"The Old Bridge" at The National Quilt Museum

I'm very pleased to announce that "The Old Bridge" has been selected for an invitational exhibit, River Quilts, to be held at The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY. The exhibit will run from December 2010 through March 2011.

This work features the elegant Veterans Memorial Bridge that spans the Susquehanna River, connecting Columbia and Wrightsville. The bridge has a bike/pedestrian lane, and once a year it's closed to traffic for the "Bridge Bust" festival, so in addition to driving across it I've also spent some quality time walking it and admiring both the structure and the views. The photo featured here was taken from the Wrightsville side, looking upriver.

The center panel is a digital print that's been heavily stitched, and it's bordered by my hand-painted fabrics. There's also some hand couched thread and hand beadwork.

I grew up in a house with a direct view of the Susquehanna, and aside from a few years spent wandering, have always lived and hiked nearby. It forms a large part of my internalized view of the natural environment that informs all my work, so I am delighted to have this opportunity to share my vision at this prestigious venue.

Working with Fiber

Here's the type of fiber work I've been doing lately. It's my tomato trellis, executed in Sisal. I suppose I could call it an installation. I bought a humongous spool of sisal twine, 1450 glorious feet of it, and I've been busy tying up shrubs flattened by the heavy snows, corralling wayward clematis, bunching up the ripening daffodil foliage, and many other pleasant tasks made possible by an abundance of good twine. Due to circumstances partly beyond my control, the garden was a bit shaggy and semi-neglected for the past several years, but this spring I am on track to getting it all under control and manicured to the level I prefer. And the asparagus is coming in heavy right now, which really makes life worth living.

So I'm not in the studio a lot at present, but as I'm playing with twine and shoveling mulch I'm doing a lot of deep thinking about my nascent works in progress. This is the type of quality time that is so hard to quantify when asked "how long did that piece take you?" But of course it's the most essential type of engagement in the artwork--I can't make anything until I've figured out what it is I want to express.

I did take some time to make a few prints when the weather was congenial. Here's a detail of locust leaves, that will be part of the Squirrel quilt:

And here's a detail of a garlic mustard print on silk--I am very excited about this one, it's really lovely in person.

I'm waiting for more congenial weather in order to make more prints, it's much too brisk and chilly at present.