Tag Archives | Dirty Dozen

Y’all, I am SO fortunate to be part of the Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists. This group of women is not only artistically talented, but great friends! What a blessing to each of us.

Here’s most of the gang viewing our current exhibit. Can you tell we’re having fun?

L-R: Linda Geiger, Ruth Anne Parker, Gabrielle DiTota, Perlie Petrillo, Sandy Shenker, Ellen Lindner, Kathryn Robinson, Dij Pacarro, and Anne Kobus. Not shown: Jill Brown, Andrea Luliak, and Becky Stack

Our group is mostly about making art, but we also like to occasionally display our work. Right now, we have 19 pieces in an exhibit called Fiber Arts: An Ancient Local Tradition. The oldest textiles in the world have been found at an archaeological site in our county so this exhibit was curated to honor that. It’s on display at The Cape Center, in Cape Canaveral, FL. It’s a very nice venue, with most of the artwork well lit. Visiting is free and it will be up through October.

Here are just a few of the wonderful pieces on display.

Gabriele DiTota’s huge banana leaf is the largest piece in the exhibit. To make it she printed an actual banana leaf with cyanotype. The title is No Bananas Today. It was made during the pandemic, when many things were out of stock at the grocery store. She has text on the piece listing several other things that were also hard to find.

Gabriele DiTota with her piece, “No Bananas Today.”

The Cape Center was specifically looking for pieces with a local or environmental message for this exhibit, so Sandy Shenker’s piece about Red Mangroves fit right in. The title is Keystone, reflecting the importance of these plants in the ecosystem of our local river/lagoon. Can you see those BIG roots?

“Keystone” by Sandy Shenker

Anne Kobus created this wonderful quilt, Sunward.

” Sunward” by Anne Kobus

Andrea Luliak made this triptych featuring the life of a sunflower. She calls it Life Cycle.

“Life Cycle”by Andrea Luliak

“Salty Air and Sunshine” was made by Kathryn Robinson. It include sheer fabrics, computer printed ones, and hand stitching.

“Salty Air and Sunshine” by Kathryn Robinson

Hanging high, in the most prominent corner, are 3D fish made by Joan Engel. Part of an earlier work about the plight of fish in polluted water, all of these live in our local river/lagoon. Now displayed independently, they make great shadows on the wall.

*By Joan Engel

I hope you get to see these great pieces for yourself!

Ellen Lindner

The “Stitched, Stamped, and Sculpted” exhibit, currently on display in the Ormond Memorial Art Museum, has some really fabulous work.

Liz Canali has several felted and highly textured pieces in the show. They are all done in neutral colors of cream and grey. This is her piece The Lore of the Stones – Granite.

And a detail shot.

Pretty cool, right?

Normajean Brevik’s embellished piece is also very intriguing. It’s called Seeing Red Again #5.

The most mixed-media and 3D piece in the show is Gertrude, by Sandy Shenker. This piece is about 5′ high, with a gourd as a head, fabric-covered PVC pipes as legs, and many more unusual and ingenious uses of materials.

Sandy has also included a photo book showing how it was all put together. It’s very informative and definitely worth perusing.

My art group, Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists, was invited to show our group work, Measure of a Woman. These are self-portraits, each the height of the maker. The museum did a fabulous job hanging them, as you can see. Being the shortest in any group, mine is the red one on the left. (See a better image)

L-R artists: Ellen Lindner, Marilyn Seibring, Ruth Anne Parker, Dij Pacarro, Laura Ruiz, Jill Brown, Sandy Shenker, Gabriele DiTota, Becky Stack, Kathryn Robinson

On opening night the audience was very interested in the art. Here, Regina Dunn is talking with a few admirers about her Transformation pieces.

But, this photo gives you a better idea of the energy and enthusiasm in the room. (This is one of four rooms in the exhibit space.)

The exhibit will be up through August 14th. I hope you get to see it!

Ellen Lindner

In order to be in the Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists, you have to make a self-portrait. This has worked really well as a litmus test of how good the fit is between the prospective member and the group. Those who embrace it with minimal trepidation are likely to be a good fit, while those who are scared off are not likely to be.

We often show these self-portraits when we have our exhibits, especially if we have never members and, therefore, new quilts.

Although somewhat out of focus, you can see the diversity, above. These were made by:
Top row, L-R: Sandy Shenker, Andrea Luliak, Ruth Anne Parker, Perlie (Phyllis) Petrillo, Jill Brown
Bottom row, L-R: Joan Engel, Becky Stack, Kathryn Robinson, Marilyn Seibring, Gabriele DiTota, and me.

Continuing onto the next panel are two more. Top: Dij Pacarro, Bottom: Laura Ruiz.

We also provided “How To” information about cyanotype, ice dyeing, and weaving.

The final two panels of our exhibit featured some of our favorites.
They were made by, Top Row, L-R: Jill Brown, Gabriele DiTota, Kathryn Robinson, Dij Pacarro
Bottom row, L-R: Sandy Shenker, (Gabriele DiTota,) Marilyn Seibring, Joan Engel

These were made by, Top Row, L-R: Andrea Luliak, Perlie Petrillo, Becky Stack
Bottom row, L-R: (Andrea Luliak,) Ruth Anne Parker, and me

In addition to our quilts, we also had a table of 3D work. I’m sorry I don’t know exactly who made what. However, I think all these pieces were made by Gabriele DiTota, Marilyn Seibring, and Jill Brown.

What a creative group we have! We were very happy with our exhibit which included 47 quilts and about 10 3D items. We greatly appreciate the Seaside Piecemakers for offering us this opportunity.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. We’ll be offering our “Measure of a Woman” and “In the Style of” challenges as traveling exhibits. Need something special for your quilt show?