Are you familiar with Focus on Fiber? It’s an annual retreat for fiber artists at a wonderful rustic facility in New Smyrna Beach, FL. Artists can work on their own projects or take a class from one of the visiting teachers. The retreat leader kindly invited The Quilt as Art artists to join them for dinner after the exhibit’s gallery walk. What fun!
After a delicious salmon dinner, OF COURSE, we had to see what the artists were up to! We visited Judy Coates-Perez’ acrylic ink class. Oh my, did that look like fun! She uses many transparent layers of ink, using dyeing techniques, stamping, painting, and more. Just look at this sample of hers. It totally grabbed me.
Can you tell that an early layer had flowers and now they’re mostly covered? There are many intriguing details as you notice things that are partially covered. They seem to be embedded, like items in an encaustic painting. You can see it better in the detail shot.
Here are some more of Judy’s samples.
Wonderful things were happening all around her classroom. The fabrics below were dyed and painted by Gabriele DiTota. It’s hard to imagine that they are the FIRST layer of an artwork, and will be largely covered. I’d have a HARD time covering some of these!
In the next class room we visited the participants who were doing their own thing. We didn’t make it far into the room, though, before we noticed the unique work of Susan Shie. As well as Susan, herself.
She was very generous with her knowledge as she explained her process to us. Her work is all painted with an airbrush. Afterwards, she writes ALL OVER IT with an air pen, (something I didn’t fully understand.) She writes things in a journal fashion: whatever’s going on in her life at that time. This piece is called May 4, the anniversary of the student killings at Kent State, her alma mater. She’s written a lot about that. Then, when David Bowie died, she noticed that the man on the left resembled him and labeled him as such. And so it goes. It was very interesting.
It was only Day 2 of the retreat, but there were already many interesting things going on around the room. Karol Kusmaul is working on the collaborative piece below.
It was an exhilarating visit! (Maybe I need to attend next year.)
What great art retreats have you attended? I’ve been to QSDS (Quilt Surface Design Symposium) several times, as well as taken a class at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. I highly recommend these multi-day classes!
Ellen Lindner
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