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.

Thank you, Jen

I have sad news. Jennifer Scantlebury-Vienneau has decided to step away from her responsibilities as blog coordinator and regional representative. I will miss her hard work and the somewhat acerbic emails we sometimes exchanged. It was good to have someone with a great sense of humour with whom to share information and decisions.

Jen had been a member of SAQA for one day(!) when she volunteered to spearhead an effort to make our blog more useful to the members. I have no doubt that you all know how hard she has worked to gather material and to encourage you to consider the blog a tool for communication. She will be a hard act to follow but I hope someone will consider stepping forward to pick up where she left off. You do not need to be familiar with blogging or the software we use. I can get you up to speed in no time and I will always be available to adjust things were necessary.

At this time we won't be recruiting a new regional representative but there are several other slots where volunteer help is needed. My main concern is that we still don't have anyone to look after the main SAQA trunk show when it comes to the region in December.  Please contact me if that's something you would consider doing.

In closing, let's all raise a virtual glass to Jen and salute her with our thanks for amazing service over the last two years. She set an incredible example in her commitment to SAQA and to her responsibilities and has earned whatever new and creative activities she can now fit into her life.

More on the SAQA mentorship program

For those of you who are not on the main SAQA Yahoo group, Sue Bleiweiss recently posted an update on the mentorship program. I think you'll agree that the list of participating mentors is impressive. I am sure that many more equally qualified artists will step forward as the program gains momentum. If you have not already done so, please consider submitting an application to the program. You can find details at the link in Sue's note.

I am beginning work with my own mentor next week. I plan to write a series of posts/updates about the process and will post them here and on my personal blog.

Chris Nielsen

From Sue Bleiweiss:

Now that the mentorship program has been underway for several weeks I thought I would post an update on how it’s going and provide some statistics and other information about it.   

So far 12 matches have been made and all the mentees have met with their mentors at least once via Skype, FaceTime or telephone to talk about their objectives and goals and to set up a regular communication schedule with each other.   Everyone is very excited about their new partnerships and I couldn’t be happier about that. 

You might be wondering who these mentors are so I am going to tell you!  I’m sharing their names with their permission of course and they are: 

Pamela Allen
Sue Bleiweiss
Lisa Call
Jenny Bowker
Sherri Culver
Kathleen Loomis
Alison Schwabe
Pamela Druhen
Carol Ann Waugh
Susan Polansky
Phylis Cullen 

Each of them have signed on to work with at least one mentee and a couple are working with more than one.   I am grateful for their willingness to sign on to be a part of this program because the success of the program really hinges on having enough mentors.  And that brings me to my next statistic… 

I have 9 mentees on the waiting list waiting to be matched up with a mentor.  I need more mentors! 

So I am once again putting out the call for mentors.  Now I know that being a mentor isn’t for everyone and I absolutely understand and respect that but I’m guessing that there are some of you out there that are thinking you might be interested but your not sure about it because you are not sure how to be a mentor or what areas or categories you can mentor someone in.  To answer those questions, just pop over to the SAQA website here.  All the information about the program is there and if you take a look at both the mentor and the mentee applications (regardless of which you want to apply for) those will also help answer your questions.  If you still have questions or your unsure, then write to me at sue@suebleiweiss.com.  I will be happy to talk with you about the program and how you can be a part of it.   

The mentorship program is just one of the programs brought to you by the SAQA membership committee.  The committee is chaired by Diane Wright and is made up of volunteers Clara Nartey (Secretary), Sue Bleiweiss, Paula Huffman Brown, Sharon Buck, Christine Hager-Braun, Candice Phelan, Allison Reker, Desi Vaughn, and Martha Wolfe.  We meet once a month to discuss, brainstorm and develop programs and initiatives related to areas of membership. Watch for updates about the committees other programs and initiatives in future emails.   

By the way - if you're curious about what other commitees that SAQA has you'll find that information on the SAQA website here.  

Sue Bleiweiss
MA/RI regional co-rep
Membership committee volunteer
Mentorship program coordinator
http://www.suebleiweiss.com

SAQA Mentorsip Program

If you haven't already done so, check out the link on the SAQA website concerning the new mentorship program. This was initiated by Sue Bleiweiss, a regional rep in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. She did a pilot project in her region and it was so successful that the Board decided to extend it to the entire membership.

I think we could all benefit from the advice of another party - not a friend, not an acquaintance but an established artist who will hold you to account as you move toward your goals. Even the application process may be helpful as you define what you need and why.

If the SAQA program doesn't appeal to you, I hope it motivates you to seek out a mentor on your own terms. I have done just that and am looking forward to several years of learning and improving.

Chris Nielsen

Favorite Tool - Holly McLean, Bathurst, New Brunswick

Finger cots 

Put one on the index or needle pulling finger and it glides like butter. May be purchased by the boxful in the first aid area of the drug store.