Lisa Binkley's Fiber Art Blog

"Midsummer Convocation" is on YouTube

Fellow art quilter and teacher Wendy Butler Berns recently released a series of videos that cover various aspects of quilt making. Wendy included one of my quilts--Midsummer Convocation--in the series. (Thanks Wendy!) A friend recently let me know that the quilt shows up nicely on a YouTube excerpt of one of Wendy's videos. Here's a link to the one-minute segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAot4d5y7JM. You can also see the quilt just behind Wendy's head in the promo image for the series below. I've also included a full-view of Midsummer Convocation at the bottom of this post..

I love the way technology has made for easier and fuller access to so much knowledge, teaching, and information, whether it is about quilt making, the news of the world, and just about anything else.

Prayer Flag Project

(The link I had in my original post didn't work, so I've corrected it in the post below.)

I recently came across a blog I'm really enjoying following and thought other art quilt and embroidery makers and fans might enjoy too. It's the Prayer Flag Project (found at: www.theprayerflagproject.blogspot.com). Everyone participating is making small fabric art pieces along the conceptual lines of Buddhist prayer flags. As a big fan of hand-stitching, I especially love the April 17th post of subtle, lovely little embroideries by "jenclair". Vivika DeNegre, editor of Quilting Arts magazine, founded the project.

Uncommon Threads opening reception

Yesterday afternoon was the official opening reception for "Uncommon Threads: Contemporary Wisconsin Textiles" at the Museum of Wisconsin Art. To me, the reception was the best of what these events can be--artists and interested members of the public enthusiastically and meaningfully interacting about the many works on display in this thoughtfully curated exhibition.

I tend to get a bit intimidated going into these kinds of events because I'm not at all an extrovert by nature, and my tendency is to stay quiet rather than try to strike up converstions with people I don't know. But I lucked out (and was being brave : ) when I entered the building and found two women looking in detail at the three quilts/embroideries I have on display in the show. We had a great conversation about the work, and the rest of the afternoon continued in the same vein. Thank you to all of the people who came to the reception and were so interested in talking with me about my techniques, inspiration, process, and teaching.

I also thoroughly enjoyed getting to look more closely at all of the work in the exhibition. As a big fan of hand stitching (both the process and seeing the work of other hand stitchers), I particularly enjoyed seeing the works of Lee Ann Kleeman (http://www.portalwisconsin.org/online_gallery_artist.cfm?artist=529&sort=medium&medid=19), Chris Niver (http://www.huggettandniver.com/chris/images.html), and Leslee Nelson (http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/bios/lnelson.htm). I've known Lee Ann for years through our membership in Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists and have always admired her work. So it was fun to get to catch up with her and see the work she has on display. I particularly love her monochromatic hand-embroidered view of State Street in Madison circa 1931 (see image below). It was also great to meet Chris Niver and Leslee Nelson and get to talk with them about their subtle, engaging hand embroidered works in the show.

Experiences like these are always so energizing, and they get me fired up to get back in my studio and keep working!

More sources for sparking creativity!

Check out my "Sparking Creativity" page if you haven't recently. I've just added links to several of my favorite sites including www.khanacademy.org (be sure to watch Vi Hart's "Doodling in Math" videos on the Fibonacci number sequence found throughout nature) and www.TED.com for amazing talks by remarkable people. Enjoy!

Snow Quilts

A friend sent me a link to this great article: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/simon-beck-snow-art about a man who creates beautiful quilt and other geometric patterns on a huge scale in snow. I thought some of you quilt and pattern lovers out there would appreciate his work. I know I loved looking at the pictures. (But I am glad I'm looking out my window at my blooming redbud tree and daffodils rather than that much snow!)

Uncommon Threads exhibition opens tomorrow

If you will be in the southeast Wisconsin area any time over the next few months, be sure to stop by the Museum of Wisconsin Art, 300 S. 6th Ave., in West Bend to see this exhibition. I'm looking forward to seeing the exhibition and giving a Gallery Talk on Friday. Here's the promotional information from the museum's website:

Uncommon Threads: Contemporary Wisconsin Textiles
March 28 - July 15

GOING IN, Lisa Binkley, Fiber and beads, 2005

Sneak Peek: Friday, March 30, 10:30 A.M.
Opening Reception: Sunday, April 15, 1:30 – 4:00 P.M.
Family Program: Sunday, April 15, 1:30 – 3:30 P.M.

Textiles is a term that can cover a myriad of fabric-focused work. It can be practical or decorative, historical or contemporary. This show will feature artists who are working in textiles that reflect an acknowledgement of the past but with an approach that is very much current in approach, materials and personal input. Participating artists include: Linda Barlow, Lisa Binkley, Barbara Chappell, Briony Jean Foy, Marna Goldstein Brauner, Sonji Hunt, Sharon Kerry-Harlan, Lee Ann Kleeman, Chris Kleppe, Pat Kroth, Gabriele Meyer, Leslee Nelson, Christopher Niver, Casey Puetz and Bird Ross.

Art making--with arrogance and humility

This past week hasn't included any art making for me. Instead, I've driven about 1,900 miles with my 16-year-old daughter to do the first 2/3 of our tour of colleges of interest to her. It's been great mom/daughter time, and I've seen more of the Ohio countryside than in the past 4+ decades of my life. Since we have such an early spring in the Midwest, it was also a wonderful treat to see flowers and flowering trees in bloom everywhere we went. (Who knew we'd be in shorts in March in Michigan?)

Yesterday we visited Denison University in Ohio and had the good fortune to sit in on a creative writing class taught by the gifted poet and teacher David Baker. I was moved by a lot of what he had to say to his students in the class. I also found this video online of him reading some of his work and talking about writing poetry. I found it very meaningful as a visual artist as well. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gcCluuEfUg). Just after minute 3:00 in the video he talks about the need in writing poetry to be both "extemely arrogant, enough to think you're going to sit down and say something of value to the world, and extremely humble and embarrassed by that very thing." He goes on to talk about gradually relinquishing yourself from the picture to "that other thing" that is the art you're making.

I immediately connected with these statements in thinking about my own visual art-making process. I, too, find myself hoping to say something of value to the world in each piece of art I make. And yet I also often find myself a bit embarrassed putting my work out there in the world and simply hoping that some people will connect with it or be moved or affected by it in a positive way.

Today I head out to do these very things--put my artwork and myself out there in the world. I'll be dropping off three pieces of my artwork at the Museum of Wisconsin Art this afternoon for the upcoming exhibition "Uncommon Threads: Contemporary Wisconsin Textiles"; then I'm headed to Oshkosh to spend two days teaching and lecturing about my work and techniques in bead and thread embroidery.

I always find myself saying a little wish/prayer before each class, hoping that my teaching will be a blessing, will be enriching, to the people who have chosen to spend their time working with me.

Do It Yourself Fabric Design

I recently tried out a terrific, fun service that I wanted to share. I'd recently read about places that will print fabric of your own design, and that happened shortly after a good friend told me about a drawing she'd done years ago that she wanted to find a way to enlarge and print on fabric so that she could bead it. I also have a drawing from my childhood (below) that I've thought for a long time could make an interesting textile design. So I pulled all of that together into one big experiment, and I'm really happy with the results (so is my friend).

Quilting Daily had a post a while back about do-it-yourself fabric design companies. I opted to try one of the three mentioned in the post: www.spoonflower.com and am really happy with their customer service and the quality of the finished fabric.

I took a mostly pen-and-ink drawing I did around age 11 (think 1974ish) while sitting in my school library listening to the book "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" (hmmm... I still do a lot of listening to audio books while making art). Once I omitted the hokey rainbow, waves, and seagulls from the center, I found what remained still appealing to me. So I played with it a bit in Photoshop and then uploaded the file to Spoonflower's site. From there you select scale, type of repeat (in this case "mirrored"), and type and quantity of fabric. In just a short time I had two yards my new fabric (organic cotton sateen) at home just waiting for me to turn into a quilt! I've included a close-up of some of the fabric in the lower image so that you can see how the print translated to fabric.

Contemporary Wisconsin Textiles and Huntsville, Alabama

     On February 1st I wrote about the upcoming exhibition "Uncommon Threads: Contemporary Wisconsin Textiles" that will be on display at the Museum of Wisconsin Art this spring and early summer. Since that post I had a wonderful trip to Huntsville, Alabama to teach workshops for the Heritage Quilters of Hunstville and the Huntsville chapter of the Embroiderers Guild of America. The ladies there were lovely, gracious, and a whole lot of fun. Thanks for taking such good care of me and for being such wonderful students! 
     Since that post I learned that one more piece of my artwork will be in the museum exhibition and that I'll be giving a gallery talk on March 30th as part of the opening of the exhibition. "Adoration" (below) is my third quilt/embroidery that will be included in "Uncommon Threads: Contemporary Wisconsin Textiles"; I can't wait to see all of the work in the show.

Beaded Quilts Book Review

North Carolina quilt artist Nancy Cook has written a really nice review of the book Creative Quilting with Beads. You can check out the review and get to see her beautiful art quilts on her blog: www.nancygcook.blogspot.com. I was very excited to have three of my quilts included in the gallery portion of the book: Between the Woods and Frozen Lake; Going In; and Seedlings. Nancy selected one of my quilts--Seedlings--to feature in her review of the book. Thanks Nancy! Seedlings was created for the American Family Children's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin.