Creativity Knows No Bounds

12 seniors, 1 choreographer, a crazy idea: Create a dance about our lives. The result: The Company of Angels and Dancing in the Third Act. 

800 years of life experience on stage. 

SAQA Atlantic member Grace Butland, from Annapolis Royal NS, is one of the twelve dancers in Dancing in the Third Act. This delightful production premiered in Annapolis Royal and wowed dance festival audiences in Montreal and Moncton. Grace and the Company of Angels will bring the performance to Halifax on Saturday, October 24th. 

We asked Grace to tell us about her experience. "Creativity in one area of my life begets creativity in other areas, and the dance project has been wonderful for that. It has also made me more confident and more willing to test my limits. It's been fascinating to work with a professional choreographer and see how dances are "made". It's a whole different creative process, but many of the same principles apply to creating art quilts or wearable art.”

Grace Butland is proud to be one of the twelve dancers. “If you'd told me three years ago that, at the age of 70, I would be dancing on stage in Halifax or Montreal, I would have laughed. But here I am, doing just that!”

Watch for our own Grace Butland, blue dress, centre stage in this Dancing in the Third Act promo video. 

One night only! Spatz Theatre, Halifax. October 24th, 8pm. 
Tickets available online.

Last Call to a Fabulous Fall Show!

This is the last weekend to catch the fall colours and the inspiring textile art at The Inverness Centre for the Arts in Inverness, Cape Breton. If you haven’t seen the SAQA Atlantic exhibit, Structures, this would be a wonderful time to see it, along with three concurrent textile exhibits.

In the main gallery, surrounded by the Structures quilts, is Inside Me, a large dimensional fibre installation by Maria Doering, a German artist currently living in Dartmouth, NS.

Inside Me, installation by Maria Doering

Penny Berens, whose work graces the top of this blog page, is a textile artist living in Granville Ferry, NS. Her solo show, Scratching the Surface, is a wonderful collection of her expressive hand-stitched artwork. 

Penny Berens' textile journal, Scratchings

Also on display is Structures Expanded, a mixed show that provides viewers with a glimpse into the process of making textile art. It includes finished work, free standing pieces in progress, design drawings and sampling, all provided by the artists involved in the Structures exhibit.

Feather Fantasy by Regina Marzlin, 2015

The Inverness Centre for the Arts will be open from 12 until 4pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Hope you can make it!

Another Award-Winner!

Heather Loney's challenge piece, Sunset, was awarded First Prize by viewers of last week's annual IWK - Mayflower Quilt Guild Fair. The challenge was to create a quilted item of a set size, using four pre-selected pieces of fabric, with additional fabric permitted. The four pieces of fabric in the 'challenge kit' were: the blue in the water, the orange and purple in the sunset and the multi-print in the border. Well done Heather!

Read more on Heather Loney's own blog, Creative Crossroads.

Sunset by Heather Loney, 2015

Well done, Holly McLean

Spring Fling, Holly McLean, 2015

Holly, who lives in Bathurst, NB, won first prize in the non-traditional quilt category at this year's Kennebecasis Valley Quilt Show. She was also thrilled to learn that her winning quilt, Spring Fling, sold at the show. 

Holly made the piece to celebrate the end of the very long, snowy winter of 2015. It differs dramatically from the small, heavily threaded works for which Holly has become known. You can see more of Holly McLean's artwork and textile explorations on her own blog, Through My Window

Spring Fling (detail), Holly McLean, 2015

Spring Fling (detail), Holly McLean, 2015

                      

New blog coordinator

Please welcome Susan Lilley, from Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, who will be taking over blog coordinator responsibilities from Jennifer Scantlebury Vienneau.

Born to a family of artists in Shawinigan Quebec, Susan originally chose a career path in the health sciences and only took up creative textile work when approaching retirement. Upon retirement, she earned a City and Guilds Level Three Certificate in Design and Craft (Patchwork and Quilting), in a three year program with Design Matters. She has been a member of SAQA for five years, joining our region when she moved from Ontario in 2013.

Her work expresses a fascination with colour and light. She creates her own fabrics, with dyes, paints and bleach, often using re-purposed cloth. Inspired by the materials and working intuitively, she creates unique non-representational compositions. Her inspiration comes from the world around her, the scraps on her cutting table and the play of light on the wall.

She is currently exploring luminosity and transparency, using dyes, bleach and paints with Shibori-inspired techniques. Susan has two pieces in the 'Structures' show. She also contributed a wonderful example of her work on luminosity to the 'Structures Extended' show in Inverness.

Susan will soon be in contact with all members to learn more about how the blog can help you enhance communication within and outside of the region. Please do what you can to cooperate with her requests for material. You never know what will intrigue readers. For example, the post about Susan's new workspace is the most viewed ever, by an order of magnitude.

Congratulations, Lois Wilby Hooper (Moores Mills, NB)

Each year SAQA runs an auction of donated art quilts. The artwork is available for purchase on line and also in person at the Houston International Quilt Festival. Revenue from the auction is directed to the exhibition program and supports the preparation and shipping of group shows by SAQA members around the world.

Usually quilts are made available for sale in groups and buyers must wait until a group which contains their favourite is opened for purchase. In a twist, this year SAQA opened all of the quilts for sale for three days at a fixed price of $1000. Fourteen pieces were sold in this way and one of them ... ta daa ... was made by our own Lois Wilby Hooper.

You can see an image of her quilt here. The purchaser was Marvin Fletcher who with his late wife Hilary has established a premier collection of art quilts.

Structures opening

The Structures show hung at the Gallery@The Guild in Charlottetown, PEI for two weeks in late August. Holly McLean attended the opening reception and wrote the following report. 

Holly McLean

I was excited to be able to combine the opening of the SAQA Structures fiber art exhibit with my visit to the Island to see my family. I had met a few of the exhibiting artists at the spring retreat and had seen some of their work. Many pieces I had not seen, however, and it was great to see them all hanging together in such a nice setting. Pictures just do not do them justice. My first reaction as I walked into the space was to gasp. I don’t get to many fiber art exhibits –this may be my first - and the impact of the groupings of hangings against the white was powerful. Seeing the colors, patterns, stitches and textures in real life was awe inspiring. I also enjoyed reading about each artist and about their piece as well as describing them to my daughter and mom and her husband.

Regina and Heather Jarmyn did a wonderful job - and in that heat wave - of hanging all the pieces. I thought they were perfectly grouped. At the outset they felt challenged as it is a small, but intimate space and the lighting wasn’t great. The lighting was addressed before opening night, and even though it is a below street level location, there is a great row of windows along one side that add good light as well as character to the space..

Christine Nielsen, Heather, and Regina and I met for dinner across the street before going to the opening. It was nice to see Christine again and also nice to meet Regina and Heather. I always feel somewhat isolated up here in Bathurst, so any meetings with like minded people are so stimulating!

The show was lightly attended, but it was a very warm evening in the Gold Cup celebration week. Since the gallery is located in the same building (and easily visibly) as a small theater, there should be more people attending over the two weeks.

Thanks to all who contributed and who helped and are helping with the show. It has been a nice experience for me.

The following photos were taken by Chris Nielsen just prior to the opening, running clockwise around the space from the entry. They are intended to give you a sense of the show and are not completely accurate representations of the artwork, especially with regard to colour. Please note that everything was level - the camera sometimes makes it appear otherwise.