Recycled Art with St. Paul's Episcopal Kids

I helped the children at St. Paul's Episcopal Church create an entry for the Garbage Garage's Recycled Art Contest "Trash to Treasure". It was fun, the kids came up with a concept about rainbows out of bottle caps. They asked the congregation to collect caps and used them to make this lovely mobile type piece. For more info about the contest go here.

University of Colorado @ Boulder Show

This is a really cool show. The Art Gallery at the University Memorial Center is opening their Gallery to anyone in the community to come and display their art on the walls of the gallery. You have to specify what you are going to do with your space and how much room you need. Pretty cool concept. A lot like "Out of Order" the annual all hung exhibit at Maryland Art Place, but with a different installation type twist where you are allotted a certain amount of space. The exhibit goes up next week and will be on display throughout the month of April. '

I will be displaying my Digest Series: Chapter 7 on my 50"x50" square.

Weaving Plastic

My studio project of late has been making yardage on my floor loom. I have been making fabric out of plastic grocery bags for some time now. The first experiment with this technique was in Vince Foote's Industrial Design class at NC State School of Design. 16 years later, I am still making bags and other accessories out of recycled plastic. The inspiration for the latest incarnation of bags was from my husband who was skeptical about moving my floor loom from Maryland to Colorado since he hadn't seen me working on it in several years. Which was true, I was pretty involved in making vessels and worked primarily on my frame loom. I am happy to be back on the floor loom and the response from visitors to my studio has been overwhelmingly positive. Stay tuned, next stop wallets and bags made out of the recycled plastic grocery bag fabric.

HANGING BY A THREAD

If you are near White Plains, New York you might want to venture out to see "Hanging By a Thread" at Arts Westchester. This show features my work (including this piece, 1729 Bottles of Beer on the Wall") as well as other nationally known fiber artists who work with recycled materials. There is a great article online about this show at Westchester.com.. This show was curated by Julia Dixon, participating Artists Include:
Lesley Dill
Randy Frost
Desire Koslin
Mary Ann Lomonaco
Sarah Millman
Leslie Pelino
Peoria Emporium (owned and operated by artists Elena Agostinis and Patricia Grace Stevens)
Luis Perelman
Barbara Segal
Leah Tacha
Vadis Turner
Paul Villinski
Leni Wiener
Saya Woolfalk

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I am posting some pictures of a project I did last week with a Kindergarten class at Harris Bilingual School in Fort Collins. We crafted paper sticks and then made them into large, 3-D shamrocks. It was Spanish Day at the school and for probably the 10,000th time in my life I wished I had paid better attention to my Spanish teachers in High School. It would have been very cool to speak to the class instead of just looking like a bit of an idiot. Oh well, we spoke the universal language....of ART!

Groundswell

This piece is called GROUNDSWELL. It was created using rolled up USGS maps , glue, and a wood frame. I created it for a show at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center called "Interpreting the Political Landscape". The show will be up from April 7th-April 27th. The jury decides on actual work, so I am not guaranteed to have my piece placed in this show, but I am hopeful it will be.

Utah Ties Exhibit

Three of my Villi from the Digest series will be featured in the "Utah Ties" exhibit at the Central Utah Art Center. I grew up in Salt Lake City, so it is a thrill for me to be in my first Art show in Utah. The show will run from March 13-April 8th, 2009. The opening reception will be this Friday March 13th from 6-8pm.

Open House Visitors

I was amazed at the turnout of people to the First Friday Open House. There are so many inquisitive, interesting, welcoming people in Fort Collins! I especially like the college students who come into my studio with great enthusiasm and insightful questions. Here is a picture of one gentleman who visited my studio last Friday and tried on my "Bottle Cap Vest". Thanks to all of you who stopped by!

Open Studio Tonight!

I will be at my studio tonight as part of Fort Collins First Friday. I am in suite 203 at The Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art. First Friday is from 6-9pm. Stop on by!

Garbage Garage

One of my favorite places in my new home is the Garbage Garage. This is an educational center located at the Larimer County Landfill. They have a great installation that was created from trash from the landfill. They also do classes and outreach to essentially teach kinds (and adults) ways to creatively recycle. They have a lot of stuff going on, including a recycled art project. I have spoken with Rose about doing some programming of my own at the Garbage Garage. It is really a great place!!

Hanging By a Thread

I am really pleased to be in this show in Westchester, New York. A very good friend of mine, Mary Ann Lomonaco will be teaching a workshop as part of this exhibit. She also will be displaying some of her work. Her and I met during a workshop at Haystack School of Craft in Deer Island, Maine.