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Saturday at IQF

cheryldineenferrin — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:52:07 +0000

Hello again,
Today we have the pleasure of having Diane Nunez and Martha Warshaw in the booth with us. Diane has recently become a professional artist member of SAQA.

Diane and Martha, SAQA booth volunteers

Good Morning from IQF Cincinnati

cheryldineenferrin — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:18:23 +0000

Sightlines installation IQF Cincinnati

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to Friday at the Festival. I am here in the SAQA booth with Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, Nysha Nelson, Michele Ellis Bell having a great time meeting lots of traditional and art quilters including Jackie Skarritt from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Jackie reports she was accepted into the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts West Michigan Area Show with an art quilt featuring a number of different surface design techniques.
The Sightlines exhibit pictured here had it’s origins in an exhibit done by a group of art quilters from Australia.
If you would like to read the curators statement about the exhibit – it has lots more insight about the exhibit than I can post here http://www.saqa.com/about.php?ID=1699

International Quilt Festival-Cincinnati

cheryldineenferrin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:51:15 +0000

Hello from the International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati! It’s warm and
wonderful here compared to Michigan. The grass and shrubs are green, the trees
are starting to bud out, the birds are singing – oh, wait – no, that was me
going 72 in a 55 . . .
SAQA exhibits are up @ IQF and just getting their final adjustments. If you
can make it to IQF, it’s going to be worth the trip.
Show hours at the Duke Energy Convention Center:
tonight, 5-9 pm
tomorrow and Sat. 10 am-7 pm
Sun. 10 am-3 pm.

The end of an era

cheryldineenferrin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:10:41 +0000

Dominie Nash, Stills From A Life Series #37

I’m finally done with my last Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. Portfolio. I’ve been working on this project with SAQA for seven years. When I took over, the Portfolio was a wire-bound book we had to collate ourselves from pages provided by each artist. Dominie Nash (www.dominienash.com) worked on the Portfolio for 8 years before I came on board. I think she brought things along from postcards to the book stage.
SAQA has some interesting ideas about how to present artwork to the public and I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the project. Now that Deidre Adams is going to take over, I am sure that the Portfolio will become even more popular. We each contribute what we can to move things forward. (Deidre is a master at handling images.)
I remember last year I was talking with my brother about the things I was working on and I mentioned the Portfolio. He muttered something under his breath about how I was “always working on the Portfolio.” His comment gave me a lot to think about. What was I contributing to this project after six years? Had I taken it along as far as my capabilities would allow? What would I have to do to be the one to advance the style and quality of the book to the next level of professionalism for SAQA? And of course the most difficult question to face, how much time was I diverting from my own artwork in favor of this project?
This book was particularly difficult for me. As editor of an art book, you don’t have a lot to read or write but you do have hundreds of images to edit, quality check, rework, and at times reject. Despite the fact that SAQA has been requesting digital images from its Professional Artist Members for many years, the learning curve still seems to challenge many artists. There were 213 artists included in Portfolio 17, far fewer than the 280+ artists in Portfolio 16, and I was thankful that we did not have more. Normally, I am calling folks to get them to send me their images. I mean come on, you can have your work published in a book and you are not stepping up? This year there was no time for that luxury. Out of all the submissions, I think there were about 12 that were completely correct. Some images required days of editing before they could be published.
Ahh, but now Deidre, image editor and designer extraordinaire, will step up to the challenge. Fair notice to all SAQA professional members: Deidre will expect your “A” game.

The Museum of the Plains Indian

cheryldineenferrin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:36:46 +0000

David Dragonfly, Artist and Curator of the Museum of the Plains Indian

So, this is the Museum here. It looks incredibly governmental from the outside, as you would expect as it is a part of the Department of the Interior. There are some interesting sculpture outside near some pick-nick tables in the front of to the side of this image but most of the art works are housed within. The Museum is open 7-days a week during the summer and through the end of September. David Dragonfly is the Curator of the Museum. He is a cordial gentleman, down to earth and quite knowledgeable. I had the opportunity to see a few pieces of his artwork: they were wonderful. I’ll see if I can get some images of them to post here.

The Museum of the Plains Indian, Browing, Montana

The Museum of the Plains Indian displays historic clothing, horse gear, weapons, household implements, baby carriers, and toys in one part of the Museum and the works of contemporary Native American artists in two others. http://www.doi.gov/iacb/museums/museum_plains.html

Browning, Montana

cheryldineenferrin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:43:13 +0000

The drive from Browning to East Glacier, Montana

My time as Visiting Artist in Montana is really going fast. The people I have met have been fabulous, as has the scenery. I have been staying in cabins in East Glacier, Montana about 12 miles south of Browning. Let’s see, the first night I stayed in East Glacier Motel and Cabins, right across the road from a terrific restaurant called Luna’s Cafe and just about a quarter mile from Serrano’s Mexican Restaurant. I’ve been to both places before so it is no coincidence I stayed close by. Then I moved to Jacobson’s Cottages. The president of the local Chamber of Commerce said “they’re clean and cozy, you’ll like them.” And I did.
Browning is the headquarters for the Blackfeet Nation and the location of the Museum of the Plains Indian where I have been working. The Friends of the Museum of the Plains Indian have a good sized office on the second floor of the Museum that I have converted into a photo studio. I have been taking 30-50 reference shots of each of the invited artists so that I can go back to Michigan and create the sketches and then the final large format art quilt portraits. I went in with a number of poses in mind and just chucked them all out the window and let each individual get comfortable and talking before I started looking for the pose that was uniquely “them”.

Leonda Fast Buffalo Horse

The first person I worked with was Leonda Fast Buffalo Horse. I was talking with a tour guide from the Red Bus Tours when I was in Montana in July. He described the ancient Blackfeet women as ‘fierce”. Then he added with a cautious smile, “Contemporary Blackfeet women can be pretty fierce too.” These word echoed in my mind the first time I met Leonda despite the fact that she looks all of 5′ 5″ and 98 pounds. She struck me as the kind of person who would be a jewel of a friend. She has the ability to see to the heart of the situation and is willing to share her insights in an honest and direct manner. My husband is gifted in this way also. No wonder I liked her.
This information came from her gallery:
“Leonda was born in Browning, Montana and has been a full time artist since she moved back to the reservation from Seattle, WA in 1993. Her foundation is in painting, drawing and design, which fosters her flexibility to create organic forms as well as traditional geometrics. Adapting imagery of the Northern Plains, she enjoys the simplicity of the designs and primary colors, re-imaging cultural art forms in the medium of glass. She incorporates objects and traditional porcupine quillwork into stained glass designs to fuse old Plains Indian tradition with the media of glass into a new form of cultural artistic expression. Leonda was an instructor for porcupine quillwork at the Institute of Native American Art in Santa Fe, NM and has been a contracted teacher for glass mosaic work in the Browning School District, Since 1996, Leonda has attended art shows such as Northern Plains Tribal Arts in Sioux Falls, SD, Heard Museum Indian Art Show in Phoenix, AZ and the Native American Art Show in Great Falls, MT. In most of the shows she was honored for her quillwork. In 2005 she received the Artist in Business Leadership Award by the First Peoples Fund.”

Minot, North Dakota

cheryldineenferrin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:17:23 +0000

Good morning from Minot, North Dakota. It’s overcast and a little cool – but lovely on the train. Our overnight had a real camp atmosphere. A couple little girls were just mesmerized by my brothers knitting projects yesterday. The older girl, Alysa, expressed an interest in learning to knit. So, brother Bill had some extra double pointed needles and yarn and we spent an hour or so going over the basics and knitting something about the size of a couple of postage stamps. When she started getting tired, I bound off her work and gave it to her as a memento of her trip. We are on the move again. Our little knitting admirers have all gotten off in Minot. We continue enjoying the scenery on our way to East Glacier, Montana.

The Indiana Countryside

cheryldineenferrin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:03:57 +0000

Hi again, so, yes, I took the train to Chicago this morning. What an elegant way to travel. We passed a wetland just west of Porter, Indiana and I saw a bird that I thought was an egret-or a heron. I have a hard time telling them apart. I bet the artist Kathie Briggs of Charlevoix, Michigan would know the difference (www.kathiebriggs.com) It was a soft-white and slender bird just chilling in the marsh.
Despite the fact that we live in a rural county, it is characterized by farmland, orchards and vineyards, real wildlife is thin on the ground.
I am making this trip with my brother Bill who has never been to Glacier. You can follow his comments on Facebook at Bill Dineen. It has been quite enjoyable so far.

Visiting Artist gig

cheryldineenferrin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:53:49 +0000

Hi all. I am on the train from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Chicago. But the journey does not end there. I have the honor of working with the Friends of the Museum of the Plains Indian as their 2010-2011 Visiting Artist. I’m heading to Montana to get started on a series of portraits of artists of the Blackfeet Nation. I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to work with the “Friends” and share their office in Browning, Montana at the Museum.
Have wifi will travel. I will keep you up to date.

Upcoming exhibits

cheryldineenferrin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:51:01 +0000

Hi,
I thought we might take a look at some of the upcoming exhibits I will be participating in over the next few months:
going on right now through 09/19/10, 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Circle of Arts Gallery, Charlevoix, Michigan. This exhibit, curated by Kathie Briggs, is in a lovely town in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan.
Coming up:
9/04/10 to 09/26/10, Some Like it Hot, Schaumburg Prairie Arts Center,Schaumburg, Illinois
9/11/10 to 10/23/10, Midwest Meditations, Bloomington Park District Museum, Bloomington, Illinois
These exhibits are being curated by members of the Fiber Artists Coalition www.fiberartistscoalition.com. This is a growing and interesting group of artists from the Midwest who have come together to bring art quilts to the public.