textile paintings
Posts tagged Atlanta
2016 Fierce Fibers
07 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
Last week, we had our annual opening of Fierce Fibers at The Art Place in Marietta. Rebecca Reasons-Edwards and I have been co-curating this show together for six years. I’ve learned a lot from her, and we had a great time putting this show of local Atlanta fiber artists together this year. We had a great turnout at the opening reception last Thursday, but the show will hang through September 29th if you still want to go see it.
We had a Viewers Choice award, and it was a tie between two of my pieces, The Last Supper and The Abyss, which was a nice surprise. Thank you to everyone that came to the reception and voted.
And especially, thank you to all the artists that allowed us to hang your work in the show. It’s a beautiful exhibit and a great example of the amazing fiber work currently being done in Atlanta.
For the benefit of those that aren’t local to Atlanta, I’ve been asked to post pics of the show online. Enjoy!
Queen Bee by Heidi Miracle
Still a Pig by Rebecca Reasons Edwards
Dolce Far Niente by Virginia Greaves
Cloud Spirit Mask by Hellenne Vermillion
Breaking Free by Hellenne Vermillion
Emerging by Hellene Vermillion
Polish by Virginia Greaves & Leisa Rich
Your Children Are Not Your Children by Heidi Miracle
Today I Will Be a Mermaid by Heidi Miracle
Loving Heart, Open Minds and Helping Hands by Heidi Miracle
Innocent Bystanders by Deb Lacativa
Dots and Floral by Sandy Teepen
Pink and Oranges by Sandy Teepen
Baghdad Bazaar by Deb Lacativa
The Crane Queen by Vickie Meredith Lord
Exuberance by Heidi Miracle
Untitled by Heidi Miracle
Skeleton by Sharon Ahmed
The Last Supper by Virginia Greaves
Bubble Bath by Virginia Greaves & Leisa Rich
Untitled by Heidi Miracle
Headbandz, the Pulse Edition by Rebecca Reasons Edwards
The Abyss by Virginia Greaves
Limbo by Deb Lacativa
In Memory: Eugenia Calle by Heidi Miracle
Orlando by Rebecca Reasons Edwards
Kodamas I by Deb Lacativa
Mindfulness Doodles I by Heidi Miracle
Mindfulness Doodles II by Heidi Miracle
Mindfulness Doodles III by Heidi Miracle
The Dream Team
2014 Accomplishments
19 years ago
At the end of the year, I look at my goals and see how close I came to achieving them. Here is it January 8th — I should have done this at the end of 2013 — but I got the flu after Christmas, and it took all of my energy for a couple of weeks. I’m just now beginning to recover and put together the pieces of everything I have to do in my life. Today was the first time I’ve had to look at my art goals.
2013 was the year that “I finally broke into the sunshine at the International Quilt Festival/Houston” — and 2014 was the year that I created controversy. But just like I said last year — I’m still here and kicking — and I hope to continue to create in 2015.
— My blog was viewed 21,00 times in 2014 which broke all of my previous records. The highest viewed post was The Use of Someone Else’s Photograph in Your Work, the subject of which was the controversy over my piece Worry at the International Quilt Festival/Houston this year.
— Worry and Golden Moment were accepted into Georgia Artists at the Abernathy Arts Center here in Sandy Springs, GA, an exhibit highlighting the work of local Georgia artists from all mediums. Golden Moment won 1st place.
— Worry was accepted into International Quilt Festival/Houston: World of Beauty and was awarded 3rd place in the Art-People, Portraits, and Figures category.
— Dolce Far Niente was accepted into the special exhibit What’s for Dinner? at Quilt Festival/Houston.
— The Cardinal was shown at the Square Foot Fiber Art Pin Up Show at the Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance here in Atlanta and then was donated and auctioned at the International Quilt Festival/Houston Silent Auction.
— Lincoln traveled from the 2013 International Quilt Festival/Houston and went to The Texas Quilt Museum, Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh, International Quilt Festival/Chicago, and Quilt! Knit! Stitch! in Portland before being purchased.
— Beach Guardians traveled from the 2013 Sacred Threads show and went to Sacred Threads West: Art of the Sacred in Seattle, WA.
— Rebecca Reasons-Edwards and myself co-curated another exhibit this year called Fierce Fibers at The Art Place in Marietta, GA. Beach Guardians, Golden Moment, A Walk in Twilight, and Worn were exhibited.
— Golden Moment was accepted into Art Quilts XIX: Permission to Play at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Chandler, AZ and was awarded Juror’s Choice & 3rd Place.
— Firecracker was included in the article Pet Portraits Popular With Owners Who Quilt in the Daily Sentinel published in January.
— Heike Hellmann-Brown wrote an article about me and my work that was published in the local publication North Fulton Family Life in August.
— Sold Lincoln to a private collector.
— Sold I Am the Vine, You are the Branches to a private collector.
— Sold Worry to a private collector.
— Sold The Cardinal to a private collector.
— Met goal of selling at least 2 of my pieces.
— I completed 3 large portraits, 1 small animal portrait, 1 small abstract, and 3 large abstracts. (All of the abstract works were made in collaboration with Leisa Rich.) (Goal to make at least 6 large pieces met.)
— I started a collaboration with a local artist, Leisa Rich. We have been working on an abstract series based on car washes and are planning a two person show at the Abernathy Arts Center in October of 2015.
— I applied and was accepted into Studio Art Quilts Associates as a Juried Artist Member.
— I spoke at The Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild in Marietta, GA, The Alpha Arts Guild in Alpharetta, GA, and the Misty Mountain Quilter’s Guild in Blairsville, GA.
— This year I kept a massive spreadsheet and kept track of my hours. I have to find a simpler way to do this. Halfway through the year, I decided that I not only wanted to keep category totals but also totals by project — so I ended up keeping two separate spreadsheets.
— As of the end of the year, I have 115 FaceBook Page followers (increase from 2013 unknown but I think it’s around 50%) and 32 Twitter followers (52% increase but still small).
— I did fairly well on maintaining my social media goals. I posted at least 2 blog posts a week 80% of the time, I posted at least 4 FaceBook page updates 78% of the time, and I posted at least 6 Twitter updates 74% of the time.
— What I didn’t do well with this year was keeping myself to at least 15 hours per week in the studio. I only met that goal 59% of the time. I was on track until I started taking freelance scoping work on the side. The truth of the matter is that my family is a part time job, so freelancing work cut into my art time. I do think I will keep this goal in 2015 however. I just need to work on being smarter with the time that I do have available.
— I didn’t keep my sketching goal at all. I have no problem drafting out a pattern for a particular project, but I can’t seem to make myself stop and fill a page in a sketchbook.
— I easily increased web traffic 5%. Given the controversy over Worry at IQA/Houston, my traffic increased 55.4% over last year.
I am eternally grateful for the support and encouragement of my friends and other people that reached out to me during the controversy over Worn. I am reminded that my place is to hold up others to the light and forward their achievements in a positive way. I leave all the others that still have lessons to learn — behind.
Love me or hate me, I’m still here, and I hope that 2015 is a great year.
Quilting as Another Dimension
19 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Quilting
Yesterday I finally finished quilting the 3rd abstract piece that I’ve been working on collaboratively with Leisa Rich. I have to admit that I let my mind run away with this one.
This is a pic that Leisa took of it after she had added embroidery.
And this is the same piece after I have quilted it.
I started with free motion quilted feathers — in metallic thread. CRAZY if you’ve ever sewn with metallic copper thread — but I had the wind at my back that day and it flowed like water onto the surface of the piece. I graduated through copper, purple, blue, and then a gray for the deepest part of the black fabric. I then moved over to the red and brought a flame stitch out of my bag of tricks. Then I moved down into the yellows and whites. I did change to more of a wavy frond for the white — I liked the difference in texture — and some of the yellow blobs were awarded with scallops. I did revisit the copper thread on the lighter blue fabric over on the right hand side — but I was not lucky on those days and struggled with a lot of broken thread. I moved back into blue thread as soon as the piece was ready for a change.
I love free motion quilting on my Janome. Even sewing on the plastic overlay didn’t cause many problems. My Viking would have given me fits.
I hope Leisa forgives me for putting traditional feathers all over it. It called out for that organic feeling. I’ve never used so many free flowing feathers on a piece in my life. It felt good to step out of contour quilting.
I am giving this back to Leisa next week — I think she’s planning some hand embellishment.
We have a curator that approached a local Atlanta gallery about having a two person show of our work — and it looks like we have reached an agreement and the show will go on in late 2015. Time to get busy — I have a lot to do to get ready!
2014 Georgia Artists
19 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
Last night was the opening reception for Georgia Artists at the Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs, GA. I got there just as it was starting and the gallery was empty enough that I could take a few pics of my pieces on the gallery walls without the distraction of people. It’s always hard once there are people viewing the work to get a clear shot. This is Worry. It was just to the right as you entered the gallery. Seeing it hang on something other than my design wall was exciting. There is nothing like gallery lighting to make your work look its best.
And here is Golden Moment — on the left wall next to the far wall as you entered. I think this is the same place where Beach Guardians hung a couple of years ago. In fact, as I was speaking with the curator later in the evening, I realized that this is the 4th year in a row that I’ve been included in this juried exhibit.
Now keep in mind that this is an ART show — not a quilt show. There were paintings, photographs, sculpture (although a lot less than usual), encaustics, drawings, and many mixed media pieces (more than in previous years). I used to enter in the mixed media category — but this year they added a category just for me — Fiber Arts. I was so thrilled when I saw the entry form. Slowly but surely, Fiber Art is coming to the ATL.
As the announcement of winners was being made, I hung out in the back. I had a woman tell me she loved my piece. I gave her my business card. I expected to be leaving shortly.
But then the curator started talking about the first place winner — that she had been in this show for the last four years. I had a similar light headed moment in Houston when I realized that I had won first place. She was talking about me!
(By the way, I took the pic above with my iPhone. I took the same shot with my camera — but I wanted a quick shot to share on social media — so this one was taken with my phone. I couldn’t believe how much better of a pic it was. The quilting in the background really stands out.)
And here is the obligatory shot of me with the piece. I should have taken one with Worry too — but at this point, there were too many people waiting to talk to me about Golden Moment.
According to the curator, the judge loved both of my pieces and really struggled with which one to give the award to. In the end, he chose Golden Moment because he loves dogs. (Which just furthers my argument that portraits of animals will always be more appreciated than portraits of people because they have broader appeal.)
Last year, I had prepared business cards because I had needed them the previous year and did have them. As luck would have it, I had no-one to give my card to. There wasn’t much interaction with the artists at that show.
This show was a lot different — and I gave out a lot of my cards. I was glad to have them. I met a lot of other wonderful artists. For an artist, it is a dream to talk about your work, your intentions, your processes — and with interested people.
This is me speaking with my sister-in-law. She is a big animal lover.
As luck would have it, they put my piece right next to Leisa Rich’s. I’ve known Leisa, mostly on Facebook, for a couple of years. She is a wonderfully talented fiber artist here in Atlanta that pushes the boundaries of what she can do with textiles. Her work is almost always dimensional and frequently sculptural.
This is her piece — Emerging from Dormancy. It won an honorable mention. She has done a series of these in different color ways — she showed a red version on her Facebook Page that she hung recently in a Buckhead home. She has a black one featured on her website home page.
I’ve called on Leisa many times for advice. She is one of the few artists I’ve found in Atlanta that is serious about her work, considers her art a profession and herself a professional, and knows a lot about the business of art.
I had a great time. My cup runneth over!
Creativity in Motion
09 years ago
Today I finally took pics of Worn (and finally decided on a title). It is so much easier to take pics when you have the right equipment and use a level. I no longer rely on my design board that leans against the wall — it was creating a keystone effect that I was having to counteract in Photoshop. I now use a photography support stand so the piece hangs from a bar and there is no distortion. I have also made friends with my level. I level the bar on the photography stand — and now also on my camera. I’ve always wondered by my pics lean to one side — and now I use the level to adjust the camera tripod until it’s level. I just ordered a level for the camera shoe which should make it even easier. You would think that if you opened the stand completely in all directions and the bubble level on the stand was level that you would be fine — and that’s just not true. So having leveled my stand and my camera on my tripod, I came out with perfect pics the first time. The only thing I did in Photoshop was crop — and for the website, I adjusted the size and added watermarks (so if they migrate to Pinterest it might generate some traffic back to my site).
I also drew up a new Page for Worn. There are a few recent changes in WordPress 3.9 that are making the pics act strange but I just worked around it. Overall I think the page looks fine.
I was worried when I finished this piece that I wouldn’t know what to do next — what my next piece should be. I spent a day this week looking at exhibits to enter this year and trying to decide how I wanted that to influence me. In the end, I decided that I wanted to think with my hands. I started working on a small piece for a very specific themed juried exhibit — but it isn’t large and will give me time to think about my next large project.
Tonight have the opening reception for the Georgia Artists show at the Abernathy Arts Center in Sandy Springs, GA. If you’re in the ATL, it’s 6:30-8:30pm. I will take pics and share them soon.
Marketable Subject Matter
010 years ago
Inviting Art Marketing into the Studio
Last year, I made a conscientious decision to make more marketable work. Every time someone would see Beach Guardians — I would often hear — “one day I want to commission you to do a piece of my grandchildren/children.”
I made Beach Guardians because it was from a picture I had made of my children at the beach. I owned the copyright — and it inspired me. At one point I had a price tag on it — but my husband soon told me that I couldn’t sell a piece of our children. It was going to stay in the family.
Which is fine — but making portraits of friends and family wasn’t taking me where I really wanted to go.
I knew I could make portraits of people — but I also knew that the few pieces I had sold in the past were animals. Anyone that has ever owned a bull dog will look at a bull dog piece of art and say “that looks just like my dog” — and want it. Now.
So after Lincoln, I stopped making portraits of people. I made an angel (arguably a person but a piece that was abstract enough that anyone could relate to it AND it was religious), a dog, a bird, a rabbit, an abstract piece, and then another dog. And then Lincoln won a prize at Houston — and why hadn’t I made any more people?
But the answer was easy — the first dog (Firecracker), the angel (The Bowl Judgments), and the bird (The White Raven) all sold.
Although — I did come home from Houston wondering what in the world I was going to do next. I felt like I should make another person — and I became inspired by a photograph by Dorothea Lange of a woman and her three children. It felt natural to make people again and it flowed through my fingers easily. This is where Worry came from.
But I felt anxiety creeping into my mind — was I making a marketable piece? I suppose only time will tell.
And since I’ve finished Worry, I made a small piece — The Cardinal — for a local square foot challenge. And then I was stuck again — in my head — wondering what to do.
I think I spent a week second guessing myself. In the end, I started a piece — again inspired by a photograph by Dorothea Lange (a great deal of her work is in the public domain). But in my head, I still have this desire to find what is marketable and what is not — because honestly, you spend the same amount of time on the piece — it might as well remain on the wall than be pushed to the back of my closet.
One of my FaceBook Pages that I follow is Humans of New York. A photographer goes out into the city every day and takes pictures of the people that he meets. One day a couple of weeks ago, someone told him that he knew what the art world wanted (although I’m not certain he does but we’ll take his word for it) — and it wasn’t random people on the streets of New York — better to photograph only nudes.
I don’t know many people that will let me take pictures of them with their clothes on — much less off — so I don’t see that as an option for me. I could hire a model, but there wouldn’t be much construction challenge for me in that.
I do see some appeal to taking pics of people on the street in Atlanta — like the photographer in New York. I do, however, understand that there is a lot of hostility given to random photographers — and I think that this guy has worked hundreds of hours building a reputation so that people are delighted to be included in his project. In most situations, people do not want to be put under the microscope of a random person they don’t even know.
At one time, I made several portraits of friends, and one day, I asked an elderly gentleman at church if he would mind if I used the photograph I had taken of him to make a textile painting. He said yes — but only if he could have it when I was done. It doesn’t work that way. A picture takes seconds — my textile paintings take 100+ hours usually. I can’t work myself to the bone for so little appreciation — let alone for free.
Luke Haynes, a textile artist from NC currently living in LA, does full figures on very traditional backgrounds. He’s done a few friends but also several of himself — and Fossil Watches just contracted with him to make a piece of himself. He has effectively branded himself — which is great if you’re 26. Youthfulness is always marketable. I can’t say that I still resemble that demographic however.
I came across this painting recently on someone’s blog — yes, it’s a painting, not a modern graphic — by John Baldessari, 1966-1968. More food for thought.
Tweek!
010 years ago
There has been a lot going on this week — a lot of great articles for Creatives were written (or recently found) — all of which I shared on my Twitter feed — and I finished my latest piece Worry. Today, I bring you my weekly wrap-up of my Twitter feed.
Remember, if you want to catch my Tweets in real time, you can find me at @vsgreaves — or hit the Twitter icon above the menu in the upper right. Also, if you want to see what’s going on in the studio, check out my Facebook Page by clicking on the Facebook icon next to that Twitter icon.
According to the authors, and I would agree, “we live in a “permissions culture,” which values copyright permissions above all else” and that “permissions have become such an issue that they’re interfering with professionals’ work — the ability to educate, to undertake scholarly studies, to make art.” It’s a different point of view from the endless discussions regarding the protection of copyrights.
“Are Art Professionals Afraid of Fair Use?” http://feedly.com/e/848QPDRN
“Creativity & Listening” — “What we learn from the creative process is that giving up control … is a necessary path to success.” http://feedly.com/k/1n8VHLD
I live in Atlanta — I was shocked that it made #1 on this list:
Best cities for artists: http://tinyurl.com/p9zvstx
This article on the ethics of altering photographs digitally is sure to inspire a lot of debate:
“Nature Photography: Objectivity, Manipulation, and Ethics” http://tinyurl.com/lewysue
I was so struck by this life-like statue of a man sleep walking in his underwear across the Wellesley campus — and he’s garnered a lot of public discussion — which I appreciate in the same way Banksy brings the discussion of art to the masses:
Tighty whitey’s take a stroll — “Artist Responds to Wellesley College Students’ Concerns With Sculpture: http://tinyurl.com/m37zq5r
This was just a grand idea — to replace huge sign boards in Paris with classical works of art. It made me realize how cluttered our modern lives are with constant marketing of inane things.
“Parisian Advertisements Replaced with Classical Works of Art” http://tinyurl.com/nykgu3f @mymodernmet
Bringing to mind the discussion of altering photos, Annie Leibovitz’s photographs (and resulting digital alteration) create the most stunning photos. The fact that she finds inspiration in Disney characters makes the work all the more relatable:
“Annie Leibovitz’s Celebrity Disney Dream Portraits” http://tinyurl.com/k8yuasb @mymodernmet
I made the point the other day on someone’s Facebook wall that one of the discriminations made in the art world today is towards abstract versus illustrative work — and although I was soundly flamed for such a ridiculous statement, the wonderful Winkleman, an art dealer in NY, wrote a post fairly exactly supporting my argument just this week:
“Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Abstract Paintings so Different, so Lucrative?” Winkleman wise words http://feedly.com/e/GaB3bl95
I didn’t know the the Olympics once had art competitions — did you?
“Back When the Olympics Had Art Competitions” http://feedly.com/e/yz3-cw31
This is about the importance of visual language, which is not valued in our current education system, and its effect on our brains:
“Why Einstein, JFK, Edison, and Marie Curie All Doodled” http://feedly.com/e/HGcJkmE6
I loved this article because he talks about making marketable art and going through the thought process of figuring out what will sell:
RT @ArtsyShark: Success for artists is not complicated … http://buff.ly/1dsUIQY Thoughts from Jack White
I actually went looking for articles on marketing art — and found this helpful piece from July of last year.
Selling Art: Is your artwork marketable? http://tinyurl.com/lpp3odt
A friend of mine posted this article on Facebook and I found it fascinating. I had never heard the controversy over whether Van Gogh committed suicide or was murdered — and I didn’t know that he died two days after being shot:
Van Gogh: murder mystery or straightforward suicide?http://tinyurl.com/jwhg56d via @maggieinsc
2013 Accomplishments
010 years ago
Last year, for the first time, I made a list of my accomplishments in 2012 — followed by a later posting of goals for 2013. I kept better track of my time than I had before — and both used my goals and, for some items, ignored them when they didn’t suit me. (I’m allowed.)
2013 was a big year for me — I sold three of the six pieces that I made — and I finally broke into the sunshine at the International Quilt Festival/Houston by winning a blue ribbon in my category. I made a lot of new friends — and lost one just before Christmas to breast cancer.
It was a year of highs and lows — but I’m still here — I’m still kicking — still creating — and I hope to share a lot more in 2014.
The Bowl Judgments
– Made spreadsheet of goals with a timesheet.
– Printed two years of blog posts into books (1997 & 1998).
– Developed seminar on choosing fabrics creatively (delivered to my Fiber Art Fusion group in February).
– Accepted into Sacred Threads in Herndon, VA (The Bowl Judgments, Beach Guardians).
– Published in book Sacred Threads Exhibition 2013 (The Bowl Judgments, Beach Guardians).
– Piece published in Machine Quilting Unlimited article about Sacred Threads (Beach Guardians).
– Piece published in Martha Sielman’s book Art Quilt Portfolio: People & Portraits (Celtic Woman).
– Juried into invitational Sacred Threads-Omaha in Omaha, NE (The Bowl Judgments, Beach Guardians).
– Accepted into International Quilt Festival special exhibit It’s Raining Cats & Dogs (Firecracker).
– Accepted into Internal Quilt Festival/Houston World of Beauty (Lincoln, The White Raven).
– Won first place at IQF/Houston in the People, Portraits, & Figures category (Lincoln).
Firecracker
– Accepted into the La Conner International Quilt & Fiber Arts Show in La Conner, WA (Amelia Earhart).
– Won 1st place at the La Conner Quilt & Fiber Arts Show (Amelia Earhart).
– Sold The Bowl Judgments to a private collector.
– Sold Firecracker to a private collector.
– Sold The White Raven to the International Quilt Festival collection.
– Created 5 portraits and 1 abstract. Original goal 6 portraits. Currently halfway through a family portrait.
– Entered Art Quilts XIX (was not accepted).
– Exhibited at East Cobb Quilt Guild Show (Beach Guardians).
The White Raven
– Won 2nd Place in the Original Design category at the East Cobb Quilt Guild Show (Beach Guardians).
– Accepted into Georgia Artists show at the Abernathy Arts Center (Lincoln).
– Participated in SEFAA’s Fiber ARTlanta show (Bukonyan Elder).
– Accepted as an artist at ArtsyShark.com and was featured on their website July 1st.
– Increased Facebook fans from 23 to 77 (goal was 46).
– Designed new labels to use on the Mac.
– Designed & printed new business cards.
– Designed thank you cards with Lincoln. These were used to thank all of the IQF/Houston sponsors.
– Updated FaceBook banner with new work.
– Updated the menus on my website by moving older work to the back and grouping portrait and abstract work into new galleries.
Jacks Are Wild
– Started tweeting articles of interest to fellow Creatives.
– Started a weekly blog post of my tweets called Tweek!
– Tweeted 183 times during the year (although 46 of them were made during my time in Houston).
– Made 254 posts on my FaceBook page and met my goal of posting 3 times per week 85% of the time.
– Made 42 blog posts on my website and met my goal of posting at least 1 blog post per week 65% of the time.
– Spent 455 hours in my studio, 55 hours on my website, and 53 hours doing other administrative things related to my work (like entering shows, shipping, shopping).
– Updated my website for each of my new pieces.
– Added Buy Now buttons (with links to PayPal) to all of the pages of pieces for sale.
– Updated my artist resume.
– Maintained a regular log to account for my time in the studio, on my website, & other administrative tasks related to my art.
It’s All Relative
– Reached my pre-pregnancy goal weight (took me 17 years but I got there!)
– Continued to take hundreds of sports pictures and share them through DropBox.
– Curated the Fiber Art Fusion exhibit It’s All In The Cards with Rebecca Reasons-Edwards which showed at both The Art Place in Marietta and the SEFAA Center in Atlanta.
– Grappled with my hosting service to move the website from a legacy server to the grid. (I should get a medal for this one. GoDaddy just let my site crash and never notified me that I needed to move to newer technology. I now plan to call them annually to discuss the health of the server on which my site resides.)
– Played role of year round lacrosse and choir mom.
– As of 12/27/13, there were 13,483 views on my website, an increase of just under 6% from the previous year.
– I started my Twitter account with no followers and currently have 21 (small — but it’s growing every day!)
Golden Moment
– From August through December, donated over 100 hours in a start-up company.
And then there were some things on my list that I just didn’t do. I saw them there — and I either didn’t enjoy what I had started — or I didn’t feel motivated to do it at all.
– Complete draft of book on textile portraits. I may still do this — it’s just not at the forefront of my mind right now. I’ve also been asked to teach classes. The truth of the matter is that these are big projects — and doing them would take away from studio time.
– Create email/snail mail list. I see this in practically every article I read about art marketing. Maybe I’m lazy but I struggle with keeping up with the blog and Twitter. I don’t have an interest in making a newsletter right now.
– Participate in SEFAA Square Foot Fiber Art Pin Up Show & the Abernathy Art Center Pin Up Show. These are shows that ask for 12″ or smaller pieces — which is not what I typically do. It’s hard for me to pry myself from one of my larger projects to work on smaller ones. I tend to work on one project at a time and don’t start the next one until I’m finished with the one I’m working on.
– Visit at least 12 galleries in Roswell & write a blog review (only did this in January and February). This sounded like a great idea at the time. It was my desire to spread my wings and prepare material for my blog other than my own studio work — but the truth of the matter is that I work in a vacuum. Leaving the house changes the creative dynamic for me, and when I get wrapped up in a project, I like to concentrate on it to the exclusion of other things. I did find a different outlet by sharing articles about art on my Twitter account and then summarizing them each week on the blog in a Tweek!
– Make 2 small pieces a month & list small pieces for sale at ArtFire.com or ArtfulHome.com. This was (and is) a great idea — but as I’ve said, I tend to work on a larger scale. There is something to be said for creating smaller pieces — they are infinitely more marketable and more likely to sell (particularly in the current economy). However, to be smaller, they also need to be simpler — most of the pieces that I find engaging and develop into fuller projects are complex — and I find that more interesting.
I did spend the year with a focus on marketable pieces. I stopped working on people (with the exception of The Bowl Judgments — although you could argue that the angel falls into a category of her own). Many people will see a portrait of a person and say something like “one day I’d like you to do a piece of my grand-children” — but moving that into an actual sale is extremely difficult. Animals have much broader appeal as subjects than people. Anyone that has had a bull-dog will see artwork of a bull-dog and want it.
And although I sold three pieces — which I think confirms my theory about the marketability of certain subject matter — I have to acknowledge that the blue ribbon of Lincoln tells me that there is still room to work on portraits of people — as long as the subject is carefully chosen.
I won’t say that my end goal is to sell all of my work — I think I make my work for me — but it is nice to have a way to cover your expenses and have something left over to contribute to your family.
Good-bye 2013 — it’s been a hell of ride!
It’s All In The Cards 2013
010 years ago
by Virginia Greaves
in Exhibition
A couple of years ago, I started helping my friend Rebecca Reasons Edwards curate an annual show at The Art Place in Marietta, GA. This year’s show opened last Thursday night.
We asked the artists to make a piece 24″ x 36″ using a playing card as inspiration. Our artists came from the group Fiber Art Fusion and some invitational artists.
Curating is a funny thing. When a show isn’t juried, not all of the artists follow the rules — in fact, most of them don’t. Sadly, some artists hold the curators responsible. In the end, we had a responsibility to fill the gallery walls. Not everything fit the theme and not everyone followed the size restrictions. In the end, I still think that the show hangs well and shows how fiber art is progressing in North Atlanta.
Here is my co-curator Rebecca in front of her wonderful Cubist piece.
Love Song
by Rebecca Reasons Edwards
$900
Sharon, on the left, made this wonderful piece, thread-painted and mounted on paper and canvas. Diane Shultheiss stands to her right.
Fairy Queen
by Sharon Ahmed
$1200
This is my piece, Jacks are Wild, next to Susan Big’s piece I Felt Happy.
I Felt Happy by Susan Big
$350
Jacks Are Wild by Virginia Greaves
$1200
Debbie Smith made this whimsical piece.
Venus Midnight Bloom
by Debbie Smith
$450
Maggie Gershon from SEFAA joined us for the show and created this silk piece based on the Joker’s Wild card.
Joker’s Wild
by Maggie Gershon
NFS
We managed to convince our old friend Heidi Miracle to make this marvelous (and HUGE) piece for the Queen of Hearts. She looked lovely in the center of our back wall. Heidi used to make more textile pieces but now concentrates mostly on paintings.
Queen of Hearts
by Heidi Miracle
NFS
She also made this smaller piece we put in one of our niches.
Hellenne contributed this luminous piece created from silk. The colors in this are truly amazing — I don’t know that my camera was up to the task of truly capturing its magical sense of light.
Tree With Moon
by Hellenne Vermillion
$500
And finally, Hellenne also contributed this silk piece with trapunto and hand stitching.
Koi Fish With Plants
by Hellenne Vermillion
$600
This is only a sampling of the wonderful pieces hanging. The exhibit will be available to the public at The Art Place through October 3rd. Then the majority of the collection will be available for viewing at the SEFAA Center October 8 – 26 with a reception October 10 10am-2pm.