Residual Impact at the Jacoby Arts Center

RESIDUAL IMPACT

October 12-December 23, 2017

Artist Reception on October 20, 5 to 7 pm

I am honored to have been invited to participate in this exhibit with renowned potter Arthur Towata and Eastern Illinois University professor and sculptor Ann Coddington at the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, Illinois.  

Residual impact explores our interconnectedness to the environment, the imprint we leave in nature and somatic memory. It hopefully inspires reflection and encourages the protection of our natural resources.  

I have eight large pieces in this show which are beautifully balanced by remarkable knotted and netted sculptures by Ann Coddington and the incredible textures and shapes of Art Towata's pottery and paintings. The show is gorgeous and thanks to curators Sun Smith-Foret, Penny Schmidt and Jane Sauer, who brought us together, it is the first time in many years that I've been given the opportunity to "speak" to my environmental concerns within a show devoted to same.   I've included my statement below.

A peek at Dakota, shibori rusted silk, 92"x48" in the background through
Ann Coddington's netted piece (title ?) in foreground.

Broader view rear of gallery with a sample of all the artists' work in view.

As a printmaker over 15 years ago, I experimented with fabric to lift prints from rusty farm tools. It was love at first sight! I embraced organic printing, as I called it, because it inspired spontaneity and informed my ideas about process and content. Treating fabric as a vast landscape, I adapted arashi shibori techniques to wrapping rusted pipes, tucking leaves into folds to create additional resists. I prefer to work with silk because it is beautiful and deceptively fragile, but capable (to a point) of surviving the assault of rust printing. Rust is a gorgeous medium, offering an array of colors and exciting, unpredictable patterns when tempered by tea and tannins that defuse the corrosive power of the rust resulting in permanent and stable marks on the fabric. This unsettling recipe of rust and silk goes beyond mere design, however. It is a fitting metaphor for both the fantastic beauty of our earth and the assault on the environment that we are perpetrating to our own detriment. 

On Saturday, October 21, starting at 2 pm Ann Coddington and I will be participating in a gallery talk with demos that I hope will bring that statement to life for those in attendance.  If you click on the showcard above with text, you can read a brief statement of Ann's.  

Arthur Towata has been making pottery for many decades.  His work is the embodiment of his experience defined by the environment that surrounded his forced internment as a child during WWII at Manzanar.  On Friday evening, Oct 20, beginning 7:30, after the main gallery artist reception, there is a special event Hidden Histories with films and discussion on the Japanese internment camps where Arthur can share his very personal experiences.  

More photos of the exhibit can be found at the exhibit page for JAC here. 

I was also invited to populate the gift shop at Jacoby with a number of new scarves and wraps that I've been making such as this very large sheer silk wrap in which I incorporated elderberries.

52"x78" silk wrap with elderberries

The Jacoby Arts Center is located at 627 East Broadway, Alton, Illinois 62002.

Please visit the website for more information about Residual Impact and the concurrent exhibits in the east gallery as well as other events associated with the shows.  

Composite

You know the trouble with memory is that sometimes you misplace it. Forgive me if I've posted something similar before. I've been gathering some images tonight and thought I'd finish a composite of scarf details that I started some time ago and that shows the wide variety of marks that can be made with shibori rusting. You may recognize some of the designs or colors from past posts. The blues were created with elderberries. One blue piece in the center also has some yellow created by turmeric. The rest is just the the usual rust and tea with whatever tannin I had handy.

New Scarves for ARTEAST

Haven't posted in a while because I've been working to get ready for ARTEAST which takes place next weekend--October 16/17.  Lots of scarves-- and some new wall pieces--not quite so big as I made for the Kaskaskia show.  These are easily "house" sized.  Those haven't been photographed yet, but here are some details of the new scarves hot off the scanner.

A little turmeric goes a long way--bright bright yellow here.  I'm trying to figure out a different way of applying it with more control.

This scarf has a lovely purplish cast to it with pinkish gold areas.

I bought a few crepe scarves to try and above is one of them.  The others are all silk satin.

Elderberries have created a spectacular blue, but this piece has not been washed yet.  Not quite sure how much will be retained.  I've been waiting as long as possible before the event.
This is a very large shawl at 22"x90"

It always amazes me when I unwrap the silk to discover what design has been made.  This one was particularly puzzling to me with the oval shapes appearing regularly through the length of the scarf.