Upcoming Project and Works in Progress

While many of our shows are canceled or postponed, most of us are still making work. California Fibers’ members recently met (via video, of course, the new reality), and enjoyed seeing each others’ faces, but also came up with an idea for a group show, online, responding to what is surrounding us. Member Lydia Tjioe-Hall suggested we all work within our personal medium to create something mask-like that was a response to our new reality, whether it's what it feels like to wear a mask, or to NEED to wear a mask, or about the changes in our daily routines due to COVID-19 and Shelter-in-Place orders.

Member Debby Weiss has been making masks and using her leftovers to create art pieces. She has made over 600 masks from scrap fabric.

The piece below is made of scraps from her mask-making activities.

Member Michael F. Rohde has made work related to masks in the past. The piece below is Asora, from a photo he took in Papua New Guinea, during festival time. The Asora group creates masks constructed of mud that cover their entire head. They are often called Mud Men. Rohde comments that this might be the best way to go to the grocery store at the moment.

He has been weaving some large pieces lately from photos of walls he took last Fall in Oaxaca, Mexico. The current tapestry needed 165 colors, all dyed by Rohde himself.

Member Kathy Nida is currently working on a large COVID-19 quilt, as she processes the overwhelming input of virus-related news and manages online teaching. She has finished the drawing and tracing stages, seen here.

And is now spending hours cutting out fusible pattern pieces for the next stage, the fun one with all the fabric and colors.

Stay tuned for more work in progress and updates on the online mask exhibit.

A Closer Look at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai, CA

California Fibers has a new show opening this weekend at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai, California. The opening reception is Saturday, January 18, from 2-4 PM.

This exhibition coincides with and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the founding of California Fibers, a group that supports artistic growth and professional advancement for contemporary Southern California artists working in fiber media. All works in the exhibition address the theme “a closer look”, as interpreted by each artist, from imagery and inspiration to materials and processes.

“The work in this exhibition features contemporary art utilizing media and processes rooted in the earliest forms of human endeavor,” says Kevin Wallace, Director of the Center. “There are cutting-edge works in weaving, basketry, sculpture, quilting, embroidery, felting, surface design, knitting, crochet, wearables, and mixed media.” California Fibers: A Closer Look features diverse works created by eighteen members of California Fibers: Linda Anderson, Olivia Batchelder, Charlotte Bird, Marilyn Chaffee, Doshi, Polly Jacobs Giacchina, Lydia Tjioe Hall, Susan Henry, Chari Myers, Serge Nepomnin, Kathy Nida, Carol Nilsen, Liz Oliver, Michael Rohde, Rebecca Smith, Cameron Taylor-Brown, Debby Weiss and Peggy Wiedemann. California Fibers: A Closer Look continues through February 29, 2020. Many of the artists will be present at the opening reception on January 18 from 2-4 PM. Other events include a workshop by Polly Jacobs Giacchina on February 8. Details and registration are available at www.beatricewood.com.

Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts is open to the public Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 AM – 5 PM, and is located at 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Road in Ojai, CA.

Although the show is documented below, as those of us in the fiber arts can tell you, the work is always much more amazing in person, so stop on by to see the exhibit.

Chari Myers, The Last Season, handmade, vacuumed abaca paper, Procion MX dyes, foliage, wax

Michael F. Rohde, Gonwerlish Sonnet, handwoven tapestry: silk and natural dyes

“My piece in the exhibit is a smaller version from a series of imagined language tapestries. The larger ones are nearly seven feet tall, and address very large themes.  Gonwerlish Sonnet is a mere 17” on the side, and considers a more intimate use of language - smaller and more carefully considered use of words. Not only is the language imagined, but so is the name of the language.”

Charlotte Bird, Microbes 5, hand-dyed and commercial cotton, polyester thread, hand-dyed perle cotton thread

“I have always been fascinated by the microscope, as much for the shapes and forms of the creatures and plants visible, as for the science. Big and small microbes form the foundations of ecosystems and therefore life on earth.”

Kathy Nida, Climate Goddess, commercial and hand-dyed cottons

“Decoding the details of our current climate crisis, wishing there were someone in charge who cared enough to fix it.”

Kathy Nida, Sweet Delicious, commercial and hand-dyed cottons

“A closer look at love and its components.”

Peggy Wiedemann, Totem, pine needles, Irish waxed linen, old wooden toy parts

“The outside and the inside of the piece are not alike. You need to step up and take a closer look to see the difference.”

Peggy Wiedemann, The Tribe, cloth, Pakistani grass, India rag cordage, Irish waxed linen, old metal and wood objects

Linda Anderson, In the Old Way, cotton fabrics, Jacquard textile paints, bamboo batting, polyester thread

Cameron Taylor-Brown, Reflections/Giverny #2, linen yarns, silk and cotton fabric, wood, and paint; weaving, photographic transfer, embroidery

“Reflections/Giverny #2 takes a close look at the interplay between an image of one particular tree and its watery reflection, from a photograph taken in early spring at Monet’s garden. The original image has been abstracted and placed in repeat, inviting the viewer to explore the delicate patterning this creates. “

Polly Jacobs Giacchina, Grown Wild, date palm, steel cable, wire, and jute

“My work Grown Wild allows for a more intimate, up close look into my fiber art wall sculpture. The viewer is allowed to see inside the sculpture. Just a little surprise.”

Polly Jacobs Giacchina, Land There, wool, linen, burlap, wire, and salvaged metal

"Land There is an overview, map-like, fiber wall hanging. The viewer can decipher terrain and topography.”

Doshi, The Old Pond a Frog Leaps In, silk organza, acid dye, discharge, bomaki shibori

“The old pond
A frog leaps in.
Sound of the water
Look again.”

Liz Oliver, Wing, shibori-dyed silk habotai, acid dye and discharge

Debby Weiss, 657 Main St., fabric, yarn, thread, and steel

“A glimpse from above and through the fence, wondering just where it all begins and ends.”

Debby Weiss, Blush, fabric and thread

Rebecca Smith, Contexture, mixed fibers, seed beads, wire

Lydia Tjioe Hall, Spaghettification, cloth-covered wire

Lydia Tjioe Hall, Listening, copper, enamel, cloth-covered wire

Marilyn McKenzie Chaffee, Firefall II, cottons, pieced, appliqued, painted, stippled, machine- and hand-quilted, French knots

Olivia Batchelder, Vanishing Landscapes: Desert, wood box, agave husk, colored pencil

“It is at the edges where one first notices a particular form as being different from another form. Continuing the glance, likenesses merge in wondrous similarity and differences are celebrated.”

Serge Nepomnin, Laughing Sisters (three orange-red poppies), 100% silk charmeuse (painting stretched over a canvas), Jacquard Red-Label dyes, Jacquard gutta, Jacquard Resistad

Look closer! 

“There are three

Happy little sisters,

Bowing their heads laughing,

Tickled by the sun.

Carol Nilsen, Centrifuge, silks, linens, metallics

Susan Henry, Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, alpaca, angora, linen, mohair, qiviut, hand-dyed, knit

"Last summer I saw an unusual jellyfish, one I've never seen before, with a deep red bell transitioning to violet ruffles and a creamy white bloom of trailing tentacles.  It was a beautiful, dangerous creature and I couldn't forget it.  This unexpected inspiration from nature certainly deserved a closer look..."

Members Present Continued

At our July meeting, we also had presentations from Kathy Nida, Michael F. Rohde, and Brecia Kralovic-Logan about their work.

Kathy Nida is a quilt artist, but she has been doing some embroidery work in the last few months. She recently started a piece for The Tiny Pricks Project, a play on words about what a needle does in fabric, but really a massive protest against the words of Donald Trump. The project started when its founder, Diana Weymar, decided to document a Trump tweet on a piece of her grandmother’s linen. The project grew to over 1000 submissions, with a goal of 2020 pieces by 2020. Nida is involved in a feminist art group who chose to be part of the project.

One of Nida’s friends found a doily of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and Nida proceeded to start stitching a quote from Trump about how we can leave if we don’t like it here.

Nida is freehand stitching the letters, noting that there was no easy way to mark them. Her plan is to fill the piece with his words, taken from a speech on July 17.

She’s using stem stitch and a Perle 8 cotton. She did layer the doily on a solid background both for stability and visibility of the image.

Nida also brought a drawing of one of the embroideries she has designed.

This is Desert Mother. Her patterns are available at Global Artisans.

Michael F. Rohde took members on a tour of his work and ideas as he started weaving until current day.

He spoke of hand-dying his own threads, working with controlled block shapes, and weaving inlays over a block. He has written articles about some of his techniques, collaborated with a quilt artist for alternating squares, and finally transitioned from thinking of his work as rugs to thinking of them as wall hangings. He has woven kimono shapes around the four seasons, house forms, designing in a row, some organic shapes, and even went 3-D into basket shapes at one time. His work references at times Turkish tiles, boro cloth, kente cloth, and tiles from Morocco. He worked on pixelating faces, including this recent piece Reality, which is part of the FiberArts IX exhibit at the Sebastopol Center of the Arts through September 8.

He is currently working on generating squares as language using all hand-dyed threads. He has completed 4 pieces, with 5 more in process. The first 4 were types of speech language; now he is focusing on what we’re seeing on the news. It takes 3-4 months for him to complete one of these large pieces. He chooses the squares in a random way, using cards that document asymmetric arrangements of colors and pixels. Is each square a letter? A word?

Brecia Kralovic-Logan has been managing a large piece called Women’s Woven Voices. Brecia explains the project on her website as a woven tapestry based on the stories of 1,000 women globally, which she hopes to have completed by 2020. The purpose of exhibiting the work will be to shine a light on the creative accomplishments of women while calling attention to the challenges women currently face worldwide. She brought the panels she has completed so far, which consist of 150 woven stories, including a few California Fibers’ members.

Another goal of the project is to foster a culture of self-knowledge and sharing that builds courage and fosters a sense of power in women everywhere to contribute to their communities in positive ways. Also she hopes to allow women to tell the story of their lives, as a catalyst for change, particularly by opening up discussions about issues of domestic violence and sexual abuse in a safe and supportive way. The red fringe is a documentation of the fact that 3 out of every 4 women is subjected to some form of sexual abuse in their lifetime. She also hopes to promote resilience, compassion, open communication, healing and peace in individuals and communities.

If you’re interested in contributing to the project, click on the link above for more information on how to get your weaving kit and start your personal story.

Members traded off holding panels and walking around to look at details of the project.

The finished panels have been displayed in a variety of locations and will continue to be exhibited as the project grows.

As you can see, California Fibers’ members are involved in a wide variety of projects. Stay tuned as we continue to delve into their works in progress.