SILKWORM The Magazine of Silk Painters International Volume 21, Issue 3, Autumn 2014
In This Issue: SPIN Festival Art and Fashion Show Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Ear SPIN Board Changes & Message from New President
From The Editor’s Desk I’m always a little fuzzy in Santa Fe. Perhaps it’s the higher elevation - I live at sea level and Santa Fe has an altitude of 7000 feet. Perhaps it’s the big skies. I watch the skies in Santa Fe the same way that I stare into the Pacific here in Los Angeles. The vastness of it carries me away and I get lost in it as my mind travels to other worlds. Perhaps it’s because the festival is always so busy and I’m always a little sleep deprive and my allergies kick in to make me weepy, sneezy and groggy. Whatever it is, I always see Santa Fe through a slightly soft focus lens. I walk through the landscape as if in a dream. A pleasant dream, one from which I have trouble waking. The President of IAIA, Dr. Robert Martin, addressed the group on the last day of the conference, Friday morning. He commented that whenever SPIN was on campus, we brought a creative energy that enlivens the environment. I left Santa Fe on Sunday, after most of the conference attendees had left. Having stayed on campus, I spent my last night at the Inn of Santa Fe where most of the off-campus attendees stayed. I can attest to this buzz he spoke of. Once SPIN left, the atmosphere was markedly different, on camput and especially at the hotel. People were kind and relaxed. But something was missing. The vibration of pure creative spirit had left the building. SPIN won’t be held in Santa Fe in 2016. There are currently plans to try another venue. I, for one, will miss Santa Fe but I’ll see you in 2016. Keep checking the festival website for more pictures. There are so many - too many to print them all.
Tunizia
Tunizia Abdur-Raheem, Editor Audrey Durnan Luna Light Dress & Jacket 2
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Announcements In This Issue:
Volume 21, Issue 3, Autumn 2014
Departments
Letter from the Editor - 2 Announcements - 3 Message from the President - 4 Spin Board Management Changes - 5
SPIN Festival
Festival Team - 6, 7 Quilt Show - 8, 9 Lecture Series - 10, 11 Fashion Show - 12-17 Art Show Pieces - 25-31
Features Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Ear with Suzanne Visor - 18-24
Front Cover: “Lost in a Dream” by Julie Cox Hamm Inside Front: Dress and Jacket by Audrey Durnan Back Cover: by Carter Smith
Silkworm Credits Editor: Tunizia Abdur-Raheem Membership Database: Gloria Lanza-Bajo Layout: Keely Dorsey and Tunizia Abdur-Raheem Copyeditor: Phyllis Gordon and Ashley Nichols Please send Letters to the Editor. Stay in touch. We want you to be involved. If you have comments, complaints or suggestions, let us know. Send correspondence or photos to editor@silkwormmagazine.com. If you have photographs of your art that you would like to have showcased in the Silkworm, send photos with your name and the name of the piece. The photo size should be minimum 5”x 7” and 300 dpi for best printing. To become a member of SPIN or renew your membership, visit www.silkpainters.org/membership.html. Membership is $50 USD annually and renewable in January of each year.
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Jacket and Scarf by Addie Chernus
Send change of address or questions about membership status to Gloria Lanza-Bajo - Membership Chair Email: members@silkpainters.org Phone: 718 624-0313 Want to advertise in Silkworm? Send for our media kit at editor@silkpainters.org. Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/silkpainters/ All works presented in the magazine are the property of the artists.
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The President’s Message As we close the doors to Festival 2014 and open new ones for 2016, I am reminded of a spectacular two-week stay in Santa Fe. Fond memories of incredible vistas are still fresh in my mind. Green chili peppers are still warming my pallet. And since I’m feeling like a guest in my own kitchen, I’m itching to try a gourmet challenge in order to reclaim my space. I found a wonderful recipe in Santa Fe to quench this desire and I would love to share it with you.
Fabulous Festival Fiesta Dish
• A very large bowl to hold all of For best results, prepare with a balance your festival dreams. of great caution and wild abandon. • A pipe or flute to call your team together (a cowbell can be used as a Ingredients: substitute; please adjust as needed). Assemble a group of dynamic, talent• Encouragement for all team ed and energetic artists, who are willmembers to share their ideas and find ing to give their ideas and time freely. their voices. Add one of each of the following: Ever so slowly, fold the teams’ ener• Joyce Estes for presidential supgies into the bowl of dreams until fully port and guidance. blended. • Gloria Lanza-Bajo for website Additional flavors (finishing touchsupport, registration and patient es) and spices (last minute thoughts) emails. can be added before the final steps. • Suz Knight for the Art Exhibit To create a dramatic affect, thunderand Chapter Quilt show. • Judith Roderick and Jane Fink for storms accompanied with hail can be used but sparingly. the art exhibit. Keep an ample supply of good • Anne Gordon Fritz for volunteer humor and add in good taste. coordination. In order to develop the best flavors, • Carol Geboy-Hunter for advertiscover all of the above ingredients and ing and marketing. marinate for perhaps months. Check • Mitzi Ash, Ursula Wamister and at regular intervals for quality and stir, Joanna White for faculty recruitment as ingredients tend to separate. and on-campus coordination. During the marinade process pre• Addie Chernus for the vendor pare the topping and set aside. expo, vendor sponsorships, demos Combine 120 enthusiastic attendand her “Dancing Brush.” ees and an outstanding faculty of 19 • Ann Lederer and Tunizia Abdurwith a sauce or glaze topping of your Raheem for photography and the choice. Silkworm. Pour the ingredients into a large • Terry Tabor and Judith Meeks for spring pan. the fashion show. Bake at a low oven temperature. As • Sarah Ann Allen for overall supthis dish rises to the occasion, check port. (Find two if possible). often to avoid burning or scorching Other ingredients to include: altogether. (Adjust for altitude and humidity.) 4
Allow to cool to touch before adding your topping sauce. Preparation time: 18 months. Yield: Serves roughly 150 guests. Now, as your proud president of Silk Painters International, I have an even bigger bowl of dreams. I would like to stir in new members, a fund raising project, a cohesive plan for chapters, a couple of ideas for our Silkworm and some improvements in our website. I invite you all to add your own new ingredients and pour in ideas – the crazy ones as well as those fully formed. Our organization will become even better because our Board of Directors, new and returning, is willing to give their time and talents to us. Remember, it is always the ingredients that are crucial to any great dish or organization. Contact: president@silkpainters.org
Kaki Steward, President
Kaki
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Make a Silk Purse out of a Sow’s Ear: Learning how to see and create design using found objects, with Suzanne Visor
“You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” - Jonathan Swift By Liz Constable with Susan Quateman
“M
ake a Silk Purse out of a Sow’s Ear” was the daunting message on the door of Suzanne Visor’s classroom at the SPIN Festival 2014. This was a workshop on the Elements of Design and Composition, something that Susan Quateman, a silk painter in her later 50s, hadn’t studied formally within her brief five years of painting. ‘A sow’s ear,’ she thought ruefully as she entered the classroom. Yup, perhaps it describes Suzanne’s artistic abilities as well as those of our fellow travelers in this class. But can we indeed make a silk purse from it in just two short days? That was the question. It was only after this two-day workshop with Suzanne at the 2014 conference that we fully appreciated the aptness of her workshop title. All the elements of her original and effective strategies for making art, and teaching composition and design, are embedded in the title. She teaches the artistic and alchemical process implicit in the conversion of a sow’s ear into an elegant silk purse. By focusing on found materials, images and objects present in our everyday lives, she taught us how to design, assemble and transform them into resonantly dimensional silk art. This process of making art and teaching it provided a remarkably powerful pedagogic strategy for accomplishing
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the workshop objectives: to use the elements of design to arrive at a good design; to understand the constituents of effective and compelling design; to use innovative and exciting techniques with unusual, yet everyday materials to create texture and depth; and to learn how to critique silk painting and design, as well as make art with silk and dye. Suzanne underwent her own process of preparation for this workshop. “I was drawing on a memory of 10 years back, maybe. Going through scraps one day, I ran across a piece of jacquard silk painted a delicious pink. Hmmm, maybe there’s enough to make one of those attractive little triangular purses that hangs on a wall in a very feminine bedroom. I added a sparkly clasp and a pink satin strap and tassel. Into a show it went, displayed in a lovely acrylic cube all by itself. It sold right away. Why do I use it as an example? I made something out of almost nothing. I put together some compatible materials in a pleasing, luxurious way. The fancy, feminine, toy-like accessory was so dreamy and delicious in that perfect, shiny plastic box that viewers
couldn’t resist.” Take that, Reverend Jonathan Swift. The artist and art educator in Suzanne turns Swift’s saying around and stands it on its head. Suzanne focuses on the transformative learning potential of working in, and with, what surrounds her in her everyday environment. As an art educator, she demonstrated abundant ways to expand our artistic and design range by being open to re-using materials at hand. From the mundane - paper and glue, torn or cut cardboard - to the grandeur and majesty of the sweeping New Mexican horizons and the sediments of lives and histories inhabiting these
“Outward Bound” 5
desert spaces; these things become her subject-matter. During their drive to Santa Fe, Susan discovered that Suzanne, an art teacher of 30 years, is a balloon crew member and works as an art educator at the Balloon Museum in Albuquerque. Although originally from Pennsylvania, Suzanne has lived in New Mexico since she was 24 and feels completely entranced with, and embraced by, its landscape, the colors
and the skies. “My world of red mesas, mountains and deserts…this place and time inspires, makes me feel I belong.” Albuquerque, the ballooning capital of the World, is a place where you can often look out at the sky and see many balloons bobbing about on the seemingly endless horizon. Susan asked Suzanne whether she looks at landscapes from different perspectives, as if in a balloon. At first Suzanne seemed perplexed, as if she had never been asked this question. Then, she indicated that Desert Detritus and Homeward Bound (insert Images 1 and 2) were both envisaged by her and were painted from a balloonist’s perspective. As Suzanne explained, “two of my three paintings in the SPIN 2014 Festival fine arts exhibition were directly “Outward Bound” close-up inspired by the balloon
experiences. Several years ago, having crossed the Rio Grande, a friend and I journeyed northwest over the West Mesa area, a vast expanse of open space not yet claimed by housing developers. We gazed at the ground below as it came closer while picking out a spot to land. My friend pointed out a dark circular shape on the ground, then another. At the same moment my friend and I recognized the markings exclaiming, ‘pit house ruins!’ These sightings are the remains of prehistoric dwellings that were essentially underground homes fashioned by ancient Pueblo peoples about whom we know very little, even to this day. I have thought about that sighting many times and imagined what life might have been like, much hardship, danger, and constant effort to keep a family going.” Desert Detritus was inspired by these insightful thoughts. Suzanne discussed with us that the layers of meaning in Desert Detritus unfold the social and environmental
“Desert Detritus” 6
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history of large areas of the United States Southwest. This desert environment was marked as nuclear wasteland from the 1940s onwards by the development of nuclear energy, the Manhattan Project and the construction of Los Alamos on the Pajarito Plateau. Suzanne’s intense colors and palimpsestic effects inscribe the layers of Native American lives and the desert’s other inhabitants. As she pointed out, the intense aridity of the desert serves to preserve objects and artifacts that would otherwise disintegrate, rust or decay. Suzanne’s subject matter emerges from her full involvement with the present and past of her everyday environment. Her highly contextual art transforms a dual perspective - gained from an aerial view together with a grounded perspective deeply and richly informed by her awareness of the social life, past and present, of New Mexico - into structured, passionately vibrant compositions that so powerfully render the three-dimensionality of the New Mexican desert landscape in silk and dye. Suzanne’s cartographic impulse characterizes her artistic work. Even at a young age she enjoyed the rewards of scanning landscapes and
identifying different landmarks. “As a little girl I remember unfolding a large cardboard map of the world during the latter days of WWII. My sister and I would lie on the floor on our tummies looking at the shapes and colors of countries. I’ve always loved maps. Traveling and exploring the world, from the woods and strip mine of the farm we grew up on to visiting the East African plains and the depths of Copper Canyon in Mexico.” Although Suzanne enjoys the adventure that lies in traveling, she also appreciates the comforts of home. “Flying across the country throughout my life, I look forward to coming home to New Mexico. From the east I gaze from the window for glimpses of crop circles in Kansas; then gradually the arid, red mesas and mountains that are home appear. The paths that water and snow melt take in their rapid descent to the desert floor make wonderful meandering trails
like the veins I see in my hands. Lifelines feed both the land and my body.” We students experienced a very rich two days of learning together, at the SPIN 2014 Festival, from Suzanne’s artistic foci. She focused on: aerial perspectives; grounded perspectives in the social and environmental histories of place and space; collecting and re-using of found images and objects; building of texture and perspective through unusual materials and techniques; and situating art critique, which is as equally important as art making. We were thrilled to find that it was a class of four very independent and creative people. Just one of us, German-born Marianne “Nandy” King who now lives in St. Kitts, has a lifetime experience of vibrant painting as her primary occupation. Nandy
Suzanne teaching us how to use stencils with the atomizer. She used a piece of torn cardboard to create a sharp edge, and then a piece of mesh!
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continually astonished us with her ability to totally think outside of the box. Together with Nandy, we were two Anglo-Americans, one (myself) trained and working in the interdisciplinary Humanities and Gender Studies, the other in city planning/ landscape design (Susan). The fourth student, Nancy Baker, is a Denverbased former landscape architect. Suzanne presented us with a clear and well-prepared document of how the interactive class was going to proceed, which in truth we only half followed. This was to the absolute benefit of the workshop since our interactions re-directed the later parts of the workshop. She wanted her students to learn how to see, and to see in terms of compositional design, in order to paint well. I suspect that this premise applies to her students across the board, and her class laid the groundwork for seeing by establishing the primacy of the elements and principles of design for our work. One of Suzanne’s objectives was to develop our skills in critique and self-critique. Sharing our creative processes laid the groundwork for a supportive environment in which to develop our critical toolboxes. Our workshop opened with each of us discussing the forces and presences that shape our specific aesthetic
and our objectives in placing dye on silk. From Suzanne’s invitation to explain our journeys to silk painting – the landmark passages, roadblocks, and future directions – we discovered unexpected convergences among ourselves. There was the significance of space and place, music, ecology - particularly the effects of climate change - along with our interests in landscape architecture, the natural environment and the Caribbean culture of St. Kitts. We combined these to create a matrix of intersecting threads from which a lively and interactive dynamic emerged. As Susan and I talked about the workshop, and sought to identify our shared sense of themes unifying Suzanne’s own silk paintings and her creative process, she pointed us to the concept of “design assemblage,” the three-dimensional relative of collage and bricolage (something constructed using the things at hand). Immediately we both recognized how effectively the concept of ‘design assemblage’ enabled us to describe Suzanne’s artistic process as well as her teaching in the workshop. How does the concept of design assemblage help us describe Suzanne’s approach to teaching the elements of design (line, texture, shape,
direction, size, color and value)? And what light does it cast on her ways of teaching the principles of design (balance, gradation, repetition, harmony, unity, dominance, and contrast)? The abstract terms of balance, contrast, unity, etc., can easily remain inert on the page for us artist-learners, resisting our intense desires to integrate their meanings into our own work. As a skilled instructor, Suzanne found a strategy that helped us breathe new life into these terms and coax them out of their passive abstract muteness. It is her strategy for engaging us with the process of de-composing and composing - breaking down through diagrams and line analysis, and re-constructing forms - that Susan and I are naming assemblage as artistic technique and pedagogy. In the United States, the artists who come to mind with assemblage those who created three-dimensional, sculptural works of art often from heterogeneous objects collected and found - were working primarily in the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, in 1961 the New York Museum of Modern Art brought together 252 works of collage and 141 works of assemblage for their Art of Assemblage exhibition. William Seitz, author of the 1961 book, The Art of Assemblage, describes the artist drawn to assemblage: “like a beachcomber, a collector, or a scavenger wandering among ruins, the assembler discovers order as well as materials, by accident” (Seitz, 38) (set-off). In the context of European Modernist art, in the period between 1910 and 1920, Picasso, Braque, Dubuffet, and the Dadaïsts, all worked with cutouts, glued paper (papier collé, in French, that gives us our word, collage) and experimented with relating parts and aspects to the whole that
Suzanne loosely crumples the fabric, then sprays with an atomizer to produce gentle random folds in the design 8
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Using Suzanne’s techniques, the composition for the drawing (left) was referenced from the photo above. Drawn by Nandy.
they composed. Cubist, Futurist, Surrealist and Dadaist artists in the early twentieth century all practiced the de-composition materialized through breaking down and un-doing finished work (everyday objects) as a preparatory process to the re-composing and re-assembling of the parts in two and three-dimensional works of art. The resulting objects were invested with a new meaning, one that invariably embodied an implicit comment on everyday life, culture or the politics of art and culture. So, how did Suzanne transform the concept of assemblage to make it such a helpful learning tool for design and composition? Through a series of carefully structured exercises, she taught us how to rethink the rendering of objects in space on paper or silk; to re-set our brains when faced Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
with laying out the ‘bones’ or the basic structures of designing a new silk painting or silk garment; to learn textural and shading techniques that produce the illusion of perspective and three-dimensions in a two-dimensional medium; and to do this even when our drawing skills may feel limiting to us. Suzanne led us to begin from old art journals and magazines (the collector at work!). From here, we selected images that formed the raw materials for our critical, analytic decomposition of the works into their elements of design: line, texture, shape, direction, size, color and value. In and of itself, this exercise, the “squint eye” exercise, as one of us calls it (where you train your eye to move past the teeming surface details of a composition to focus instead on the structure),
proves to be invaluable in seeing the ways other artists create their design and composition. In Suzanne’s words: “do this: go to a magazine, preferably an art magazine; select some images that appeal to you. Use your little [rectangular cut cardboard] viewer to help you discover the abstract designs hidden therein. Cut them out, paste them in your sketchbook add more lines and color; make the design grow vertically or horizontally. Use these exercises as jumping off places to create your own personal piece of art that you think you are connected to. Then, get these exercises out of the way. They will be a distraction. Choose the sketch that most appeals to you. One you feel connected to. One that you like the most. One more time, draw or paint it big, keep going, changing, making it grow. Now you have no fear of facing the plain white silk.” As we practiced with several variants of this method, we each worked 9
quickly, using a range of materials and tools of our own choice. Then, from the abstract elements of design we traced in a found image, reworking these parts and elements into a design and composition of our own creation (See images 3, 4, 5, 6). Breaking down the compositional elements in images taught us to identify abstract structural devices that relied on various means: line, mass, contrast, spatial arrangement, value or color. Suzanne taught us to look more attentively, analytically and critically at the shapes, patterns and colors in our world. Whether looking through a simple rectangular viewer or through the compositional design of objects in art magazines, we then reinterpreted these compositional strategies to create our own designs. This is why we called it “Assemblage Design.” From the starting images that we had created, one element builds on the preceding element, and our designs and compositions emerged. Suzanne also taught us to look at color through the pedagogic and artistic framework of assemblage: “Assemblage Color.” Most of us silk painters experience the appeal of the luminously bright colors in our dye 10
Left: An example of Suzanne’s own composition technique. Right: Suzanne and students. palettes that are rendered even more strikingly intense and bright once the silk is steamed. However, as Suzanne pointed out, overuse of bright colors the primaries and the luminous colors - can easily lend a rather crude paint box feel to our work, one that might best be reserved for subject matter that truly demands such exuberance. As Suzanne puts it, “the real appeal of silk dyes initially is the brilliance, the purity of the colors. I think that’s a real problem for many silk painters. We are so seduced by all that eye-candy that we forget that we are the painters and must tame those hues to serve us in order to grow as artists.” Instead, Suzanne provided us with a range of unusual and innovative techniques for muting and nuancing colors to create a very powerful visual effect. To build a subtle textured background in our paintings, she demonstrated a technique that once again owes its materials to the principles of re-using, salvaging and collecting. Suzanne keeps the small squares of kitchen paper towel used in
her studio to mop up spilt or unused dye. She places pieces of dry, yet heavily dye-soaked kitchen paper towels on the white silk, then sprays them with water and applies gentle pressure to create a background texture on a painting. The resulting effect is that the white silk underneath picks up hints of color in a mottled, abstract fashion. Just as the assemblage artist welcomes the accidental, this last technique clearly requires openness to the unpredictable that Suzanne so imaginatively works within her art. She demonstrated techniques for creating fluid, organic, and yet clean-dye, not gutta, edges on the silk by using torncardboard-edged stencils. Keeping in mind that we tend to associate stencils with hard edges, Suzanne suggests placing torn cardboard on the silk before painting or lightly spraying dye along the edges, being careful to wear a mask when spraying dye with an atomizer. The resulting edges lend themselves exquisitely well to abstract landscape designs, since they have Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
none of the geometric feel of hard edges, but evoke rather the rugged edges of cliffs, or the undulating edges of beaches and rivers. We learned a range of textures that resulted from lightly spraying dyes from an atomizer bottle or painting dyes over found objects that served as stencils. For example, the varieties of cross-hatching that result from using dye with mesh on silk; the ridges and valleys of liquid shapes that result from folding or crumpling the silk before lightly spraying the whole bundle of silk; and the dye brush strokes that hold their form when dye is thickened with sodium alginate. Suzanne’s mastery of these techniques produced astonishing silk paintings with three-dimensional effects that are strikingly original in silk painting. In Homeward Bound, Nandy’s culmination of all she learned at the workshop. we see, from a balloonist’s perspective, cranes flying perpendicular to the abstract designs underlying paint- whole. The analogue of our workthe mountain face, combined with the ings. Both our eyes and minds were, shop: that the subject matter of our softest hues found in the landscapes of consequently, searching and probing painting, so often our primary focus, New Mexico that fold into one anoth- more, becoming less easily distracted is in fact perhaps less significant than er in an utterly pleasing way. Suzanne by the artist’s choice of subject matter a strong compositional design. wrote of the birds in this painting: in and of itself. Since we had the Seasons of Silk “the cranes over the Rio Grande have Our questions and discussions fine art show for the SPIN Festival been a part of life here since prehistor- centered on three related topics: how 2014 nearby to explore, Suzanne readic times! When they come in the fall to engage in constructive critique, ily accepted our suggestion to discuss from norththe preparatory the compelling exhibited works. The ern Idaho, we imperatives for dialogue challenged us to “We are so seduced by all that eye- presenting one’s resulting know bearticulate our critical questions. We cause we hear candy that we forget that we are the work in a gallery examined criteria for the critique them first. exhibition, and appreciation of silk painting. painters and must tame those hues or Their call is and the criteria Through analyzing, conceptualizing distinct and to serve us in order to grow as artists.” used to judge and critiquing our own art making, we clear as a bell silk painting by learned from collaborative, construcin the pure blue sky. They, however, SPIN Festival judges. tive critique. In turn, this enables us are so high above us that we can’t see Those of us with less experito become more knowledgeable and them unless the sun catches the flock ence in exhibiting our artwork learned active participants in SPIN. None of just right!” a tremendous amount from Suzanne this would have been so enjoyable or As for the development of about the importance of consummate productive without the environment our critical skills, learning “design workmanship and aesthetic sensitivity of empathy and solidarity fostered by assemblage” allowed us to feel more to the finishing: mounting, framing, Suzanne’s workshop. confident to embark on constructive choice of rods for wall hangings that critique. Our eyes were newly trained do not impinge on or distract from the to “see” hidden compositional strucwork. We learned that the final stages tures and designs, and our minds were of a work’s presentation for exhibition newly sensitized to the significance of are, in fact, crucially significant to the Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
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Threads of Silk Festival Team 2014
F
estival 2014 could not have happened without the wonderful contributions of several members who sacraficed their time and energies to prepare the Festival. Many of them worked on Festival 2014 as soon as the Festival 2012 was completed. Kaki Steward headed up this team - her second time around. It was a lot of work, but they all report that it was richly rewarding. If you’re interested in making fun and meeting new SPIN members, you can join the 2016 Festival team which is already forming. It will be in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. If you live in or near Gatlinburg, you’re very welcome. The Team can always use team members who are local. Contact Gloria Lanza-Bajo or Joyce Estes for more information. Kaki Steward - Laguna Beach, CA ”I am so proud to be Festival Director for the 2014 Team. I could not have asked for a more dynamic, talented and diligent group of silk artists who have donated their time to create this week for you.” Mitzi Ash – Berlin, MD “I thought it was time to “pay it forward” for all the support SPIN has given me. Each member on the team brings strengths, abilities, and qualities that contribute to the whole. It is an impressive process to see unfold month by month. I’m so glad I said, “Yes, I’ll help.” Addie Chernus - South Lake Tahoe, NV “For many years I have found that to give of one’s self is a blessing. As a Festival 2014 Team Member I am thrilled, happy and gratified to work with such dedicated and knowledgeable Team Members. My hope is for everyone to have a great time at the Festival. As a goal, I wish for my efforts to be successful and joyful for all SPIN members and visitors who attend the Vendor Expo.”
The hail that happened during Jane Dunnewold’s Keynote.
Gloria Lanza-Bajo, new VP Addie Chernus creating at the fashion show
Jane Fink – Indio, CA "In 2004 I came to Silk in Santa Fe to learn new silk skills bringing my husband along. Little did we know what adventures were in store. For me, new silk skills; for him, new musical opportunities and the Silk Husband's Band, aka, The Silky Bottom Boys. However, greatest of all have been the friendships formed and the fun we've had. And, yes, it's time for me to contribute. Joanna White – Mocksville, NC “It has been my joy to recruit our instructors for the 2012 and 2014 Festivals. Reaching out to the many, many talented artists across our country and the world, is an honor and a privilege. Hope everyone enjoys the Festival as much as the Festival team enjoys creating it.”
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Anne Gordon Fritz - Albuquerque, NM “I am privileged to be part of the 2014 Festival Planning Team as the Volunteer Coordinator. What has been accomplished by all the Team members to create the SPIN Festival is mind-boggling. Attendees will experience for 6 days in July the culmination of the SPIN Team’s constant work and desire to bring together those who love painting on silk and want to share this joy and passion.”
Kaki and Joyce Make Annoucements
Terry Tabor - Temple Hills, MD “I am so excited about being on the planning committee for the SPIN Festival this year. We are having a ball throwing out suggestions & ideas (great ideas) to help make this event one of the best years yet. As a team, I know it will be a success.” Suzanne Knight - San Diego, CA - “Festival volunteering is something YOU can do to make your own Festival experience more fun. When a festival team member shares a “light bulb” moment during a Festival meeting… you can hear all the other minds in our SKYPE meeting “click…click…click” thinking… THAT, ladies and gentlemen is how it’s done!!! Festival team work at its finest…fun and good FOR you. Have fun in 2014…and please volunteer in 2016.”
The Silky Bottom Boys Keeping Working Those Venues
Gloria Lanza-Bajo - Brooklyn, New York - “I joined the Festival Team because I have meeting planning skills which could help the Team to create a professional conference where our members could learn and have fun. This Team has worked so well together that it feels so satisfying when we get the jobs done." Ursula Wamister – Zhurzruti, Switzerland The bi-annual SPIN Festival in Santa Fe is one of the greatest events in my life as a silk artist where I can meet people in person. We can discuss, learn, and show, experiment, and have fun together. To be part of the SPIN Board and the Santa Fe team gives me the opportunity to give something back to SPIN. It's amazing how easy it is possible to work together as a team even if we are so far apart. What starts as a vague idea, turns into something real and in the end we all are able to enjoy a great Festival.”
Sarah Ann Allen, Invaluable Assistant Having Some Fun
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Carol Hunter-Geboy – “Santa Fe is my favorite place in the world… I love its incredible combination of rich history, diverse cultures, natural beauty, and art of every kind… not to mention great margaritas! I decided to volunteer with the SPIN festival marketing team because I believe the silk art created by our members is as beautiful as any art I’ve ever seen, in Santa Fe or anywhere else in the world. I think it’s important that we share our organization and our silk artists with art lovers who live in SF and other nearby Northern New Mexico communities.”
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Parade of Fashions 2014
Changing Elements The SPIN 2014 fashion show was held at the Greer Garson Theatre in Santa Fe. The theater is a part of the campus of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. The show was produced by Terry Tabor, a member of the DC/Maryland SPIN Chapter, the Chapter originally started and headed by one of SPIN’s founder, Diane Tuckman. Terry chose for the show’s theme, “Changing Elements.” Terry fought through inclement weather and several flight changes to make it to Santa Fe from the US nation’s capital. She arrived at the conference wearing sparkles and butterfly wings making announcements and sprinkling fairy dust on participants to enchant the events. In the process, she integrated the talents of Canadian member, Judith Meeks who acted as the show’s Mistress of Ceremonies. There was a noticeably different pitch and tone to the show. Different from the last few Festival fashion shows that come to mind, no doubt a result of Terry’s East Coast fashion show savvy. Silk in Santa Fe came as close to a New York runway
Judith Meeks, Mistress of Ceremonies
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Kayla Kennington, Modern Japanese Bride
as ever with bouncy tunes matching the bounding gait of the models. There was music, lights and an ever-changing background screen. A big thanks goes out to the models that performed won-
derfully well as well as to Cassia Maia for makeup. The show was divided into four settings: Butterflies in Motion, featuring butterfly frocks and wraps; I like the Way You Move with flowing wraps; I’m Bringing Sexy Back (which the MC explained to the audience that the wearer is feeling rather good about herself) and last, but not least, Changing Elements. The show started with Addie Chernus doing a silk painting performance and ended with the Japanese Bridal gown of Kayla Kennington. A hand-painted prom dress created by Julia Reidhead was the grand finale (read more about her on page __.) Judith added her wry sense of humor and all had a good time. Terry is a fairly new member, having recently joined SPIN only in the last two years. Maybe Terry can be enticed to produce the fashion extravaganza for 2016. Or maybe some other fearless member will volunteer. It might be you. Step right up. Fashion Extravaganza 2016 is waiting.
Terry Tabor, Fashion Show Producer
Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
Selina Narov Cassia Maia
Diane Tuckman Selina Narov Cassia Maia
Carter Smith
Linda Duncan
Kaki Steward Nadja Lancelot Kathy Murphy-Childs Diane Tuckman
Kayla Kennington
Carter Smith
Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
Diane Tuckman
Kayla Kennington
Nadja Lancelot
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Cassia Maia
Ursula Wamister
Ursula Wamister
Kaki Steward
Audrey Durnan
Suzanne Knight Marlene Lesley
Carter Smith
Selina Narov
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Kaki Steward
Christine Gauthier-Kelly
Terri Higgs
Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
Gloria Lanza-Bajo Joyce Estes
Marianne “Nandy” King Margaret Agner
Suzanne Knight
Audrey Durnan
Joyce Estes Marianne “Nandy” King
Ursula Wamister
Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
Hellenne Vermillion
Cheri Reckers
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Christine Gauthier-Kelly
Yuli Purwiyanti Terri Higgs
Suzanne Knight Margaret Agner
Joyce Estes
Gloria Lanza-Bajo
Cheri Reckers
Margaret Agner
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Hellenne Vermillion
Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
Hellenne Vermillion Cheri Reckers
Yuli Purwiyanti
Kaki Steward
Yuli Purwiyanti
Gloria Lanza-Bajo
Margaret Agner
Kathy Murphy-Childs Christine Gauthier-Kelly
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SPIN Festival Lecture Series Keynote
Composition & Balance
She spoke on Sunday amidst a storm with hail, thunder and lightening, replete with a power outage. She kept her good spirits throughout.
position and creating balance in a design using demonstrations from her own work. Stay tuned as she has generously agreed to share her presentation and we will be printing it in the December issue.
Jane Dunnewold (right) was the keynote speaker.
Susan Louise Moyer discussed elements of com-
Jane Dunnewold delivers the keynote
Creating Space
Jan Janas has promised to share her presentation as well. Stay tuned.
Jan Janas 20
Susan Louise Moyer
Color Dynamics
Suzanne Punch lectures on Color.
Suzanne Punch Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
Fashion Design
Kayla Kennington presented a lovely slideshow
detailing the numerous highlights of her design and sewing career. She also shared what’s next – her “Tattered Goddess” collection. Page 6 background: Pattern from of Susan Moyer’s slides. Page 7 background: Pattern from one of Suzanne Punch’s slides.
Jan models an opera coat Kayla Kennington
Presentation & Finishing Jan Janas and Suzanne Punch took four paintings that she created and worked with Jan Janas on methods of presentation. They enlisted the help of Judith Roderick and took four pieces of silk, each with the same design and presented them in three different ways.
Judith shows off a qulit made with silk Jan models a silk scarf as a body wrap
Suzanne discusses her framing method Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
Jan creates a wall hanging with her piece of silk.
Suzanne makes a tryptych of her silk. 21
SPIN Chapter News:
Quilt Show at Threads of Silk
O
ne of the highlights of the Festival was the Chapter Quilt Show. Displayed in the Hogan - the ceremonial space of the collge - the hogan is a small, beautiful building that is shaped in the round. It feels warm, earthy and inviting - a great place for quilts. Each SPIN Chapter was invited to present a Chapter Quilt and 13 chapters participated. They were asked to create something that represents their little corner of the world.
Clockwise from Top Right: Atlanta , Swiss Silkers, New York, Rainbow Warriors of St. Kitts, Sunflower Silkers (Kansas) and Rocky Moutain
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Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
Clockwise from Top Right: Oklahoma City, Piedmont, North Carolina, New Mexico Silk Painters Guild, Silk-Sationals (Washington DC), San Diego Silk Guild, Silk Artics of the Central California Coast, and Lake Tahoe Silk Guild
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SPIN Board Management Changes S By Gloria Lanza-Bajo
ilk Painters International, our volunteer-managed organization, is excited to announce its 11 new board members. Kaki Steward, who has served on the board for eight years, four as the vice president, is now the new President. She brings years of experience managing festivals, plus a commitment to seeing SPIN grow and prosper. Gloria Lanza-Bajo, the new Vice President, will continue in her role as Joyce Estes Passing the Presidential Baton to Kaki Steward Membership Chair and member of the Website Committee. Outgoing President, Joyce Estes, who has served us well through many major changes in SPIN, has agreed to stay on the Board as its Treasurer. Both Joyce Nadja, Suzanne V., Ursula and Gloria have Above: Vermillion, Cohen agreed to co-chair Below: Nadja Lancelot the 2016 Festival. Other members of the Board in their same positions are: Suzanne Visor (Secretary), Suzanne Knight (Chapter Chair), Ursula Wamister (Coordinator for Europe), Addie Chernus Above: Suzanne P., Suzanne K., (Festival Vendor Coordinator) and Rashmi Gloria, and Aileen (who resigned from the Board early in 2013) Agarwal (International Relations). Louis Mireault, who has monitored We’re losing two members of the Three new members of the Board, and maintained the SPIN Facebook Board: Suzanne Punch, who has who will add much with their skills page. Jean-Louis will continue monichaired the Committee for Distinas artists and business people, are toring Facebook and Suzanne will Nadja Lancelot, Rosemary Cohen and guished Artists and been a member of continue on the Website Committee; Hellenne Vermillion, who later had to the Website Committee; and Jeanhowever, we will miss having them on resign. the Board. 24 Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
SPIN Festival Art Show Puts Silkers on Display 2014 SPIN Festival Art Show “Seasons of Silk” Primitive Edge Gallery July 28 through August 1, 2014
At each Festival, there is an art show and gallery opening for members of SPIN. This year’s show, as it was for the last 2 Festivals, was curated and hung by Chapter Chairman Suzanne Knight along with SPIN member Judith Roderick. This year, in addition to hanging the show, one of Judith’s pieces was chosen for the People’s Choice award. Judith is also this month’s featured artist at Studio Art Quilt Association (SAQA). So, please check her out at www.saqa.org. Go to artwork in the menu and look for featured artist. Congratulations to Judith. It was a wonderful festivity where not only was member art displayed on the walls of the gallery, but members also wore their beautiful hand-crafted creations. Welcome to some of the images that were displayed at the Festival Art Show.
Top: Susan Louise Moyer with her 2nd place, “Gifts from the Sea” Near Right: Dorothy Bunny Bowen, 2nd Place, “Passage” Far Right: Margaret Agner, 1st Place, “Rose Trellis”
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Left: Cassia Maia, “Raining Petals” (close-up) Below: Beatrice Castro, “Seasons Mandala”
Left: Diana Shore, “Awkward Garden Party” Below: Carol models her jacket
Above: Aileen Horn with “Serene Turbulence” Left: Judith Roderick speaks at the show Below: Elena Borowski, “Apple Blossoms”
Above Left: Members view silk artwork displayed at the show Below Left: Deborah Younglao, “Peony in Joy “ 1 & 5 26
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Far Left: Cheri Reckers, “Swallowtail & Coneflowers Left: Judith Roderick, Placitas Wild Horses Quilt Below: Jan Janas, “Fall Bounty”
In Order Left to Right: Linda Duncan, “Autumn Leaves“ Mitzi Ash, “Earth Wind Fire” Nandy King, “SPIN 2014”
Above: Rachael Perlmutter, “Hogan” Left: Members view artwork at the show Right: Kathy Murphy-Childs, “Sunday Morning In Madrid” Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
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Far Left: Linda Kovarik, “Rose-fusion” Above Left: Dorothy Davis, “Koi Pond” Above Right: Addie Chernus, Silk Doll Left: Tina Gleave, “Spring Blossoms”
Right: Serene Skye Karplus, “Sunshine in the Aspens” Above Right: Nadja Lancelot, “Mo” Far Right: Selina Narov, “Black Iris” Above: Cassia Maia, “Tree Rings” 28
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Above: Suzanne Visor congratulating Judith Roderick for being People’s Choice Winner Left: Suzanne Visor having announced the winners Left to Right: Judith Roderick with her “Peaceable Kingdom” Suzanne Punch, “Equinox Quadriptych” Vivien Pollack, “Autumn Woods”
Top Left: Diana Shore, “Blood Brothers” Bottom Left: Janene Evard, “Spirit of Winds North America” Above: Susan Quateman, “Gyre” Right: Suzanne Punch, “Lotus Quadriptych” Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
Above: Margaret Agner, “Iris & Daffodil” 29
Left to Right (Top): Judith Swircenski, “Kaleidoscope of Seasons” Loretta Joslin, “Twilight” Left to Right (Bottom): Hellene Vermillion, “Mackerel in the Net” Suzanne Visor, “Seasons of an Artist’s Life” Sharon Thomas, “Wisteria and Burrerflies”
Left: Roxanne Ilyashenko, “Tranquility” Right: Calice Fyffe, “Daylily 2014” Below: Suzanne Knight with “River on Saturn”
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Top Left: Ursula Schroter with “Aquazone”
Mid-Top: Selina Narov, “Golden Flames”
Left: Diane Lawrence, “Beginning Sunset”
Mid-Bottom: Gloria Lanza-Bajo, “Poppy” Right: Muffy ClarkGill, “Agua Rozome”
Bottom Left in Order to Bottom Right: Rachael Perlmutter, “Pelicans” Nancy Sterett Martin, “Cabbage Patch” Mary Gorman, “Dockside” Ursula Wamister, “End of the Rainbow” Mitzi Ash, “Homage to Thai Silks” Silkworm - Volume 21, Issue 2
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SILKWORM P.O.Box 585, Eastpoint, FL 32328, USA
SILKWORM (ISSN 2162-8505) is the quarterly magazine of SPIN -- Silk Painters International -- a nonprofit organization of silk artists, painters, practitioners, and educators. SPIN provides its members opportunities to network with kindred spirits and to grow through workshops, conferences, juried competitions, and gallery exhibitions. Material contained in The Silkworm belongs exclusively to The Silkworm and/or the artist. Do not reprint without written permission.