Friday, July 13, 2018

Not sure how I feel about entering art shows

"Starry Scary Night"

Well last night was the awards reception for the juried show I entered called Images 2018. The artwork was amazing. Here's a link to the art that was in the show.







I really felt out of place with my quilt like it was not on the same level as the other art. The thing I noticed is that people did not really spend much time looking at it. Plus I heard some girl say to someone...."it's just sewing."  At first that made me angry like I'd like to see you do that sewing. Then I realized that to a lot of people it is just sewing. They look at what I do as something too easy and not creative. Or sewing is just a craft. Hey I could say that about someone's photo. All you do is take a photo and edit it and print and frame it. Not sure I would enter anything like this again. Or maybe I just have to up my game.....I sometimes feel that art quilts are in some never land....not accepted as art and not accepted by traditional quilters. Am I just over reacting? I so wish I could have entered my canal houses. It was beyond the 36 inch height requirement. Or my cardinal quilt. That one was not made in the last 3 years and also was taller than 36 inches.

Well I need to get my walk done early today and then finally stencil the numbers on my toxic barrels. I have put that off long enough. I have chosen the title "Taking its Toll" for this quilt. I thank Sheila for her thoughts on that from my last blog. I need to move on from my experience last night. 

"Taking Its Toll"


Linking to Nina-Marie.  

Thanks for reading and putting up with today's rant...

Chris

8 comments:

  1. It's not just you, everyone in my fiber arts group has the same issue and I'm not taken seriously in the artists guild which is open to all artists in all mediums. I think the trick is to create something that doesn't immediately appear to be fabric but that is a lot of work and cannot be easily achieved with every piece.

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  2. I'm sorry this was such a poor experience for you. Sometimes you have to ignore the public and focus on the fact that the people organizing the show and jurying the art thought your piece worthy to be included, and not "just sewing". I am very lucky to live in a town with such art savvy people who have always embraced fiber and textile art like any other medium. I know there are still many areas of the country where this is not true.

    Just a note on the title - drop the apostrophe. "It's" is the contraction for "it is"; "its" is the possessive form (says the daughter of an English teacher) :-)

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  3. Haha. I think that was the iPad correcting it! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

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    1. I totally believe that! :-) Pretty bad when you have to proofread for spellcheck errors but that is often the case these days.

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  4. And that art/quilt dilemma is how Quilt National was born. I suppose it is also why so many quilt artists add so much paint to their quilts. For now, I refuse to do that. And I'll look down my nose at anyone who can't see that there are just as many composition decisions in an art quilt as in their painting. But I'll have to enter Quilt National or a SAQA show before I try an all-medium art show.

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  5. I think there is this stigma in every art form. When I made jewelry, people snubbed the pieces made with seed beads. At one show I overheard someone say that one of the great beading artist's work was dime store and it angered her that her mother was wasting (her) inheritance on it.

    I'm with Idaho Beauty when she said it was a juried show and your piece was accepted. But I also agree that fiber art seems to be more accepted in the center of the country.
    xx, Carol

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  6. Oh, BTW, I absolutely love this quilt. I will create a Chicago Skyline piece at some point....I love that skyline, possibly because it's where I was born.
    xx

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  7. I looked at some of the other pieces in the show and I think that yours certainly held its own. I think it's a great piece and you should be proud of it.

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