I've been donating one or two pieces each year to the SIUE Friends of Art Auction for the last ten years beginning when I entered grad school. Three years ago I was invited to join the board of directors for FOA which organizes the auction. Since 1980 proceeds from art donations have funded the visiting artist program bringing scores of local, national and international artists to the campus in every area of art. The money has also gone to fund an art scholarship, prize money for undergrad and grad shows, a high school art competition and the auction competition, the Lovejoy Library fund, conferences, travel stipends, student art organizations, the Mexica project, and ARTEAST.
Grad school was a fantastic experience for me, coming after 25 years of teaching art at the high school level. The experience was greatly enhanced by the incredible number of visiting artists I got to meet so I will gladly donate to support the cause.
I'm donating the piece pictured above. I've also posted the image under the event calendar for the auction at the right. The piece is called Sunfish (c 2008) It measures 77" long by 45" wide. Hanging brackets allow the silk to float away from the wall about 4". The blue comes from elderberries, the other colors and design were made with the rust process.
BTW, students, alumni and friends of SIUE Art & Design and artists in the community are encouraged to donate. Original art donations are juried the day of the auction. Students can compete for 5 prizes totaling $1250 and non-students have a chance to win a $200 prize!
The entire auction catalog will be online sometime after March 28 at www.siueFriendsOfArt.com. I'll post the updated link when it is up and running for 2010. You can also view the donations at the 6 PM preview the night of the auction. The live auction will start at 7 PM.
I spent most of the day Monday at the Department of Art & Design at SIUE making visits to several graduate and upper level classes. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Art, I volunteered (along with two of my colleagues) to make presentations on the upcoming art auction that provides the funding for the visiting artist program plus many other projects for art at SIUE. The goal: to convince students it is in their best interests to donate art for the auction. Hope they took the info to heart.
The real treat came at the end of the day when I returned to the fibers studio to visit with my professor and friend Laura Strand and fellow student, teacher and book artist Elizabeth Adams Marks who is working on her masters in art ed now. Just spending a few minutes with these two gets my juices flowing. Elizabeth and I used to exhibit side by side at ARTEAST. I first met her when she was working on her BFA as I was working towards my MFA. Laura was instrumental in turning me from traditional printmaker to textile artist.
Oh my, I was so sleepy when I got home, I couldn't keep my eyes open to watch the medal performances for Olympic Ice Dancing. Dang! The last pair were in the kiss and cry booth when I woke up. So I came downstairs to check email and discovered some really great news. The SDA website has listed my blog on the Member Website list. Woo Hoo!!
Future plans for this blog include creating some links to my favorite sites and fellow artists, especially the group I came to know and admire through grad school. And, I promise the next post will finally debut pics of my outdoor studio. The pictures were taken last spring and summer so they should provide a nice contrast to the cold, gray days we've been experiencing here in the midwest.
