I had two pieces in Fiber Celebrated 2011 which opened at the Intermountain Weaver's Conference at Fort Lewis College in Durango this past weekend. The show is at the Center of Southwest Studies main gallery. Juanita Girardin was the juror for this show. She actually lives in the same small New Mexico town that I do. Her comments at the opening convocation of the conference resonated with me as she spoke at length about using good craftsmanship.
Both pieces have a great deal of subtle color gradation. Here are the two that were accepted to the show:
 |
| Emergence III; 9 x 44 inches; hand-dyed wool tapestry |
 |
| (Barn burned down) Now I can see the moon; 5.75 x 16.75 inches; hand-dyed wool tapestry |
Yep, that is what they really looked like. They might as well have been in a closet the light was so bad. I asked. They said they couldn't do anything about it. Two years ago this show was in another part of the gallery and it was very well lit. It didn't fare so well this year, though some things looked better than others.
So I pulled my pieces off the wall to show to my class. We were learning about color gradation and it was impossible to see the color changes where the pieces were hanging.
Despite my disappointment with the hanging of my own pieces, there were other tapestries in the show which were better lit.
 |
| Canyon Sunset Carolyn Van Sant cotton |
 |
| left to right: Asa III by Buff Palm; Turquoise Study by Bettye Sullivan; Midnight by Alex G. Sullivan; Lights by Buff Palm |
 |
| Asa III by Buff Palm, detail |
Mary Cost's piece suffered from the same lack of lighting that mine did.
 |
| Grand Slam Mary Cost |
Kathy Spoering's piece was wonderful and the class spent a fair bit of time discussing her color mixing techniques as well as how the eye perceives something like the bright red under the dog's neck (which does not look bright red unless your face is right in the tapestry). An enchanting piece for which she received the Northern Colorado Weaver's Guild award.
 |
| August or "The Dog Days of Summer" Kathy Spoering wool and cotton |
Elizabeth Buckley's piece, Dialogues Through the Veil is beautiful and it was an important center of discussion for the tapestry class on hatching and color use techniques I was teaching at the conference. This piece won the American Tapestry Alliance award which is definitely deserved.
 |
| Dialogues Through the Veil Elizabeth Buckley wool, cotton, embroidery floss, silk, cotton seine |
I love the use of hatching and the shiny effect from the silk and embroidery floss as well as the implied figures throughout the piece and the leaps of imagination it inspires.
 |
| Dialogues Through the Veil, detail |
 |
| Dialogues Through the Veil, detail |
I felt like the show was much smaller than it was last year. I focused on the tapestry pieces, but there were many other fantastic fiber works in this show including some amazing three-dimensional pieces. If you get a chance to see it, definitely stop by.
