for an office area at the spa.

Woot!

SCC Fibers Invitational -- Show #5

Christine Holtz curated the SCC Fibers Invitational currently on view at St. Charles Community College in Cottleville, Missouri. Besides my five pieces there are a host of other works by some of my SIUE peeps and also St. Louis Weavers Guild and MoFA members.

Participating artists:

Elizabeth Adams Marks
Tracy Deniszczuk
Erin Vigneau Dimick

Suzy Farren
Alicia Pigg
Kay Rice
Nicole Ottwell
Pat Vivod
Deborah Waldman-Pontious

Weaving, felting, surface design, rust printing, shibori, embroidery, fashion and works on paper are on display in the gallery and large wide hallway outside of gallery. One more week for the show.

Some highlights:

L-R Suzy Farren and Erin Vigneau Dimick who have work in the show, Christine Holtz, curator, and  Laura Strand speaking with one of Christine's students at the reception.

Two fashion pieces on mannequins by Deborah Waldman-Pontious
That's my Feast of Saint Frackcis on the wall in the back.

Close up of Deborah's work

Felt sculpture by Tracy Deniszczuk

Work by Suzy Farren

Another of Tracy's felt pieces.  

Rust print on paper by Eizabeth Adams-Marks

Sitting in Judgement, shibori rust on silk
One of my newest pieces.  

Only today and tomorrow to see Material Revival!

Panoramic view of Material Revival at Edwardsville Arts Center

Through Oct 17, 2015

Artist and Curator talks on Sunday October 4, 3 to 5 pm

Artists in the show:  Erin Cork Woolfolk, Sarah Gillespie, Jo Stealey, Laura Strand,
Erin Vigneau Dimick and Pat Vivod, curator.

Gillespie, Strand, Vigneau Dimick and Vivod will be speaking on Sunday.


Edwardsville Arts Center
6165 Center Grove Road
Edwardsville, IL

Curating and Participating - show #4 of 5 this season

Our fabulous show card in living color -- at the printers now.  Can't wait till it gets here.  

It's huge - will be 6 x 11"

The card  showcases details of work in progress for each of the 6 artists who share a relationship of teacher, student or mentor.  We collaborated 4 years ago, and thought it would be great to come together again.  I believe we all thought it would be easier this time around--but not a chance.  We are more challenged than ever to use each other's materials in our own work and it definitely seems like all of us have more going on in our other lives.

 Since we started working on Material Revival, three of us have started or are starting new jobs, one of us had a baby (not me!!), a couple of us have multiple shows going on simultaneously, and two of us moved into new digs this summer.  Yikes!

Only a few more weeks left to pull everything together and install the show.  

Mark your calendars!

Material Revival - September 11 to October 16, 2015

Opening reception - Friday, September 18, 6-8 pm

Artist Talk - Sunday, October 4, 3-5 pm

  Erin Cork Woolfolk

Sarah Gillespie

Jo Stealey

Laura Strand

Erin Vigneau Dimick

Pat Vivod - curator

Visit our blog for lots more information on the exhibit.  

We have profiles on all the artists, information about Edwardsville Arts Center and more.  

This is the back of our card with info about Material Revival and our sponor and in the middle is a plug for the Edwardsville Art Fair, organized by Edwardsville Art Center-our gallery, and the City of Edwardsville.  Really super event that takes place the weekend after our reception.

Our wonderful sponsor - Happy Up, Inc.  a toy store like no other you have ever visited.  

They cater to kids of all ages!

Two locations:  Edwardsville, IL and Clayton, MO (St. Louis)

Please support them because they are supporting us. 

Visit their website here:  

Third Show @ Cedarhurst Center for the Arts

Patricia Vivod Dark Moon Rising ©2015
Shibori rust on silk dupioni

Cedarhurst Biennial opened on Saturday night, August 15.  Am thrilled to be included in this show and surrounded by the work of several acquaintances.

Check out the online catalog here.  Or better yet, go visit the show as there is nothing like seeing the work in person.  The catalog is on Facebook, but you do not have be a member to view the photos.  The entire show is documented.

Mitchell Art Museum / Cedarhurst Center for the Arts
2600 Richview Road, P.O. Box 923
Mt. Vernon, Illinois  62864
P: 618.242.1236 F: 618.242.9530

Exhibition opens to the general public
August 16 to October 4, 2015 

Regular Gallery Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.

Fiber Focus - 2nd of 5 shows.

Fiber Focus opened at Art Saint Louis today, August 8, 2015  downtown at 1223 Pine Street, St. Louis, MO.  I'm tickled to death to have a piece is this show.  Marci Rae McDade, editor of Surface Design Journal was the juror for this fabulous show which is part of Innovations in Textiles 10. Fiber Focus, which is the only juried show associated with Innovations, will remain on display through October 8.  A very special reception will be held on Saturday October 3 from 6-9 pm. Marci will be there to speak about the show, her selections and awards will be announced.  

Here is the whole piece for the Fiber Focus show.

Memento Mori © 2015 Patricia Vivod
Shibori Rust on Silk Dupioni
66" x 48"

And a detail.

Memento Mori DETAIL © 2015 Patricia Vivod
Shibori Rust on Silk Dupioni
66" x 48"

The BIG weekend for Innovations will also include several Friday Oct 2 gallery openings, a bus tour of select galleries participating in innovations on Saturday, Oct 3, AND a self guided tour called Fiber East where we hope lots of St. Louis folks will cross the river to join Illinoians to visit Sun Smith Foret's studio/gallery in Alton, Lillian Bates' By Design studio and boutique and finally Edwardsville Arts Center to see Material Revival that I am curating and participating in.  

Material Revival (September 7 to October 8 at Edwardsville Arts Center) is held in conjunction with Innovations in Textiles 10, a regional collaborative event celebrating fiber art. Visit craftalliance.org for more information.

My first show of the season, Transformed by Time at Stone Bridge Valley Art Center in Michael, IL opened last Saturday and will be up through August 31. You can read about that here. 

First of my 5 shows opened August 1

Patricia Vivod, scarf detail
shibori rust print

Transformed by Time

Artists: Patricia Vivod, Elizabeth Adams-Marks, Susan Bostwick 

Layered Materials ... Handmade paper, silk fibers, and ceramics ... Embossed, rusted, dyed, stitched, marked, fired ... Transformed by time.

August 1-30, 2015
Stone Bridge Valley Art Center
HC 61 Box 6. Michael, IL 62065
Opening Reception: Saturday August 1, 4-6pmArtist Talk at 4:30 pm

Live music by Abigail Knoche
For more information, contact 
Linda Basden: 618-576-9235



BLACK is the new Rust!

I was very busy last year with the SIUE show, and since ArtEast was canceled (perhaps to be reborn at some future date) that I made almost no scarves. So while I've been making lots of big work, I've also made a dazzling array of scarves using my new rusty bits acquired this spring on several antique jaunts. You'll see lots of black and deep color and some unique object printed as well as shibori rusted pieces. There are lots of them available at Stone Bridge such as the image above through August 31.

I'm also showing a bead embellished rust print dress. The official title is Snow Moon Dress.  I call it the wide dress because with arms outstretched it measures about 54 inches.  With arms down the fabric drapes beautifully longer at the sides. I cut the pattern from a Guatemalan dress I acquired years ago. The silk is actually from three separate rusted pieces of fabric and the pattern involves 8 pieces chosen for their coordinated color and pattern. Here's a shot of a beautifully tall model from a fashion show a few years ago orchestrated by my friend Lillian Bates, (I cropped out the  distractions of surrounding chaos at Jacoby Arts Center, hence the narrow crop).
  

 

Other work in the show includes a set of fiber collages that combined rust prints, composted, and solar dyed fabrics with felt and some commercially printed fabrics. I did lots of free motion embroidery on them and sometimes some needle felting. Here is one of those pieces.

Auri Sacra Fames © Patricia Vivod, 29" x 20"

Auri Sacra Fames, if my translation is correct is Latin for accursed hunger for gold. This and the other collages were all part of a series addressing the economic meltdown that seems to be repeating itself. Another of the pieces in this show is Organic Bailout which you can see on my Small Works page.  

Greek Tragedy © Patricia Vivod.  Shibori rust print, 53" x 57"

I also showed some large silk.  This new piece was finished especially for this show.  As soon as I upload some images I shot in the gallery I'll share them here.

Fingers in pies

The digits are messy.Got them stuck in many pies this summer. Everything seems to be happening at once.  The new blog for the Innovations in Textiles 10 show I'm curating is LIVE. Go visit Material Revival to learn all about the project. I've also put a tab at top of this blog.

Material Revival is a reunion of 5 of the 6 artists who participated in Collaboration Reaping and Sewing in 2011 at Jacoby Arts Center. I've brought Erin Cork Woolfolk, Joe Stealey, Laura Strand, and Erin Vigneau Dimick together again to continue our collaboration and enticed Sarah Gillespie to join us this year. We six are all friends and colleagues, but more importantly we share a teacher/student/mentor relationship. You can read all about the artists at the new blog.  You'll find a page for everyone via tabs at the top of the blog.

Erin Vigneau Dimick has lent us this image for promotion purposes for Innovations 10.  I'll be posting updates and some sneak peeks at the new work being created on the new blog as information becomes available.

Erin Vigneau Dimick - Mutatis - silk, paper, thread

The Procrastinator's Work

I'll be in 4 shows this year and I'm trying to get into a fifth with an entry that is due by end of day on Tuesday. In the last week I've been desperate to get some new scarves done in order to send images to the curator of a show at Stonebridge Valley Arts Center for the showcard. See my events page for details on all the shows.

I've been experimenting with some of the new rust objects I acquired. A few of them need to weather a bit. One of the designs I got appears to have been coated with something and it's a delicate wire piece so I can't take a wire brush to it. I need to be patient.

The piece featured on this scarf rusted beautifully first time out. It's a large art deco-ish piece of iron. Not sure what it's original purpose was.  It's got a flange at the bottom center with hole for screw.  It's a beautiful piece of perfectly flat iron otherwise. I was fortunate to get a lot of variation in the print and some wonderful bleeding of the tannins.

Here's the whole scarf.  The wispy tan design and the black design at the bottom edge below the point is from a first shibori rusting on a pipe that was a partial failure. I wanted to preserve the good parts so was careful with placement of the metal objects I used.

Agony and Ecstasy

Pardon the emotional post today--sometimes I just have to shout, laugh and cry all at once. Lately everytime I pass by the patio door in the kitchen I expect to see Darcy sitting on the step waiting to be let in. But on April 26, I found her laying in the grass by my iris bed. For 19 years my little gray furball was a constant companion and a stand in daughter as I have no children. She kept me company in the outdoor studio and would pounce on fabric ruffled by the wind. She often drove me crazy at the house because like most "children", if she was in, she wanted out and if she was out, she wanted in. If I had a dollar for every time that patio door opened I'd be rich indeed.  

I never really expected her to stick around for 19 years. Experts say that outdoor cats only have half the lifespan of indoor cats. But Darcy was both an innie and outie and could take care of herself even with one eye. She had surgery to remove an eye that was infected several years ago and adapted very well without binocular vision. I never expected her to go so suddenly though. She had no wounds on her body. She looked like she was asleep. Perhaps a heart attack? She is sorely missed and as I face another season in the studio getting ready for three upcoming shows this fall, I think I'm going to be mighty lonely out there. I will have to talk to myself instead.  

On top of the agony of losing Darcy, over the last several weeks my eczema, which affects both hands and my feet has flared up big time. It's an accurate predictor of stress. Lots of new work to make and collaboration challenges! This on top of finishing the catalog for the last show, which I promise, dear readers, will be done one of these days!!!!!! Currently I have bandages on 7 of my 10 digits. Makes typing a challenge too. I was in real agony the last couple days because all ten fingertips were so raw and/or cracked I could barely touch anything. When I have flareups, either I can't touch the silk because skin is so rough it will snag the fabric, or my fingertips are numb with thick skin, or I'm bleeding (sorry to gross you out, but painful cracks appear often). The bandages make everything awkward.  

There is some good news however in all of this mess. I was ecstatic a week ago when I found this beauty at an antique festival in Maeystown, IL.  

I have wanted a silk and velvet crazy quilt like this for decades. Perfect ones are rare and very expensive, particularly if they are heavily embroidered as this one is.  I decided to buy this one despite the deterioration of some of the silks because the embroidery and beauty of the whole was just too good to pass up for the price. It is gorgeous and I considered it a bargain.  

I've been collecting doilies and lace for years. Fabienne Rey has contributed to my collection twice now (see the previous post). I found more doilies on my shopping sprees this week and last and also found a remarkable sheer cotton and lace vintage wedding dress.  It has a few holes and some minor stains but who could pass up such a dress when the price was $25!!  

I am amazed at how sheer the fabric is! 

There is nothing like Rust Ecstasy, however. And I've decided that I'm willing to pay the price to own certain hard to find pieces. After all it's the same as art supplies to me! Unlike a tube of paint, however, my rust doesn't get used up. I found several unique pieces this week and last at Maeystown and others earlier this year. Thank my lucky stars I was in the right place at the right time on Wednesday for sure. I got my hands on two huge pieces. 

It is too cruel I know, but I won't show you the rusty bits I purchased because I haven't photographed anything yet. I think I'd also rather introduce them to you through the fabrics. So stay tuned to see what magic will happen.

Keeping me in stitches

A little while ago a package arrived at my house. The doorbell rang and I had to sign for a somewhat misshapen box covered in brown paper. I have been remiss in not thanking the sender and sharing all the treasures I found within. Fabienne Rey you are a peach! Frankly, I was struck speechless at first, so forgive my silence on this extraordinary gift. 

Actually there were several gifts, each one separately wrapped in brown tissue and tied with striped string accompanied by labels. On top were some cards and eco printed papers for Elizabeth Adams-Marks and I to share along with a gift of a precious blue pod for Elizabeth that she posted about on her FB page. Underneath those items were several more packages. The first one was filled with doilies.  

Ms. Rey gifted me some fabulous doilies some time ago and this box contained several new ones which I laid out on my glass topped coffee table to photograph (that's not a blue doily, it's a book on the shelf below). Below are some closeups. Perhaps I should take the time to pin them to my black board to get better pictures. 

Underneath the doilies was a package that contained two eco printed flags--one for Elizabeth and one for me. The flags are from Dharma. Once upon a time we toyed with the idea of displaying flags outside the gallery while the From the Inside Out exhibition was up, but couldn't figure out a way to secure them from theft. Mine is made of nylon fabric and it appears to have taken the eco printing well. I think I'll fly it by my outdoor studio this year.   

And then I opened the package at the bottom of the box with a tiny label that said "To Ms. Patsy who keeps me in stitches" and I couldn't see clearly for the tears. Speechless!

Really am alive and well and working on catalog

Chaos before the calm of the exhibition

Back in August 2014, the week of installation, the thought of producing a catalog for FTIO was still just something on the to do list.  It's now a reality, though not quite done yet.

I still have detail shots of two artists' works to plug into the layouts and some final writing to do, then it will be time to proofread.  Not that I haven't been doing proofing as I'm going, but mistakes pop up in the silliest of ways, so need some fresh eyes.  Not sure it will be possible to print out a draft copy.

Amazingly I have produced with Elizabeth's help a book that is approaching 100 pages!  We hope to make an announcement soon and get the book up on the Blurb website.  You'll be the first to know!  BTW, we hope to make the book available as print on demand and as an e-book. 

Stay tuned...