I’m Not Crazy Update and Prospectus

The prospectus is done and posted on the SAQA website, so I can put it here too. You do have to be a SAQA member to enter. I’ve been a SAQA member for a few years this time around (I was a member, then I was very poor and newly divorced, so I wasn’t a member, and now I’m a member again). The website for SAQA is here. Membership is not particularly cheap at $60/year, but there are lots of opportunities for shows, if you’re interested in that. I have a local group that meets regularly too, there’s a quarterly journal, some opportunities to be published, a Yahoo list, and lots of online information via SAQA-U (a wiki). Two of the major exhibitions I’m in at the moment, Sightlines and Creative Force, are both SAQA exhibits. Their focus is the art quilt, which is why I joined in the first place. As a Professional Artist Member (PAM), I have opportunities to be published in the annual Portfolio and to be involved in the program that is allowing this exhibit to take place, the Curator-in-Training program. So for me, it’s been good.

(Anger Management)

My goal in doing this program is to get the experience I need to put on shows by myself, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. The juror for this exhibit is Sue Reno, an award-winning fiber artist who lives and works in Lancaster County, PA. Her work focuses on the natural world and historic architectural themes. She exhibits widely in art, fine craft, and quilt venues, and her work has been selected for the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program. She has been a SAQA Professional Artist Member since 2009. Sue has served as a juror for Sacred Threads in 2009 and 2011, and for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in 2011. Sue and I have been reading each other’s blogs and seeing each other’s art for years, and I know she will choose a wonderful show…but for her to do that, y’all need to enter.

(Blue Moon)

Theme: Mental illness carries with it a stigma; many of us have experience with disorders, temporary or permanent, curable or not, that in the past and in some cultures even today would be labeled as crazy. That stigma can make it difficult to admit its effect on our loved ones or ourselves. Disorders as common as anxiety or depression, or less common, like schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder, can have a devastating effect on families and friends, and on ourselves. Negativity towards those who have these disorders often causes many people to keep the diagnosis hidden from friends and family.

What does “crazy” look like?
What does it feel like?
How does the world look through the eyes of someone experiencing a panic attack or depression or other mental disorder?
How does loving or caring for someone with a mental disorder look and feel?

We’re looking for work that covers these experiences: from the eyes of the caregiver, the friend, the family member, and, of course, those who have experienced any of these disorders themselves. Your work can reflect the disorder or the chaos it holds on our lives, it can be humorous, it can be sad, it can be crazy or incredibly calm.

(tradition fragment violate)

I use my art to work through stuff…sometimes it’s worldwide stuff, like tsunamis, homelessness, and climate change, but more often it’s personal stuff, like divorce, health issues, stress, and raising kids. Some people become depressed after childbirth or a divorce; some people carry genetic markers for a disease and deal with it their entire lives, not because of some single event that triggers a reaction, but because their genes change the way their brains work. Whether we experience the disease ourselves or through caring for a family member or a friend, it has an effect on us, one that we can express through our art.

The exhibit already has multiple venues, thanks to the Mancuso shows. Starting with:

World Quilt Show – New England X, August 16-19, 2012, Radisson Center of New Hampshire, Manchester, NH
Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XIX, September 13-16, 2012,Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, Philadelphia Area, PA
Pacific International Quilt Festival XXI, October 11-14, 2012,Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA
World Quilt Show – Florida IV, November 8-10, 2012, Palm Beach County Convention Ctr, West Palm Beach, FL
Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival XIX, February 21-24, 2013, Hampton Roads Convention Center, Hampton, VA
The Quilt Fest of New Jersey IX, Feb 28-March 3, 2013, Garden State Exhibit Center, Somerset, NJ
Denver National Quilt Festival VIII, May 2-5, 2013, Denver Merchandise Mart, Denver, CO

There is a possibility that there will be additional venues.

Eligibility and Guidelines:

• Entry is by digital images only (directions on the website…you do need to be a SAQA member to access this page).

• You may submit up to 3 entries.

• Quilts must be created after 2007 and not shown in a previous SAQA exhibition.

• Entries must be 20″ – 48″ width, and 65″ maximum in length

• 3-D, free-standing works will NOT be accepted.

• Artwork must meet the SAQA definition of an art quilt: a contemporary artwork exploring and expressing aesthetic concerns common to the whole range of visual arts: painting, printmaking, photography, graphic design, assemblage and sculpture, which retains, through materials or technique, a clear relationship to the folk art quilt from which it descends.

• Artists are responsible for shipping and insurance to the SAQA Shipping Center in Ohio and for return shipping to their homes from the last venue. SAQA will arrange to insure the artwork during the exhibitions and while it travels.

• Artwork MAY be for sale. SAQA will charge a 25% commission on all sales; exhibiting venues may also charge a commission, but total commission will never exceed 50%.

• Work MUST be available to travel for up to a year. Travel details to follow.

Calendar:

January 1, 2012 Call for entry

May 1, 2012 Online entry open

May 30, 2012 Online Entry Deadline at 11:59 pm EST

June 1-20, 2012 Selection Process

June 27, 2012 Notification of acceptance (All notifications will be forwarded via email)

July 18, 2012 Artwork to be RECEIVED in Ohio

August 1, 2012 Quilts shipped to Manchester, NH

August 16, 2012 Exhibit opening

May 5, 2013 Exhibit closing

June 15, 2013 Return of work to Artists unless more venues are scheduled.

I’m really excited about this exhibit and hope there are lots of entries. If you have questions, you can contact me through the contact page here or email me directly using the SAQA link for the Call for Entries.

Protected: It Took Me Two Days to Figure out the Smoke

Protected: Ironing Water, Part 2

Protected: Three-Day Whirlwind

Winner!

Boychild drew for the winner of Masters: Art Quilts, Volume 2 this morning…I’ve sent an email to Linda M. and am waiting for her address to mail it off. Thanks to all who visited and commented…it’s always nice to hear from humans.

Protected: What’s Going On?

Protected: Sightlines Is in Alexandria, Louisiana

Last 31 Hours of Giveaway…

because I can’t be trusted to remember to post tomorrow about it! No really! I haven’t slept in days!

OK, so if you want the Masters: Art Quilts, Volume 2 that I offered up back here on this review post, then you need to go to that post and say YES! Pick ME! Because I deserve it!

Or you can just say you’re interested…whatever works for you. I’m having a hard time finding that much energy for that level of excitement, mostly because I’ve spent hours ironing turtles together. More about that later. Honestly, if you forget to click on the link and put your comment here, it’s not like I’m some crazy rules-hound who will refuse to put you in the drawing. And yes, Lark Books sent me this book for free, but I had already bought it, so it’s not like I’m getting anything for this, because I don’t ever really give stuff away (sorry, I’m just lame that way…plus I am a packrat and think I will need EVERYTHING when the end comes, which is why I keep watching Hoarders to scare myself into cleaning and throwing away stuff).

That was just TMI. Want the book? Tell me.

Not Vacation

I am currently sitting (yay sitting!) in the fitting area at H&M in San Francisco, waiting for the girlchild to finish trying stuff on. Part of the agreement when I planned this trip meant I knew I would have to give the girlchild places where she feels happy. Unfortunately, at this point in her development, we rejoice in her cooking talent, but are tortured by her love of shopping.

Twenty-four hours later, I’m in a different kind of waiting room, the kind that eventually gets me on a plane home. I’ve weathered my driver getting seriously nauseous in the Golden Gate Bridge, enough that he warned me to grab the wheel at one point…Bridge Security was ever so nice and we eventually got back in the car and drove (nay, crept) through San Francisco on our way to a dinner party we never got to (food poisoning!)…back to Sunnyvale in time to drop sick person into a bed and feed the increasingly starving teens (I gave them chocolate, which seemed to help). The girlchild had one full-on hurricane tantrum at Stanford, but was fine at Berkeley because she finally got dim sum (this is unfortunately where our driver got whatever beast that is still troubling his belly). She’s had a few thunderstorms since, but was mollified by chocolate.

The purpose of this trip? To get both kids thinking about college types and environments, to thus winnow down the possibilities to a manageable chunk for travel purposes. I think we were successful with that. Boychild doesn’t like big city environments…but is beginning to understand the concept of backup schools. He was very impressed by the wildlife, especially at UC Santa Cruz…

We went to UCSC for the environment, thinking the girlchild might appreciate it…she was impressed by the animals and trees, but not the art studios (I chose UCI over Santa Cruz because they had working artists teaching the classes…and in retrospect, the program was the best possible for me without sending me to an art-only school). I don’t know if art is where she’ll end up…but I do suspect boychild’s interest in physics and math are not her first choices. Boychild likes big libraries, which I find ironic, considering how much reading he does electronically. I made sure he saw every library.

Next trip? I think Boston. If I can stand it. I might leave everyone else home and report back via podcast.

Tomorrow? Mine. Making art.

Sorry for the lousy photos…I am in fact posting this from my phone…while plugged in to a chair in the San Jose Airport. My luggage is not unattended and I have caffeine. Girlchild just purchased a book on her Kindle, using a Christmas gift card, boychild is reading his Nook, and our fearless driver is sleeping off the effects of food poisoning. It could be worse.