Karen Miller - Two Exhibitions at the Corvallis Arts Center

Karen Miller has two shows at the Corvallis Arts Center to report.

The first is open now through the end of August. It is called "The Art of Plankton" The work is all inspired by the photographs taken by an OSU oceanography professor and includes paintings, prints, glass, quilts, ceramics, sculpture and installations. My piece is an installation of silk organza panels depicting diatoms which hang and float in the center of the room.

The second show, which will hang October 2 to Nov 3 in the CAC Corinne Woodman Gallery will include a series of small quilts using the stencil dyed indigo fabrics I have made from the summer snow patterns of the peaks of the entire Cascade Range, from Mt Baker south to Mt Shasta. It is my response to global warming and the potential loss of these familiar mountain views of glaciers and snowfields.

Karen is also teaching a katazome class at the Sitka Center in late September. There is a link on Karen's website.

Portland Parlor Meeting

The Portland Parlor SAQA group meet Wednesday at Gerrie Congdon's home.Thanks for hosting, Gerrie! Time was spent talking further about our photo class at New Space. The consensus was that we all fell more confident to photograph our own quilts. Our next meeting will be August 15th at Elizabeth's house. Same schedule, 10am-12pm. Mary Ann McCammon will be giving us a presentation on rhythm, one of the secondary design elements. Two people volunteered to bring snacks for the meeting.

Wednesday's meeting was focused on critiquing following the Jane Dunnewold's guidelines, "Learning to Critique Effectively." We were able to critique several quilts following her guidelines. The purpose of the meeting was to concentrate on the process, which allowed us to take more time with each piece. Overall, we were pleased with group critique. It was very thoughtful and productive. We decided we may want to dedicate several meetings a year for this alone. It was nice to be sharing our work with one another.

I am interested in doing some planning for the next year's meetings. September seems to be the start of a new year. If you would email with some feedback of what you would like to see happen in our monthly meetings and in our quarterly meetings(following CFG meetings). Topics of interest, sharing one's expertise, guest speakers such as artist from other mediums,and another gallery meeting are a few examples of subjects/topics we could focus on in our meetings. I look forward to hearing from you and I would encourage help on planning our upcoming year. Any volunteers!

Thanks to all and enjoy the rest of your summer. Betty Daggett

Portland Parlor Group Meeting July 18

The Portland Parlor Group will meet this Wednesday, July 18 at Gerrie Congdon's home from 10am-12pm. Contact Gerrie for directions. This will be a meeting concentrating on critiquing and working with various methods of critique. Members are asked to bring a piece of finished work to be critiqued by the group. We are calling this a practice/learning session. Gerrie will provide tea and coffee and asks that people bring food to share. Any questions on directions email or call Gerrie.

An Update from Shirley MacGregor

I was lucky to be able to take part in Her Presence in Color X as part of the American faction. This took place over a period of one week. In 2014 it will be held in Mongolia. Here is a little about the exhibition and the events.

Her Presence in Color X was held in Vietnam June this year and featured the art of about 212 women artists representing 20 different countries. The biennial event was formed in 1993 in Asia and has grown to include many countries. We were fortunate to host the congregation here in Portland, Oregon, two years ago. To learn more about this organization visit the website.

The theme of the exhibition, "Women's Art - a New Direction in Global Culture," was conceived to reflect the common vision and mission of the women artists and their aspiration for the development of a new global culture. The intent is to focus on the human aspects of life and their concern of women artists for a sustainable environment.

The Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, the venue for the exhibition, is an old French colonial building and a wonderful place for the show. Museum officials generously provided two floors of one building and plenty of space for the exhibition. An adjacent (and virtually identical) building holds a wonderful collection of contemporary art.

The conference Her Presence in Color X featured more than just the exhibition. There was a seminar at HCMC Fine Art University in which each country's representative presented their take on the theme, "Women's Art - a New Direction in Global Culture."

Another feature of the conference was a painting day where each artist was given two ceramic plates to paint, which were subsequently fired and finished. It was amazing what the artists came up with.

We were also taken across town to a gallery of HCMC Fine Art Association to see a collection of wonderful lacquer painting art. Also at the end we were treated to a farewell party at an artist colony on the river. What a fantastic ending this was!

I have posted pictures and more on my website.
Shirley MacGregor

Currents Gallery Third Annual Fiber Show Call for Entries

Summer is here.... time to think about Fall..... and the Third Annual Fiber Show at Currents Gallery, 532 NE Third Street, McMinnville, Oregon, opening 20th October, 2012.

This is the preview notice. A formal call and application will be sent out next week. But we wanted you to know some of the details now:

DATES:
Art to Currents Gallery...... October 5th-October 9th.
Jurying ..............................October 10th
Show hangs.......................October 16th
Opening.............................October 20th.

*Art-to-wear
*3-d pieces
*Wall hangings
*Quilts
...and more

*Sewn
*Knitted
*Felted
*Riveted
*Welded, whittled, carved and........

All items must be for sale.

There will be a $25.00 jury fee for up to 3 pieces. A group of similar items will count as one item, eg. scarves in the same style, bags in the same style, etc.

$15.00 will be credited to the Gallery commission for the first item sold.

Details will be available on our website, http://www.currentsgallery.com/, by July 20th.

Please forward this info to every fiber artist you know !

Many thanks for your past support. We look froward to another successful Fiber Arts show.
Ilsa Perse for Currents Gallery