The weekend was....

Fun.

Go here to see more images from the SDA show What's on the Surface, there are two blog entries to look at but here is a more personal image... my rock...

The work by Wendy Harris Williams lower centre was his personal favourite.
And above it the work by Wendy Passmore-Godfrey seem to hold his attention.

It's going to be a heavy weekend!

Hello friends,

I am speaking at This is My City this week.

My tale of rebuilding concerns ‘How’ marvellous the people of Calgary are, when faced with adversity and actually, always !

Please come and hear the amazing stories and help make this annual event the best it can be!!!  Love those clichés.

And check out here…. to see what else you would enjoy from the This is My City schedule.

April 12
2pm

Central Library
Main Floor

Six Minute Stories: tales of rebuilding

Join us for a fun and fast-paced series of presentations that reflect a diversity of responses to both art making and flood stories. Told against the backdrop of powerful images and followed by questions and discussion, Six Minute Stories will inform and provoke. Please check our website for speaker updates.

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Another show you might like not to miss.

I have just learnt about and see the work of Sean O’Connell online, he is showing his work at ACAD this week to next.

And there is an opening on the 10th.

See if you can make it.

arin

Now here is something VERY new and exciting:

Skype Speaker Series #1

With

Sian Martin

Take advantage of a marvellous opportunity

 to connect with this very talented 

British artist and teacher 

in her studio 

via the internet for her live presentation 

Stitching in the Air 

April meeting of SDA: Alberta in Calgary

Tuesday 29 April

12-2pm

Details below

Go HERE for online ticket purchase

and you will find a more legible version of the graphics there too.

I have arranged for Sian to speak to us directly from her studio in England!!
This is the reason for the lunch-time setting and new location.

We will meet at the EMMEDIA screening room in the Beltline (details below) to ensure robust internet connection.

There is plenty of on street parking on 11th and 12th Avenues and adjacent streets, including payable lot parking. 
 C-train and No 3 bus are also good ways to get there…

It would be even easier if you car pool.  SDA:Alberta is an environmentally friendly organization.
To learn about the location and enable clickable links please click on the  Eventbrite link here for online ticket sales.

Some photos of the location have also been attached to the end of this post.
Please share this information with as many people as possible from your contacts list so that Sian reaches as many people as possible with her illuminating and most unique perspective on stitch.

I am relying on you.

For more information about Sian and her work go to this place.

Photos to help you find the Emmedia location: down the side of 351 11th Avenue - look for the Emmedia logo.

If you would like to be registered on a list of 

Skype Speaker Series Presenters.....

Please send me an email giving the title of your talk and the time (gmt) that you would like to present.

I will provide this information to fibre friendly folk all around the world via SDA contacts, on request.

The Fibre World just got smaller.... again.

Here it is in situ

J. really needs to update his blazer collection (of one).

To photograph this I had to swing the huge lapel out of the way!!!

I've been in the Growlery : the wind is in the East.

ACAD show and sale now on - scroll posts to check details but...

Last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Pre-Sale at ACAD and now I can insist you go over there and take a look at all the wonderful work by the students and learn - because they are a great crowd who are very keen to talk, share their passion, and teach us about their techniques and inspirations.  Seems like there are excellent tutors in that place bringing out the character of the students and adding a little spice of technique as these, our future artists, mature.

The star of the show for me was Geoff Genge who is registered as a Jewellery Major (I believe you call it here in Canada) He told me he loves looking into the way things are constructed and he clearly has an interest in de-construction too.  He studied weaving with Mackenzie Frere from the Fibre Dept. and learnt the basics and then he told me cheekily with a grin, how he then decided to (in my words) take the kid gloves off and do something  a little more complicated.... I got him to take a mirror-wise selfie... scan down to see more details of the piece.

Photo credit  and Artist Geoff Genge

Earthen Shroud

Artist Geoffrey Genge

His piece is in predominantly wonderfully aged and rusted metal.  Check out the components...with natural fibre as warp and he has re-used things like a fire screen which he painstakingly took apart.  It supplies the tension in the work.  You weavers will understand this far better than I.

See if you can get a sense of his humorous character as you inspect the images below.
(Forgive non-editing of the images... but I think they do the job - please click to enlarge - and sorry I didn't get the right angle to view the piece in its entirety.)

Earthen Shroud

Artist Geoffrey Genge

Photo: karin millson
The top of the piece (not shown) is a large scale metal pipe - giving perfect balance to the entire work.

Earthen Shroud

Artist Geoffrey Genge

Photo: karin millson
 Look at the way the warp has been affected by the springs

Earthen Shroud

Artist Geoffrey Genge

Photo: karin millson
The lower portion is certainly dramatic

Need I say more?

This is a great opportunity to immerse yourself in blue (though some of the participating artists have interpreted the title in other less blue ways....
Contextural is a group of like-minded and supportive fibre and mixed media artists. Check out their website for more information, they are also taking applications for their summer residency programme at ACAD this summer.  Put your mouse over the scribble pattern to see the links.  It is a snip of a price for free access to  lots of wonderful upscale studio space.

But, back to the Epcor windows,  not 1 but 4 windows are filled with Indigo inspired works.  I am proud to be a part of it.

April is a great month for fibre art in and around Calgary.  Check out the SDA exhibition (previously mentioned here -  too.

Your pocket square is coming along nicely

Karin Millson         2014

Mi #3

I have just said goodbye to Judith Dios after a richly enhanced ride though Nuno felting which took her from Saltspring Island to Alberta, Calgary and Lethbridge  (thanks to Cheryl for all your help)  and into the hearts of some 40 felters.

Well-done Judith, you worked and played very hard.  We all thank you for it. You have excited the imagination and creative experiences of so many and set them on a road that isn't familiar but holds great promise.

You were an easy house guest, an inspiring teacher and everything one could want in a friend.

And now, I get back to stitching and completing commissions, writing and planning for April, a fast fire lecture for "This is my City" - if I can get the images together, completing the necessary samples for a future 4-day workshop, Exhibition hanging for the SDA show "What's on the Surface?" and also  the Indigo show with Contextural at Epcor, more preparations for the SDA Skype Speaker Series - -   It promises to be a wonderful month.

If you have time and would like to be part of the crowd at a soft opening of the Skype Speaker Series on 3rd April at about 12:15pm please get in touch with me via email.

I need a few helpers.

Thanks.