Sunday was a jam packed day, our original plan was to take the bus tour provided by the conference organizers, and then it dawned on me that if I drove into Philly we'd be and half hour closer to home. So we decided to follow the bus, but the bus had other ideas, so 45 minutes after the bus still didn't show up we decided to put the GPS system to good use and do our own tour...We started at the The Design Center at Philadelphia University where we saw an exhibit entitled Rummage Susie Brandt. It was a lovely well lit space filled with engaging and witty art. No photography was allowed, so sorry to pictures to share...
Then we went to the Crane Arts Building where we saw a most interesting collaboration between two artists, Ruth Borgenicht and Leslie Pontz. Leslie was there to show and explain, and it was wonderful to meet her. The picture at the top of the post is a detail of one of their pieces. Leslie crochets wire and Ruth fires clay and the combinations of colors and textures were fascinating. A thoroughly enjoyable experience. There we also visited the studio of Dianne Koppisch Hricko, where we had so much fun chatting about art and life that I completely forgot to take any pictures.
Then after a break for a quick lunch, we visited the Snyderman Works Gallery, the owners of which were very kind to open for us on a Sunday. There we saw the 6th International Fiber Biennial, curated by Bruce Hoffman, who was there to answer any questions we had. This is were I was truly humbled again and then again inspired... Beautiful art, fiber art, art of a caliber that one would expect to see in a museum... I could not tear myself away, there was so much to see. Above is a detail of a wonderfully textured piece by Matthew Harris, it is dyed, cut and hand stitched cloth. Below is a detail of a fiber, gesso and paint piece by Norma Minkowitz. 
Here is a luminescent detail of a sculptural was piece by Pat Hickman made out of gut and acrylic. Gut may sound unappealing, but it certainly looked wonderfully transparent and delicate.
Then we were off to the Gross McCleaf Gallery to see an exhibit of two accomplished artists - Emily Richardson and Judith James. Having heard Judith's presentation just the day before, and having seen pictures of her work, I was very surprised by how small they were. I don't know why, but I expected them to be much bigger. Once I was over my surprise, I really enjoyed pouring over the details of her constructions. Here's a striking detail below. 
In the back room as a great show of Emily's work and she was there too. It was very interesting to meet and talk with her. I was intrigued by the delicacy of her work as I am also a lover of silk organza, it was interesting to see someone working with it completely different from me. Here's a close up below. 
After that we headed back to New York, talking not stop for two hours about all that we saw and experienced during this weekend. I still have so much to process in my head... but real life beckons and I must go wake up a kid from a nap and plan dinner....PS my website is back up, but my email is still not functioning... please be patient.. Thanks!
4 comments:
It sounds like an inspirational trip,with such lovely textiles.I have just received `Quilting Arts` and really enjoyed reading your article well done what`s it like to be famous? Pippa
It was great to see you, Natalya! It was a fanatastic experience to put faces to names and to connect with so many artists. And the meetings on Sat. that I attended were superb.
Sounds like a wonderful trip. I especially enjoyed all your detail photos. thanks!
Good words.
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