SAQA Mentorship Webinar

Deborah Borschert, SAQA Education Committee member is thrilled to announce the first Mentorship Webinar for 2015. 

Please join us for “Inventory, Productivity and Organization!” 

SAQA members Barb McKie, Susie Monday and Jane Davila will share techniques they use to track inventory of their artwork, maximize productivity and stay organized as active, professional artists. 

Whether you use a Mac, a PC, an iPad or pen and paper, you’ll find some nuggets of inspiration for new ways to stay organized and productive.

SAQA Mentorship Webinar: Inventory, Productivity and Organization!

Tuesday, March 31 at 12 noon ET

Please click the following link to register. 

Registration is limited, but all SAQA members will have access to the full audio and video recording of the webinar on the SAQA website within a few days after the event.

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2699006742228219906

SAQA Atlantic Retreat 2015 - It's all about the light

It's all about Light

Walt Malone is a professional full-time photographer who believes completely in

the practice of continuous learning. “ There is no point in time during the course of our

lives when we know everything” “Photography is no different”. He also believes that in

order to better the industry and maintain an integrity the sharing of knowledge is

imperative. Photography is evolving and with the advantage of digital over the past two

decades photographer have to be held to a higher standard of ability.

Walt promotes that light has been the source of all great photography

and how it is used makes a great photograph. “While Photoshop and other post

production programs will certainly enhance the image we have to start with an image

using a proper selection of light”.

We have all heard the expression to “Show or see something in its best light”.

Normally this is a metaphor which suggests that things both animated and inanimate

are best seen when the viewer sees with a positive attitude. However, if we take the

expression literally and apply it to a photography we are reminded that the difference

between good photography and bad photography has nothing to do with the value of the

camera or what can be “Fixed” in Photoshop.

During the upcoming seminar my hope is raise the level of understanding where

photos are concerned and how photography can easily be created in order to best show

an artisans work in its best light.

Walt Malone, MPA, SPA, F/MPPA, F/SWPP

Hope and Survival Update - Laurie Swim, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

These photos are from the event at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic last December 6th on the 97th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. 

All of the pages to be beaded have gone out and many have been returned beaded and ready to be bound. I hope to have the scroll completed for this years' anniversary and on display at the MMA. 

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this wonderful project that keeps on giving me inspiration for the work I am creating for the 100th anniversary in 2017.

Laurie

SAQA Atlantic Retreat 2015 Program

 The Program

Focus on Success SAQA-Atlantic Canada April 10-12 , 2015

At this yearʼs retreat we will build on the activities at the November 2013 retreat. Our theme is related to professional development. That means many things to many people but some tools and skills are universally useful. Those will be the focus of our sessions.

Good pictures of our work are important, whether we are sharing them with our families, entering a show or printing cards for sale. For that reason, we have engaged a professional photographer who will provide some theoretical and practical information in a morning lecture. He will remain with us and oversee a hands-on session later in the day. You will have the opportunity to use your own camera and provided lights to photograph an art quilt and will learn the best set-up for use at home.

Websites and blogs, whether they are yours or other peopleʼs, are vital for distribution of information and learning. We will offer a session on the choices you need to make to create your own website or blog. Screenshots will show you the actual steps you need to take if you want to share your work with the world.

As a member of SAQA, there are many opportunities for learning and exposure. I will present a session intended to better familiarize you with the SAQA website and the organizationʼs programs which you can leverage to meet your goals.

SAQA members in our region have experienced success in various ways, whether it is entering shows, enhancing their on-line profile or selling in shops and galleries. Some of them will tell their stories as part of a panel discussion. You will have an opportunity to ʻpick their brainsʼ about everything from how to price your work to what it takes to create a website.

There will, of course, be opportunities to share your work with others. We have designed a new format for the ʻshow and tellʼ portion of the retreat which will give you more opportunities to really engage with the individual artists and their work. In addition, Kate Madeloso is planning a few other fun activities. There will still be lots of time to chat with and learn from the other people who attend the retreat.

Chris

Please note: For further information regarding cost and registration, please click on the Retreat 2015 tab on the top bar. 

SAQA Atlantic 2015 Retreat

Introducing Walt Malone, our feature workshop photographer for the 2015 Retreat

As program coordinator with Chris Nielsen for the SAQA Atlantic 2015 retreat I started contacting photographers in the Saint John area to offer us a workshop on how to get the best shots of our fabric art. When I chatted with Walt Malone on the phone there was an immediate connection. I told him what we had in mind and his enthusiasm came through with sparks of energy. Yes, this is the person we need. 

I mentioned that we would like to simulate a home set up using minimal props and lighting to photograph art quilts, something with lots of texture and various fabrics. When he said all you need is a pillow, a timer on your camera, waxed paper and a clothespeg - well, he had me at the word pillow.

Exerpt from his website http://www.timecapsulephoto.com/

"Walt Malone is currently the most nationally accredited photographer in Canada. These have been acquired in thirty separate disciplines. Accreditations are awards acquired when a panel of national judges reviews a submission of ten above average quality images within one photographic discipline. He also holds both his Craftsmanshop and Masters in photographic arts."

Walt will be offering a morning introduction and instruction class with handouts. In the afternoon there will be photography setups for participants to shoot one of their own art quilts with Walt's assistance. Participants must bring their own cameras.

The current trend for calls for entries into shows nationally and internationally is the acceptance of quality photos sent via email or Dropbox. All of you who have websites and blogs know how important it is to have the best quality photos to upload. This will be an EPDWE - educational professional development workshop extraordinaire. Don't miss this great opportunity! See you April 10th to 12th in Saint John, NB.

threadly yours,

Kate Madeloso

Please note! Walt has requested that participants bring their camera manuals with them to the workshop. As well, point and shoot cameras are perfectly acceptable.

Current Work - Susan Tilsley Manley, Westville, Nova Scotia

Universe Story

I got a call from a man seeking a fibre piece. He wasn't really sure what to call it (and still refers to the art quilt I eventually made as a runner, a tapestry and an embroidery piece). He knew however what he wanted in it.

Everything.

Literally, everything.

This was to be a creation piece. Life, the universe and everything. With sheep.

And he knew where it was to be displayed, on a wooden table, in front of one of the oldest stained glass windows in the world, in a stone abbey in the English countryside.

So, that's were we began. From the size of table came the size of the piece. He wanted it to not be directional as it would be viewed from all sides. He wanted landscape, and not landscape. Earth, air, water, space, the cosmos, creation, evidence of humans but not portraiture, and sheep.

So we sat down with a few art quilt magazines and paper and pens and watercolours and we worked out a design, a time line and a price.

The close ups show some of the solutions I had to devise; I printed a human hand print on the rock, and I had to learn how to stitch the french knots for the sheep (Thanks Kate).

It all came together eventually and did make the trip to England and it is loved in its new home.

The photo of the piece in Stoneleigh Abbey The Undercroft, England is by Robert Mitchell.

All others are mine.

Susan Tilsley Manley
www.susantm.com

Member Profile - LaVerne McCallum Deakin, Fredericton, New Brunswick

Growing up in Nova Scotia, I was always surrounded by needlework, something my Mother continues to this day. My maternal grandmother’s embroidery was so fine it could pass for work produced by today’s embroidery machines. It was under the tutelage of my paternal grandmother that I made my first quilt top, at age nine. 

Over the years, I continued to sew but didn’t get back to quilting until I joined the Fredericton Quilters’ Guild in 1982. Some years later, I started experimenting with art quilting and, after retiring in 2006, I realized . . . this is where my heart is! The urge to stroke and fondle textiles is never resisted and, like an old crow, I like bright shiny objects. My experiments with mixed media are a lot of fun and usually result in small pieces. 

"All That Glitters"

Following a pattern or design, even my own, is virtually impossible for me but, after designing a one-block quilt, I persevered and completed “Oceanscape” as a gift for my granddaughter, Rian. 

"Oceanscape"

Although I often do sketches of possible projects and sometimes even draw full-size diagrams which usually change during construction, most of my pieces just evolve as I work.

"Deco blues"