I’m just back from Athens, Ohio and my first visit to Quilt National and the Studio Art Quilt Associates conference. It was an amazing weekend, full of information and inspiration. I met lots of interesting people and was thrilled to be at the opening for Quilt National 2009 on Friday night. My husband had generously bought the QN catalog for me ahead of time, so I had some time to look at the images before I went to the exhibit. As always, I was amazed at how the quilts were so much more vibrant in person than they are in photographs, although the catalog is very well done. The photos just can’t capture the dimensional quality of the work, which is so important in fiber art. Click on the link http://www.dairybarn.org/quilt/index.php?section=226&page=281 to see the winning quilts from this year’s show.
Last Saturday, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting piece on Quilt National and other upcoming shows this summer. It’s great to see fiber art getting some positive national press. Here’s the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574175704270154992.html
At the SAQA conference, I was fortunate to attend a panel discussion by this year’s QN jurors, Sue Benner, Katie Pasquini Masopust and Ned Wert, who gave insights into the jury process for this prestigious show. I didn’t enter this time, but I came away from the talk with a much better idea of what I need to do to enter for the next show in 2011. Quilt National is a celebration of innovation and it’s exciting to see all the different directions fiber artists are pursuing. Of course, some are more appealing than others to me, but I think that the challenge is to explore new ideas that speak me as an artist and then try to express my unique voice and vision through my work. So I’m off to the studio!