News from the Portland Parlor Group

At our March 19^th meeting, we divided into small groups to work in depth on our Artist Statements. This was our third session working on Statements, and it’s been a useful exercise – one we will probably revisit at intervals, since it has become clear that this is a tool we need to think about and update regularly.

We also discussed the challenging question of how best to communicate, both within our group and with the other parlor groups and all SAQA members throughout Oregon. Email? Yahoo? Facebook? Blogspot? What is the best way to provide information on upcoming meetings and other events? Keep our files? Share news and inspiration with each other? Not easy to streamline all this, but we are working on it!

Our April meeting will be held on Wednesday April 16^th from 10am to midday, at the Beaverton Public Library: 12375 SW 5^th St, Beaverton, OR 97005 (between SW Hall Blvd and SW Tucker Ave). Please join us. If you are not a member of our group but happen to be in the area, or are thinking of joining the group, you are very welcome to come to this meeting, or to any future meetings.

Terry Grant, Sherri Culver and Sidnee Snell will share information on the social media we will be using in future to communicate within the Portland group and within SAQA Oregon, and will show us how to use the various sites. There will be plenty of time for questions! This will also be the first of three meetings where each of us will have a chance to talk about our journeys as artists, reflecting on how our art has changed and developed over time, where we have found inspiration, where we are today, and where we hope to go in the future. We’ll bring an early piece of our art, and a recent piece.

At our April meeting, the following members will tell us about their artistic journeys (you will have about five minutes each): Para Winingham, Pam Pilcher, Mary Arnold, Sherri Culver, Gerrie Congdon, Jill Hoddick, Bonnie Bucknam, Marie Murphy Wolfe, and Elizabeth Bamberger.

As always, everyone, don’t forget to bring your show and tell, brags and news of upcoming events and exhibits, and email me: elizabethbamberger@gmail.com, if you would like anything added to the agenda.

SAQA Oregon at QUILT! KNIT! STITCH! in Portland

Quilt!Knit!Stitch! is coming to Portland Thursday to Saturday, August 14th to 16th, 2014, and SAQA Oregon will be there! Come join us and have fun.

We will have our own booth. This is a great opportunity to introduce SAQA to other Oregon fiber artists at this popular venue, to sign up new members, raise funds by selling SAQA publications, and to make new friends and meet up with old ones. We also plan to have a SAQA Oregon Meet and Greet in the lobby each day - details TBA.

We are looking for volunteers to help us staff the booth between 10 am and 6pm each day from Thursday August 16th through Saturday August 18th; three to four hours of your time is all we need (and that gives you free entry to the show). Just email me: elizabethbamberger@gmail.com, let me know the hours that would work for you, and I'll sign you up.

One more thing: there will be many, many fabulous vendors there, so start your Giving In To Temptation fund right away!

I'll look forward to seeing you there.
Elizabeth Bamberger
Oregon SAQA Co-Rep.

News from Valley-South Parlor Group

News from Valley-South:  we encompass all areas that don't fit into Central Oregon or Portland Metro!

Valley-South growing again:  At our March meeting we welcomed two new members; one from Coos Bay and one from Waldport.  Maybe 2014 will be a coastal year for us?  We had a big group and put the finishing touches on our Valley South Art Quilters exhibit at the Eugene Textile Center, which will be up all of April.  We also recapped the March 6th conference in Newberg, and all agreed it was a stellar event.  We're moving away from our Yahoo group since several members have had access problems, and implementing our own Facebook group.  We talked about possible studio tours and having some overnight hospitality available for members who have to travel long distances to join us.  We put more time into Show & Tell, as this is where we can talk about art and how our work fits into our goals for the year.  We will meet April 25th (note that this is not our normal third Friday time) at the Eugene Textile Center, in order to see and celebrate our exhibit "Moving Forward:  Little Gems of Quilted Art" there.  Our May meeting will be May 23rd (also not our normal time; we'll get back to third Fridays thereafter) in Philomath, when we'll have a presentation by fiber artist Babette Gruenwald.  For details about when & where we meet and what we're about, contact Georgia French:  gfrench@rosenet.net.  Our meetings are open to all SAQA members and to those interested in finding out more about SAQA.

"Window Seat" on View at the Portland International Airport

Prairie Circles by Gerrie Congdon

Works by SAQA Oregon members Elizabeth Bamberger, Gerrie Congdon and Shirley MacGregor have been selected to be included in an exhibit at Portland International Airport. The exhibit, titled Window Seat, is built around an essay written by Jim Earl, a literature professor at the University of Oregon. In the essay, Earl uses images taken from Google Earth to educate people about the land seen below them as they fly. The exhibit can be seen from April through October 2014 in post-security Concourse A.

High Desert Colors by Elizabeth Bamberger

Photo by Bill Bachhuber

30000 Feet From Somewhere by Shirley MacGregor

 

"Exploring Layers" Moves to the Coast

Oregon SAQA's third juried exhibit, "Exploring Layers," has completed its run at the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg, to widespread acclaim, and will now move to the next venue.  It will open on April 18th, 2014, with a gala reception from 5-7pm at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, Oregon.

I Once Saw a Tree by Paulette Landers

 

The show will run through June 28th.  The Coos Art Museum is located at 235 Anderson Avenue in Coos Bay.  Admission is $5; $2 for students & seniors.  The museum is open Tuesday - Friday 10am - 4pm, and Saturday 1-4pm.  www.coosart.org

Awakenings by Mary Stiewig

 

Also available at the museum is the print catalog for "Exploring Layers."  For further information, contact Georgia French at gfrench@rosenet.net.

Catalog of "Exploring Layers" Exhibit Now Available

A 32-page print catalog of "Exploring Layers" is now available, for $8.  The catalogs will be available at the Coos Art Museum and other future venues for the exhibit, or contact Georgia French at gfrench@rosenet.net for more information.

Portland Parlor Meeting March 19, 2014

Our next Portland SAQA meeting will be on Wednesday, March 19 from 10 a.m. to 12 midday. Please note the change of venue: we will meet at the Beaverton Public Library, located at 12375 SW 5th St, Beaverton, OR 97005 (between SW Hall Blvd and SW Tucker Ave). The library has a parking lot, and there is street parking. Enter the lobby and turn left. Our meeting room will be straight ahead of you. 

We have plenty to talk about! This is what I have on the agenda so far; please email Elizabeth Bamberger if you would like to add anything.

- Artist Statements. This will be our second session working on our Statements - remember, they are always works in progress, so don't agonize about whether your Statement is "perfect", just bring your most recent version and we'll tap into each others' ideas and inspirations. If you haven't yet written a Statement, just come and listen and get ideas. Last November we talked about both your Artist Statement (this describes who you are as an artist) and Gallery Tags (a "sound bite" of 25 to 50 words about a specific piece of work.) This time around, we'll revisit both of these, breaking up into small groups so we can each give and get plenty of feedback. There are plenty of articles out there to help us think about this process - google "Artist Statements". Here are just a couple:
"What to say in your artist statement" by Leni Levenson Wiener; SAQA Journal, Fall 2011, p16. On the SAQA website in the Members section, if you no longer have that issue.
Search for statements at: www.artbizcoach.com/resources/statement/html http://www.artbizcoach.com/resources/statement/html and www.artbusiness.com/artstate.html. http://www.artbusiness.com/artstate.html. 

- Reporting back from the Oregon SAQA Conference in Newberg.

- Creating closer connections with our other Oregon parlor groups - Central Oregon and Valley South. Bring your ideas about what we might share, joint projects we might create, and how we can set about doing this.

- News, announcements, brags, show and tell. I think show and tell is one of the most inspiring parts of our meetings; bring a finished piece or a work in progress, and let's have fun.

We don't have facilities for providing drinks or snacks at the library, but feel free to bring your own. See you there!

Elizabeth