Category: Travel

Dinah Sargeant at College of the Canyons

I have some favorite artists out there. One of them is Dinah Sargeant, whose work I’d seen on and off in books (Quilt National, Quilt Visions, etc.) over the years. I think the first piece of hers that I saw in person was in SAQA’s traveling exhibit Creative Force, which included one of my pieces as well. I stared at hers for a long time…her work seems to ask for that level of attention. I had the pleasure of finally meeting her at the Visions opening last October.

I saw a notice of a solo show of hers up in the Los Angeles area, opening last weekend, and I thought about going up there. It was the first day of my Spring Break; plus we have friends up there that we rarely see. It’s a trek to LaLa Land, but it seemed like something that was worth doing, so we headed out Saturday morning.

The exhibit is at College of the Canyons Art Gallery in Santa Clarita, California, and runs through April 25. The exhibit may be viewed Mon-Thurs 11:00-3:00 or by appointment. I know the hours are limited, but it’s worth making a call to see it.

The exhibit was well worth it. I’ve never seen so many Sargeant pieces in one place, and I had never seen one of her dolls in person, only in pictures. Both fare much better in real life, and the gallery was well-lit and a big, open space that was well-suited to standing back and giving her work some space.

Mar 24 13 014 small

Her dolls invite careful examination…there are so many details and the hands are fascinating…

Mar 24 13 003 small

Her website has closeups of many of the dolls (I was not great at taking photos, again!). I did get a closeup of this one’s face and heart area…

Mar 24 13 001 small

The arrows shooting off the head and heart area, combined with the hand-stitching on the face (and the beautiful quilts behind!) made this doll one of my favorites (of course, I forgot to get its name).

This is 2-Be…a much darker doll, with a plastic belly ball full of liquid and fetus…

Mar 24 13 010 small

Behind her is Seer and Fledgling…here is a better picture of Fledgling…

Mar 24 13 004 small

But even that doesn’t do the piece justice. The color vibrated in the light-filled gallery. The face is enigmatic; the figures are vague shapes, but even then, it is clear that the figure holds a bird and a nest is behind. Someone is being helped out of the nest.

Echo was another favorite of mine, with the dogs in the bottom left and the ribbons spiraling throughout, seeming to encircle imaginary figures.

Mar 24 13 012 small

It’s interesting that I never saw the face in the bottom right until I was looking at the photo here. There is so much depth of color and imagery in her work that it takes a long stare to believe you’ve seen all of the piece. Like I said, these are so much more alive and intriguing in person…I am so glad I went up to see this exhibit.

This piece, Link, was installed under beautiful natural light, which highlighted the colors and depth of dye throughout.

Mar 24 13 008 small

There is a sense of escape in the birdlike creatures who fly up, while the other figures sit in their glass domes, connected only by the orange line.

This gives you a better idea of the space given to each piece…it’s amazing how clean white walls enhance the work.

Mar 24 13 002 small

Orbit is the doll on the left, and the quilt is Tentacle Woman.

Mar 24 13 006 small

The movement in Sargeant’s quilts is part of what draws me to them, along with the use of color and abstraction. You know there is a great deal of emotion in these quilts, as they try to communicate with you. They just keep pulling me back to try to make sense of the message.

I recommend the exhibit…it’s worth a trip if you are in the Los Angeles area. I will be enjoying another one of her pieces at Quilt National in May.

I’m Not Crazy at PIQF

Last weekend, I boarded a plane Friday night with my flu virus and some cold meds and kleenex and sore-throat lozenges, and I made my way northward to Santa Clara, California, where the Pacific International Quilt Festival was taking place. I had never been to one of the Mancuso shows before, but knew it had a mix of art and traditional quilts, much like IQF, but with more emphasis on the traditional.

I went to see my curated exhibit I’m Not Crazy, which opened back in August, but only travels to California once in the year. I was looking forward to seeing the pieces in person, since pictures don’t do fiber art justice, most of the time.

My camera card ate my photos (it may spit them out again…it has done that before), so Tanya Brown was nice enough to take some for me the next day…Here are the three sections of drape that we had for this show.

The first section with what I call The Face Wall, staring out at those who walk by…

And its facing wall…

Below, Sylvia M. Weir’s Insane Asylum and Karen S. Musgrave’s Glimpses of the Dark Angel.

The coloring on each of these two pieces is beautiful in real life.

Below, Mary B. Pal’s Stogie, Lois A. Sprague’s Moody Blues, and Kathleen McCabe’s What Next?

I love the range of expressions in those three pieces.

Below, Carol Howard Donati’s In My Head and Cynthia St. Charles’ All Alone and Blue.

Both pieces have hints of traditional piecing and patterning, but the details of quilting and pattern move beyond the traditional.

Below, a general view of the second section…

And the other wall of that section…

Below, Gerrie Congdon’s Alternate Universe and Salli McQuaid’s Bipolar 1: Loco.

They echo the movement in each other. Salli is our catalog designer and we are very appreciative of all her hard work on the project.

Below, Susan Lenz’s Held Together by a Thread, Judith A. Roderick’s Red Ravens, and Harue Konishi’s SYO#42.

.

Below, Nancy L. Bardach’s Running Through and Connie Rohman’s Woven (for Jack).

These two quilts seem to speak to each other. I hope we get a gallery exhibit for these at some point, so they can have more space around them, but they did play well together despite the limited space.

Below is one side of the third section…

And the other side…

Below, Jane B. Broaddus‘ Another Panic Attack and Lea McComas’ Recovery.

Both of these had lots of surface design and embellishment that worked well with their chosen images.

Below, Melinda Bula’s Good and Plenty and Karol Kusmaul’s Whee at the ALF.

This picture shows more of the texture that was visible on these two quilts than the pictures I had for their entries…so it was nice to see that in real life.

Below, Elizabeth Michellod-Dutheil’s Mal Etre and Judy Kirpich’s Circles No. 5.

The circles seem to lead the eye from the left piece to the right. It’s always interesting to see it hung in real life, instead of just laid out on paper. It was harder to visualize the works together in the space than I thought it would be…I would think it would be easier if I had them in the space and could choose the hanging order. That said, it is a beautiful show, thanks to all the hard work of the artists and Sue Reno’s decisions on which pieces to include. I’m looking forward to seeing the catalog, which is in process. I’ll announce its availability when I know it’s coming out. I appreciate SAQA for giving me the opportunity through the curator-in-training program to put this exhibit together; Kathleen McCabe, Martha Sielman, Eileen Doughty, Lisa Ellis, and Bill Reker for their help within SAQA with the process, the website, the shipping, and the entry program; Mary Claire Moyer and the Mancuso Brothers for helping SAQA and me, and giving us the exhibition space; and Sue Reno and the artists for working with me to create a great exhibit. The feedback we’ve gotten has been positive, which is a plus.

The show continues through May, following the Mancuso shows in Florida, Virginia, New Jersey, and Colorado, having opened in New Hampshire and already traveled to Pennsylvania and now California. Hopefully we can add some venues to the end of that, because I think the show deserves a gallery space somewhere.

Wowza

Well, if I were more with it, this would be a fantastic post of weekend trip pictures and stories…but I’m not with it. In fact, I’ve probably got some mutant version of the flu, which is manifesting itself as a nasty, rib-cracking cough and a hearty game of chills vs fever. Of course, it was also the weekend I’d planned a kamikaze Friday-night field trip to Santa Clara to the Pacific International Quilt Festival to see my curated exhibit I’m Not Crazy. Friday morning at school, I put my head down during my prep and dreamed of sleep…in a bed…it was many hours before I reached that. Saturday I saw the show (more on that later) and photographed the exhibit, then had to rest and revive with a dose of hot tea, pseudo epinephrine, and Tanya (each was beneficial in its own way). Lunch was awful, and then we headed for the airport. I’m sure having sinus congestion didn’t help (I think my right ear has finally popped), plus there’s something purely nauseating about being in the back seat of a taxi.

I officially collapsed last night. Eventually I managed some tea (the universal feel-better drink) and pizza, and then back to bed. Twenty-eight throat lozenges later, my ribs feel like I gave birth to an alien, my brain is mush, and I spent probably 5 hours in bed or collapsed on a couch or chair today.

Yes, I also went to a soccer game. I sat. I did not yell. Once or twice, I put my head down. (We had dueling soccer games. I’m sure if there had been only one, I could have stayed in bed. As it was, I almost stayed in the car, but the sweltering heat made that nigh impossible.)

Oh yeah, and my camera card ate a bunch of pictures in the middle of the show and I didn’t have the energy to go back and rephotograph. The last time it did that, it finally coughed up the eaten photographs more than 6 weeks later, so maybe they will show up for Christmas. You just never know.

What I do know is that things are rarely easy…and I’m truly glad I got to see the show in real life and that I took the time to go up there, despite all the other crap. I also know that I’m going to bed early tonight and hopefully will feel more like a human tomorrow…if not, there’s always Urgent Care.