Check this out!

Lanark County Quilters Guild presents
"Quilts on the Tay"
August 12-14, 2011
St. John C. H. School
2066 Scotch Line Rd,
Perth, ON
Info: www.lanarkcountyquiltersguild.wordpress.com

Shows ,Shows, Shows…

OK, the heat is on - -

1) Quiltfest this week in Brockville. They want photos of all the quilts in the show…170+. I offered, they accepted!! Ugh, but a great way to hone my Photoshop RAW skills – the lighting in the hall was awful. It’s win win all around.

2) Quilts on the Tay - Kamloops to Halifax, an exhibition of traditional and contemporary quilts and wall hangings sponsored by the Lanark county Quilters Guild in Perth, ON. They want my stuff by mid-July. OK, I can handle that.

3) Marianne van Silfhout Gallery at St. Lawrence College Intrigue into the 1000 Islands.– this show runs throughout July & August. My work is already on sight. Piece of cake!

4) Ahh, then there is the Mallory Coach House. TIA’s very own gallery opens with a Strawberry Social next week: June 28th from 1 to 4pm. Thousand Islands Arts (TIA) finally has its vey own gallery: the Coach House!

It is located in a very old but beautifully restored stone house in Mallorytown Ontario. We plan to showcase the work of TIA artists and artisans all summer! We hope to attract day trippers and road savvy art enthusiasts to this delightful little town on the shores of the St Lawrence River.

All this wonderful exposure, means that I am busy pulling work out of cupboards, drawers, and off of shelves for review, dispatching and and shipping. In short, all real art work comes to a grinding halt…sigh.

I dutifully check out my stockpile of ‘mostly finished’ work, looking for any tell-tale ‘unfinished bits’, threads, pins, etc. I then mop up, dust off, sew, bind, sign, photograph, record and occasionally even redesign some of these…not too often, but occasionally that will happen. What can I say? It is another way to work.

And then, I look forward to the openings and the odd occasion to be interviewed and represent some of these events on TV. As it happens, next week in fact -- I will polish my face, put on my Sunday smile and head on up to Ottawa, to the CTV studios on George street, with work in one hand and speaking notes in the other. Hopefully the airing will not take place at 3am – but then, who knows? Some collectors are insomniacs…you really never know.

American Craft features the work of Andrée Fredette

I am was so proud to discover Andrée Fredette's work featured in the most recent edition of American Craft Magazine.

Andrée's piece Tunicates no.1 was juried into this Quilt National '09, which opens next week. The image published in American Craft (seen below) doesn't do justice the extensive and beautiful machine embroidery that floats over these large colourful panels.

For those of you who are lucky enough to be in Athens Ohio next week, you will be able to see the real thing as well as all the other 'best of the best'. For the rest of us QN '09's full colour catalogue will be released any time now. I already have mine on order.

Congratulations Andrée!!

Calendar

Quilt National '09

Tunicates No. 1 © 2008 Andree Fredette

Dairy Barn Arts Center
Quilt National '09
May. 23 — Sep. 7 2009
Athens, Ohio
http://www.dairybarn.org

The beauty of stitching stands on its own in 85 quilts running the gamut from traditional formats to 3-D textile sculpture, realism to abstraction.

© 2007 AMERICAN CRAFT MAGAZINE
| Contact | 72 Spring St, 6th Flr, New York, New York 10012 | 212.274.0630 | letters@craftcouncil.org | Customer Service |

''Material Matters Exibit'' at Columbus Museum of Art

Material Matters Catalogue

A little bit of shameless promotion...
I have a piece in this exhibit that is currently on at the Museum of Art in Columbus Ohio, till August 31, 2008.

I just visited the site. Not only does it feature many of the pieces in the exhibit but also links up several U-tube videos of artists at work on their piece. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/columbusmuseum.

More pictures to come, but first, here is an image of my piece in this show.

River's Edge 4 hand-dyed cotton 16x40.5''
©2006 Kit Vincent

Good News from the Ontario Crafts Council

Just received a surprise check from the Ontario Crafts Council.
It seems that my quilt 'Wild' sold -- hot dog!

Back in November I submitted 'Wild' as part of the Ontario Craft 07, a biennial juried exhibition of works by members of the OCC. I've been a member for ages. I was delighted that they decided to reinstate this exhibit as it provides an excellent Canadian opportunity to show fine craft. Fine craft is the classification for what it is I do/make/produce...

This show was juried by Sandra Ainsley and David Kaye, two gallery owners based in Toronto and Lisa Pai of Lafreniere & Pai Gallery in Ottawa. Two hundred works were submitted and sixty-nine were selected in the media of ceramics, glass, wood, jewelry, metal, textiles and mixed media. The show ran from November 15 to December 31 at the new OCC Gallery at 900 Queen street West.

Here is one last shot of Wild - 128cm x 123 cm

Wild hand-dyed cotton & silk 128 x 123 cm
© 2007 Kit Vincent

Art in the Mail

I don't consider myself a collector of art in the normal sense, preferring the doing part over the collecting. But, every once in a while I have to make an exception. Recently Lisa Call featured a miniature version of one of her larger quilts. She calls these miniatures Art Card Editions and Originals (ACEO) .

On her blog, Lisa defines them this way:
ACEO stands for “art cards, editions and originals”. Originally known as ATC, Artist Trading Card, and are traded between artists. When sold to the public they are referred to as ACEOs. The primary rule for an ACEO or ATC is they be 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ - the size of a trading card. They are created in many different mediums and are collectible, trade able and affordable art for everyone.

I have been a long-time admirer of Lisa's larger work and this is an exquisite miniature of a larger piece called Structures #48. The original quilt will be exhibited in NYC shortly at the Blogger Show. This art show is made up of 36 artists, 4 galleries and the blogosphere. All participating artists are serious bloggers.

Now back to my little ACEO. What to do with it I wondered?
Originally I thought about putting it into a float frame and I may still do this but in the interim, I found a perfect place - in my daytimer! Just above a lovely picture of my darling daughter and right next to my favourite finger puppet. Mini #48 has its own slot and looks quite comfortable.

Recent multi-media show activity

My website refers briefly to some of this but I can expand on it here making it more tangible for readers with a couple of visuals.
In July my work appeared at the Sarah Sterkin Gallery in Gannanoque Ontario. This was a multi-media show that resulted in one major sale for me - Swept Up 31''x43''

Swept Up hand-dyed silks, quilted 43x31''
© 2006 Kit Vincent

I will miss it, but I know that it is in a good place in its new home.

In August, Wild 51''x 45'' was juried in to the Best of TIA and won the FABR award.

Wild hand-dyed cotton & silk, quilted 127 x 123cm
© 2007 Kit Vincent

In November, it travels to Toronto as it has been juried into Ontario Craft '07. This is an exhibition of works by members of the Ontario Crafts Council. Wild will be on display from November 15 to December 13, at the OCC Gallery, 990 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario.

In September, Paul and I mounted a two-person show at the Sandra Whitton Galley in Kingston Ontario, called - Two Studios: The work of Paul and Kit Vincent. No sales here, but it was our first experience in assembling what we had originally thought were disparate works into a cohesive whole. With Sandra's help we discovered these similarities. Below is a copy of the e-flyer that was distributed to targeted mailing lists.

Here is a picture of the front of the gallery on hanging-day; the only day I brought my camera... darn.

In October, Paul and I participated in an open studio tour Autumn Leaves which took place over two weekends. We both had a couple of modest sales and we met a lot of people, Canadians from Manitoba and Americans from NY and New Hamshire!

Currently, we are both participating in a multi-media show at the Chameleon Nation Creative Emporium (I absolutely just love that name!) a brand new gallery at 112 Princess Street in Kingston Ontario. The show is on till October 31 - so try and catch it if you are in the area.

Front of rack card
back of rack card.

Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve Award

Wild hand-dyed cotton & silk 114 x 127cm
©2007 Kit Vincent

Yes, that is a mouthful...

I just received a phone call from Sheila Ballantine who is overseeing the jurying process for the Best of TIA art show in Gannanoque. My quilt, Wild has won the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve Award - wowie!
I quickly had to check this out, so google to the rescue...

It turns out that the Arch Biosphere is an organization that is doing a lot of good for our environment. In short, I am very proud to have won this award.

The Biosphere Reserve in Eastern Ontario is one of 482 Reserves around the world as designated by UNESCO in 2002. BTW, the geographical area is huge and includes lots of lakes and parks. Some of their projects include identifying habitats for species at risk, concerns for best community planning and environmental practices, and promoting local economies by networking with farms and agricultural producers.

Below is some information on the Art Show in Gannanoque. I hope you can join us for opening night on Friday. I'll be there for sure -

The Best of TIA
Annual Juried Art Show & Sale 2007

A Kaleidoscope of colour, texture and form...

the artists of TIA proudly present our BEST to you.

Come see what makes us different!

400 Stone St. Gananoque
Opening Night & Awards Ceremony:
Friday August 17 – Time 6 pm to 10 pm
Show Dates:
Saturday August 18 & Sunday August 19

Time 10 am to 9 pm daily

TIA members will be presenting their BEST art work
including all aspects of two and three dimensional work.
To join TIA and be a participant at this show please
contact us through our "Contact" web page,
or call 613-342-7828.

www.kitvincent.com Website Update

Refuge 27.5 "x 28"


A new gallery has been added to my website to showcase some new work done this year.

Britannia Gallery, Ottawa, ON

The vernissage for our group show took place last Thursday. What a turnout - we even had two sales! After so much planning and work it was great to see our work up on the wall and under lights. Oh yeah, and it gets to stay there longer than a week...what a treat!
The owner of the gallery, David Meuser was a gracious host and very patient with the six of us and our many last minute requirements.
I have included a couple of snaps of the show and two of my ten works.

This is our e-mail invite that features our collective piece.
This piece entitled Beginnings consists of six panels, each 18"x 48". They hang together one inch apart. The panels represent a diversity of chosen media but are united thematically and therefore come together as a whole.

Starting from left to right is a panel by Jennifer Hodge, pieced and quilted, P. Susan Clow, appliquéed and quilted, Wendo Van Essen, needle felted, Pat Lemaire, commercial fabrics free motion quilted, Kit Vincent (me), raw edged appliqué and hand quilted, and lastly, Catharina Breedyk Law, appliqué and free motion quilted.

Here we are, waiting for the show to start, standing "in front" of our work, Jennifer, Susan, Wendolina, Pat, me, and Cathy.



This piece is hot off my wall. Wild measures 48.5"x 48". This snap is a bit dark and doesn't show the colours or the stitching all that well - I will go back, get another shot of it and re-post.


This small piece Rasberry Green is 13"x 15", raw edged appliqué, machine and hand quilted.
I have eight other pieces in the show - photos to come.

You can find a more detailed record of the entire show here.

more new work

48"x 48" Ready for thread work.
This one is the reverse of the first one - oddly enough I like it better. I'm off to make more.

New work, ready for threadwork

I am getting ready for a show at the Britannia Gallery in Ottawa ON. This piece is one of seven. It is 48" x 53". The image on the right shows a paper sketch with batting pinned over it. A the first couple of shapes fused to it.

Work Underway

A sample of stitched resist done in San Antonio.

Here is what's on my front burner these days

1) Group show: Seven Threads Studios at the Britannia Gallery in Ottawa, ON - 1 -31 May, 2007
2) Open House Studio Tour as part of the Thousand Islands Arts (TIA) group, also in May

3) Fibre Art Retreat organized by the Seven Threads Studios at the Glen House Resort in the Thousand Islands, 20-22 April, 2007

Yikes!




Back in my dye lab, here is a shot of my new work surface.
A 4'x 6'piece of plywood, covered on both sides with polyester felt, stapled and duck taped around all four sides. This allows both sides to be used, and the top slides easily across its two supports - the sink counter edge and an old microwave cabinet on the other side that just happens to be the right height.
Even though this is a small space, I still have access to both sinks when needed.

N.B. I Still haven't painted the room yellow yet. black stain on door still there from my dye spill a while back.

I covered the felt with with poly cotton sheeting as it doesn'tbond well with dye but absorbs wet under the art work (plastic would cause puddling). The sheeting gets tossed into the wash regularly. This large surface allows me to work with larger pieces of wet cloth when stamping, silk screening, stencilling, or foiling, etc. - is much more efficient than what I had previously.
It can also be removed and stored vertically when I want it out of the way.



Small sample showing two dye baths, wrapped, scrunched, stamped, and thermofaxed.

Below is a larger piece 60"x 72" just out of its first bath. This is a 2 yard piece from a bolt of Hathaway shirting. The Hathaway Factory in Prescott ON was closed Christmas week three years ago putting 140 people out of work. I was lucky enough to come across a 100 metre bolt of 60" light blue shirting. I would have preferred white, but the light blue is almost as good. It has a satiny shine to one side and loves all kinds of MX dyes. More of this panel to come.