Tag Archives: Margaret Liston

Member Activities Update for April 2016

by SDA-WA Blog

Hi SDA-WA

As always, our members are an active bunch (that’s part of what makes them so interesting!).

Member Activities:

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Danielle Bodine

Changelings (group- 2nd version) 1A6A0610

Danielle Bodine will be exhibiting her fiber sculptures along with Gordy Edberg’s paintings in a two-artist show at MUSEO Gallery on Whidbey Island.  Please join the artists for the opening reception Saturday May 7th, 2016.  From 5pm to 7pm.

The show will be held from May 6th through May 29th, 2016

Museo is located at:215 First Street (PO Box 548)
Langley, WA 98260

For more information about MUSEO or the show, please contact# 360-221-7737 or see their website: www.museo.cc

You can also find more information on Danielle’s site:   www. Daniellebodine.com

 

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Patti Shaw

Patti Shaw’s piece “Up In Smoke” made the Materialities Catalog AND is featured at the top of this month’s SDA Fiber & Fabric eNews!  (her piece is 3rd from the left!).  Congratulations Patti!

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Lois Gaylord          Arts North Studio Tour

Hand-Dyed-Shawl-500x500 lois gaylord Lois Gaylord and her husband Kevin Cain would like to invite you to join us at ‘Sun-House’ studios, part of the 2016 Arts North Studio Tour in North Seattle. The Spring tour is on April 30th & May 1st, from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Visit 11 art studios hosting guest artists. View artwork and artisan creations. Chat with artists, learn more about the the creative process!    Visit the website to download a map.

Lois is also excited to announce that her piece “Tree of Life” will be part of the 2016  Liturgical & Sacred Art Exhibition at the Springfield Art Association, Springfield, IL 62702 Dates: April 30 – May 28, 2016.  The Exhibit is part of The Liturgical Arts Festival of Springfield. It is a non-profit, inter-faith organization, that was founded in 1995 by clergy, artists and community volunteers interested in expressions of spirituality in the arts. This inter-faith celebration of the arts is presented every two years and has evolved to include a juried liturgical and sacred art exhibit, music celebrations of faith held in local houses of worship, and sharing of religious traditions. http://www.lafspringfield.org

Lois will be the Guest artist at The Fiber Gallery for the PhinneyWood’s BIG art walk on Friday, May 13, from 6-9 p.m. and Saturday, May 14, from noon to 5 p.m.   8212 Greenwood Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98103

Originally a stand-alone annual event, The BIG One is now the centerpiece of the monthly Art Up PhinneyWood art walks, held the second Friday of each month.  The BIG One usually includes 70+ venues and 150+ artists. Because of its long history, it attracts hundreds of art walkers. Friday night, in particular, is a festive occasion and becomes a “neighborhood party.”  For more information, please see: https://artupphinneywood.com

Two opportunities to ‘Get your Geek on’ in June. Lois Gaylord and her husband Kevin Cain will be returning to ODDMALL: Emporium of the Weird in Everett.   The next big show takes place June 4 & 5, 2016 at the Holiday Inn, Downtown Everett,Wa. Conveniently located off I-5. Oddmall features over 130 of the Pacific Northwest most unusual, most talented, most bizarre Artists, Crafters, Authors, Entertainers and more! Oddmall is a cosplay friendly event! We encourage uniqueness with out visitors and vendors. Come spend the day with us in the Emporium of the Weird! Always free admission and plenty of free parking.   In addition to over 130 vendors, Oddmall features a stage with live entertainment all day long. A very special area called Fairy Hollow featuring Fairy Princess Lolly, a Fashion Show presented by Dames for Dreams and more!

We will also be at ODDMALL ALLEY at the Georgetown Carnival. Seattle,WA  SATURDAY JUNE 11, 2016: 10am – 10pm Over 10,000 in attendance! Oddmall in partnership with the Georgetown Merchants Association is offering 20 premium booths for this years Georgetown Carnival. All of the Oddmall booths are located on Nebraska St. The only way to get to the new Clown Town and the beer garden is to travel down Nebraska St. Last year, The Georgetown Carnival had over 10,000 attendees and it continues to grow each year.

EVENTS —————————————-

cuttingedge1020x466_001A show not to miss–“Cutting Edge”, an exhibition of the Contemporary QuiltArts Association at the Washington State History Museum  (http://www.washingtonhistory.org/), 1911 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, Washington from April 16 to August 21, 2016.  The museum has done an exceptional job at displaying the quilts beautifully.

 

The following are a sampling of SDA WA members pieces in the show (and comes from the CQA Website):

04/25/16 Our apologies – we somehow left out SDA-WA member Katherine Sylvan!  Her wonderful art is also included in this lovely show!!

SylvanK_AndDances_309x520“…And then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils.” by Katherine Sylvan

Artist Statement: My mother’s name was Margaret and her favorite flower was the daffodil. This piece is a memorial to her and a tribute to a time, long gone, when children learned verse which brought comfort and joy into their later years.

Materials & Techniques: Materials: silk; Lanaset, Procion and Vat discharge dyes; textile paint; thread; Misty Fuse. Techniques: dyeing, silk screening, multiple layers of color discharge and over dyeing; stenciling; applique; hand painting; interlacement of two pieces of silk
Dimensions: 38″W x 64″H
Photographer: Robert Block

VincentR_OnMove_480

“On the Move” By Ruth Vincent

Artist Statement: Continuing my cosmological landscape series, this triptych is inspired by the movement of people across the land–from traditional aboriginal migration to modern-day touring from Sydney to Adelaide.

Materials & Techniques: Materials: Hand-dyed cotton fabric, cotton thread, polyester batting, fusible interfacing, commercial printed cotton backing. Techniques: Procion dyeing, textile paint stamping, discharge paste dye removal, piecing, quilting.
Dimensions: 74″W x 30″H

StehrC_Dentciles2_480x400 “Denticles 2” By Carla Stehr

Artist Statement: Although shark skin looks smooth, it is covered with tiny tooth-like denticles that can only be seen with a microscope. This is inspired by an image of dogfish shark skin denticles that I photographed with a scanning electron microscope during my career as a Fisheries Biologist.

Materials & Techniques: Materials are cotton fabric, stiff interfacing, wool batting, fabric paint and Liquitex ink. Faced openings were made in the quilt sandwich and then it was quilted with polyester thread. Layers of diluted paint were added after stitching. Stiff double-sided fusible interfacing was used to form the denticles. A grey patterned batik fabric was sewn over the denticle shape (much like facing a collar). Ink and paint were applied to the denticles to enhance the batik fabric. Denticles were inserted through the quilt openings and stitched to a backing of painted fabric.
Dimensions: 35″W x 29″H x 1.5″
Photographer: Carla Stehr

 

OSteen_Trees1_322x480“Trees 1”By Barbara O’Steen

Artist Statement: Whether you see this art as two tree trunks, one hollow stump or something else, the image and words are meant to convey a message of the value we receive from trees standing in a forest; providing oxygen that replaces poisonous carbon dioxide for decades.

Materials & Techniques: Fabrics of wool, cotton pique, cotton/polyester, satin, and cotton batting. Appliqué by hand and machine embroidery and couching with yarn, weaving, knitting, crochet, stuffing, trapunto, quilting.
Dimensions: 25″W x 36″H x 2″D
Photographer: Barbara O’Steen

 

 

 

KurjanJ_RiverofLight_480x“River of Light” By Janet Kurjan


Artist Statement: I find inspiration in patterns from nature, such as light coming through the trees during a walk in the woods.

Materials & Techniques: Hand-dyed fabric, machine-pieced, machine quilted with a walking foot.
Dimensions: 52″W x 68″HPhotography: Ken Wagner

 

 

 

 

FallertC_WatchMaster_480“Watch Master” By Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry

 


Artist Statement: On any given evening during my growing-up years, you could find my father at his watch-repair bench in a corner of our home, working among draws filled with tens of thousands of sparkling, nearly microscopic watch parts, springs, screws, balance wheels, jewels, stems, faces, hands, and crystals. When he died at the age of 103, the twelve-drawer cabinet which sat next to his workbench, still contained all its tools and glowing little parts, organized in rows of tiny tins, capsules, and clear plastic boxes.

Materials & Techniques: Original photography, digital printing, watch movements, watch faces, cotton fabric, wool batting, polyester thread. This is a completely double sided piece.
Dimensions :53″W x 53″H
Photographer: Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry

 

Other SDA Members in the show:

Patti Bleifuss

Bonnie Buckman

Ginnie Hebert

Melisse Laing

Margaret Liston

Barbara Nepom

Helen Remick

Lynne Rigby

Sharon Rowley

Digital images at http://www.contemporaryquiltart.com/ExhibitFiles/CuttingEdge.html.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Member Spotlight: In the Studio with Margaret Liston

by surfacedesignwa
Every month Lorraine Edmond will give us a closer look at an SDA member, their studio and practice.  This monthly post is a great opportunity to get to know our fellow SDA members a little better and to be inspired by our community. 

1. Describe your current medium and how you came to it.

Margaret-portrait seriousWhen I have to explain what I do to someone new, I describe myself first as a fiber artist, then an art quilter, but I explain that I print my own fabric.  I screen print and I also use a printing press.  (I mix some commercial fabrics into my quilts as well.) I got an MS in physiological psychology. While in graduate school, I saw a picture of an optical illusion, what I’d later know as a baby block quilt in traditional quilting.  I tried to construct one, but I could not do it! After that degree, I decided “no more school—ever!” I would just be self-taught. I ended up in art school anyway—for 6 years—in my mid-40s.  I went to the UW and because I had a degree already, I got to take only art classes. I would work all day in the surface design studio on campus.  I studied mostly surface design and painting, and near the end, I took printmaking and got totally hooked.

I’d go in on a sunny Saturday and no one else would be there. I’d print on fabric and fill the studio up with pieces that were drying.  Printing and layering were such a high—I thought each piece was great! (Then the next day, I wondered where all those great ones went.)  I’d try every printmaking technique—they were all exciting to me. Mike Spafford was one of our teachers—he was very challenging and always made us think.

I took a quilt-making class from Marcia McCloskey—just so I could learn how to make the corners of my quilt pieces meet.  Back then, calicoes were just about all that was available for quilt-making. I started using big graphics, Margaret quiltHawaiian prints, whatever I could find. I made only tops at first—they take up less room and you can do so many more in the same amount of time! I made wall quilts, too. My machine was set up in the dining room—I had to clean everything up each night so the family could eat. Then I moved to a corner with one small bookshelf in the master bedroom.  Then I moved across the hall, then to a spot in the basement, then to an upstairs bedroom, a more studio-like space.

Finally I moved my studio out of the house, to Pioneer Square.  The building was cheap and I shared the space with two other artists who were never there. My third of the rent was something like 70 dollars a month, but I felt like I really had to work hard so I’d deserve that. I had been told that most people who graduate art school do not continue to be artists. They have to make money, life happens… I was determined to stay an active artist.  I got involved in the early days of the Contemporary QuiltArt Association.  I brought in the first non-quilters as program speakers— Marita Dingus was one of the early ones.

2. What is your creative process like? (How do you begin? Do you draw to work out your ideas? Do you have a vision before you start or does it develop as you work?)

Margaret-quilt2I always have 15-20 things in my head that I could make next, usually continuations of things I’ve been working on. It can be pretty random as to which one I land on in the moment I’m deciding what to do next. It may be because of a pile of fabric I see on my table.  I make baby quilts for friends, the store I show work in needs more bed quilts, or I need to make work for an upcoming show. I do use a sketchbook, both for doodling around and for problem-solving for specific pieces.  Most of my quilts are done improvisationally, though. I pull out colors, start with two, then think of what type to use—silk or not?  Then I arrange and rearrange the pieces on the floor (I have a design wall, but it got covered up by stacks of boxes and stacks of fabrics!)

3. What is your current workspace like?

I’m in the Rainier Oven Building. It’s a wonderful old brick and not so long ago, they actually manufactured commercial ovens here.   And it has an incredible art collection in the halls and even the bathrooms! I’ve been here for twelve years now. It has several art studios and other businesses.  A drapery shop down the hall lets me go through their trash before it goes out—I snatch up slivers of fabrics that cost hundreds of dollars per yard, lots of silks.  My studio space is a cube, 20 ft x 20 ft x 20 ft.

4. If this isn’t your first studio– tell us about some the other work spaces you’ve had– what worked and what didn’t. How does your physical space influence your work?

I was in the Pioneer Square studio for 6 or seven years, until the earthquake send the front of the building into the street.  I had 700 square feet there, so printing was easier. This space is smaller at 400 square feet plus my fabric collection has grown, so I have to shuffle things around a lot. I used to be able to stop and print a fabric in the middle of making a quilt—now I have to switch back and forth and set up for each process.

5. Do you have a favorite piece of equipment or technique for keeping your  studio organized?

Margaret-stashFirst: the fabric shelf!  I made it after I graduated.  To get an art degree, we had to take wood shop, so I was able to make this myself out of plywood.  I sort each color from dark to light and then there’s a section at the top for Margaret-threadlarger pieces of that color. Second: my secondhand industrial Bernina sewing machine.  It looks like a home machine, but the motor is below the table. It sews about twice as fast as a home machine.

6. Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?

When I got the Pioneer Square studio, I would drive my husband to work downtown, then go to the studio. I didn’t pick him up til 5:00, so although I could waste time, I was at least “in the studio” for the whole day. So I just ended up putting a lot of time in. Then he retired and now I might get in by lunchtime and at least have a productive afternoon.  (I also took up the ukulele and got grandchildren so most of my studio time is now weekends and half days.)

7. What is the best art tip you’ve ever received (or discovered)?

From Jacob Lawrence: (1) always put something repetitive in your painting—something to provide a pattern. (2) For each color you have in a painting, it should also be present in a tint (the color plus white) and a shade (the color plus black). In the case of red, the tint will then read as a highlight, not as “pink.”  (3) from Hazel Koenig, who taught fiberarts at UW: always have a piece of a black and white patterned fabric near you when working. It encourages you to use the full value range in each piece—you may or may not use it in the piece but it affects how you work.

8. What inspires you to work and how do you keep motivated when things get tough in the studio?

If I don’t come in, I’m just not whole. Making things is what I like to do and this is where I do it. It’s just a part of me. It’s what I do. It’s who I am.

You can see Margaret’s quilts in person at the Northwest Woodworker’s Gallery in Seattle. See hours and directions here: http://www.nwwoodgallery.com/.