WIP: inspiration from "The Big Read"

A couple of weeks ago, I took a mini-sabbatical, a long "artist's date", a retreat... what ever one might call it... to the St. Croix Valley for "The Big Read". Each year, several communities located along the gorgeous river valley participate in lectures, classes, plays, exhibitions, sing-ins, workshops, and the like, all inspired by a particular novel.

This post captures some of the textile art that most inspired me. (Verbal permission was given (by galleries) to photograph and post photos of the pieces.)

ArtReach St. Croix in beautiful Stillwater Minnesota

This year's novel was John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath". At the "From a Cloud of Dust" exhibition, was an intriguing piece of textile art by Minneapolis artist Deborah Foutch. It is quite a large piece.

"Soil Horizon" by Deborah Foutch

Jo Hinchcliff's felted roof for the Birdhouse Auction

 

"String of Fish" by Barbara Riegel Bend

Although not an official part of The Big Read events, "String of Fish" (at The Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, Wisconsin) really caught my attention. What an imagination Barbara Riegel Bend has.




The card next to "String of Fish" read: "This Sting of Fish is about experimenting with repetition, broken zippers sewn together by one long gray invisible zipper, and following the shape that zipper make (sic) when coiled. All of that then comes together to make a cohesive recognizable outcome of a classic Wisconsin sport... fishing.



I also saw the works of many other artists that will inspire me to make changes and take risks in my own work. It was a lovely break.