I know. I’ve taken a long time to post this. I like putting links to artists, so that takes time, but the closing exhibition is next Saturday (February 9) and the exhibit itself closes February 17, so I’d better do it soon or it makes no sense at all.

I loved the Oceanside Museum of Art space for showing Quilt Visions…it’s huge and has high ceilings and big open spaces (although it seems pretty crowded on opening night no matter what). I was concerned the Visions Art Museum space would be too small, too crowded. I think they helped a bit by reducing the size of pieces, but then again, you miss out on the giant VALYA felted face, the Velda Newman flowers, or Wendeanne Ke’aka Stitt’s Day of the Dead piece when you limit the size. So that’s a loss…that said, the show had interesting work, as always. The catalog is good for statements and all that. I have them going back 10 or 12 years, I think.

So they let the artists wander around and take pictures. I wasn’t very scientific about it, because I figured I had the catalog for good pictures of the pieces…I just wanted a general idea of the layout and the space.

This picture is the entrance to the back gallery (which is now the VALYA gallery). You can see from the left the tip of Dinah Sargeant’s piece, Velda Newman’s White Pelicans, which is beautiful in color and stitching, and Marilyn Henrion’s Soft City: Broadway Windows, which is digitally manipulated photography. I’m not usually a fan of that, but I like what’s she’s done here. In the back room, there is an image of most of Tiziana Tateo’s Unstable Balance and Barbara Lange’s Monochrom V-Quest, which has fluorescent thread that glows in the dark…interesting when you realize insects can see light waves that humans can’t.

This is inside the back gallery, with my piece Sediment on the left, then Patricia A. Washburn’s piece Neon Reflections on a NYC Skyscraper, Wen Redmond’s First Light, and on the other wall, Lori Lupe Pelish’s Hey! OK OK piece, which is very cool and much more beautiful in person than in pictures.

Here’s a closeup of Pelish’s piece(s), which still doesn’t do them justice. She performs miracles with fabric patterns.

This is another view of that back gallery, with Pelish’s piece on the left, then Leesa Zarinelli Gawlik’s Wandering Through next to Tateo’s piece. Interesting that the two Italians were side by side. Notice also all the standing fans…this space is not air-conditioned, and with lots of people, it’s HOT.

This is the other corner, with Tateo and Lange’s pieces, and Valarie Robinson’s Homage to Federation, using the shape of pioneer dresses, then drawing and writing on the shapes with the sewing machine. It would have been nice with a colored wall behind it.

The last corner with Robinson’s dresses, my piece, and Washburn and Redmond’s pieces.

This is the small space right next to the back gallery (I really did photograph back to front). On the left is Joan C. Sowada’s All the World’s a Stage, a small piece, and Kathy Weaver’s Mimetic Concerns. I loved her robots and I still love her scientific pieces. They have a great movement and color in them. To the right is a great graffiti piece by Judith Plotner, Urban Vibrations. I used to take pictures of urban graffiti, and this piece reminds me of what attracted me to those places.

To the right of the Plotner piece is Carol Coohey‘s My Breath Coming out of Your Chest and Kerby C. Smith‘s Stone Stretch: Reflection, which was intriguing. To the right is one of my favorite artists, Dinah Sargeant, with her piece Leaping into Watersky. I got to meet Dinah finally and that was very cool…I love all her work.

Facing this gallery is Susan Cavanaugh‘s Ori-Kume #30, which has great threads running through and floating off the piece. To the right is Robert S. Leathers‘ Kings Canyon.

Looking further along that wall, you can see the right side of the Leathers’ piece; Nancy L. Cordry‘s Interjections; Lisa Kijak‘s complex The Stars Motel, Chicago; Katie A. Pasquini Masopust’s Pizzicato; and more (better pictures to follow).

This is the second gallery back from the entrance, with Nancy M. Condon‘s Kaleidoscope on the left wall, then Deborah M. Franzini‘s Vortex, and Ree Nancarrow‘s Black Spruce One (much better in closeup, check out the catalog).

Another view of Franzini and Nancarrow’s pieces, then Sandra Poteet‘s In the Wind, VALYA‘s Engrams.59, which was unfortunately cut off in the catalog; and Gail J. Baar‘s Lost & Found: Blocked.

On the wall closest to me is Kathleen Kastles‘ Name That Tune, a hand-painted piece. On the furthest wall is Linda Colsh‘s Twilight. I’ve always loved her work and it was a joy to meet her in person as well, for the first time. To the right of Colsh is Charlotte Ziebarth‘s Deep Pool, Bright Water, and Denise Oyama Miller‘s great tree piece, Sentinels.

This is a closer picture of Ziebarth and Oyama Miller’s pieces, plus Betty Busby‘s Growth Factor, stunning in person and in the book with details of the cell parts. It was nice to meet Betty as well…it’s fun to hear people’s voices and see them interacting, so the picture you have of them with their work makes more sense.

This is near the entrance, with Mary T. Buchanan‘s Isolation Gown on the left, then a view of the gallery behind, and Brooke Atherton’s beautiful Quilt Archaeology. California Fibers, the group I joined last year, awarded her with the Beyond the Boundaries award (and cash!). It’s a truly wonderful piece and very deserving of the award.

This is another view of Atherton’s piece, plus Viviana Lombrozo‘s Codex (very small…better in the catalog!), with Kijak and Pasquini-Masopust’s pieces on the other wall.

Pasquini-Masopust’s piece with Mary Pal‘s intriguing cheesecloth piece Solace, which was entered into I’m Not Crazy. I’m kind of glad it didn’t get in, because it gave her the opportunity to get it into Visions instead, and then I got to meet her. Terri Shinn‘s 3-D book piece Time Crumbles Things is on the pedestal next to Colsh’s piece.

This is another view of Pal, Shinn, Colsh, Ziebarth, and Oyama Miller’s pieces. The sound system was set up for something that day.

This is a closeup of the wall with Poteet, VALYA, and Baar’s pieces.

In the front, across from the desk, there is a wall with Won Ju Seo‘s A Korean Woman in Modern Times #1, which had the tiniest silk-thread stitches on it.

I know I missed at least one of the quilts in my photos, and like I said, the catalog does a much better job. I tried to find a reasonable link for all the artists, so if you were missed out and have a website, let me know and I’ll add it.

Here’s one of the group pictures (everyone dresses better than I do).

These came off someone’s phone…I never got a copy of a decent picture. I’m sure it exists somewhere. This is Sunday morning after the artist’s breakfast and talks.

This is the hallway outside, where we were eating breakfast and then signing catalogs.

Another photo of that. I came on Sunday in jeans and a T-shirt, knowing I was going directly to a soccer game after.

I have an insider at VAM who sent me photos of the catalog photographers shooting my quilt (sideways).

I’m so glad I don’t have to do this any more.

Finding a good photographer is the best thing I did for my artworld experience.

They worked hard. Interesting to see the computer analyze it as well.

Yup. Hair. Always.

Nice and flat.

Not sure what she was pointing out (a mistake? I do have them).

It’s nice to have work in professionally produced catalogs.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen the show yet, you should, because you don’t have much time left. You should buy the catalog, because it has great pictures and statements from the artists. It was a cool experience being one of the artists this year, instead of just the audience. Hopefully that will happen again.