Evidence + Exploration = Resolution Opens

The opening reception for Evidence + Exploration = Resolution was Friday evening at The Arts Center in Greenwood, SC. I'm pictured above with my work, Plus Blue.

It was really great to see work, mine and the work of my co-exhibitiors Tom Dimond and Sydney A. Cross, installed in such a beautiful environment.

Each of us spoke briefly about our work and what, content, technique and our thoughts on the title of the show.

Syd is pictured here in front of a huge bank of windows and beside the beautiful reception table. The Arts Center is a repurposed Federal Building on Main Street and it is beautiful.

Syd is a printmaker and has taught her medium at Clemson University for many years. Much of her work in this show focused on cultural issues and issues dealing with endangered animal species.

I am shown here in front of Personal Space which is one of my newest works developed using surface design techniques. I am one of those people who talks with their hands and blinks just as the camera clicks. The image demonstrates those two habits nicely ;-)

We had a good attendance at the reception and we all enjoyed talking with the guests. It was a very friendly and welcoming community of art supporters.

This installation is a little tight but I loved seeing the relationship between my small work on the left and one of Syd's prints on the right.

This is a nice grouping of Syd's prints over the title of the show. I congratulate Jennifer Smith and all the staff for doing a beautiful job arranging and installing the show. Designing and installing a show by three different artists working in three different mediums can be a big challenge and Jennifer met that challenge. I heard many compliments on her behalf.

The three pieces on the right are by Tom and one of my works is to the left. In years past we have had several shows together but then we took a break. Last year we showed at USC Upstate in Spartanburg, SC and now in E+E=R. It has been lots of fun and we hope to do more.

I invite you all to drop by The Arts Center and show our show which will be up until

To read more about the concept behind this show click HERE.

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Three Artists - Evidence + Exploration = Resolution

Personal Space - Terry Jarrard-Dimond

hand dyed, hand painted, and Mono-printed fabric

machine pieced, turned edge applique, machine quilted

42"h x 60"w - 2012

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things." ~ Steve Jobs

Evidence + Exploration = Resolution opens next month at The Arts Center in Greenwood, SC and features paintings by Tom Dimond, prints by Sydney A. Cross and my textile constructions. I'm very pleased to be part of this show not only because Tom is my husband and Sydney one of my best friends, but because they are accomplished and respected artists who have followed their passion for art for many years.

Valmonica - Tom Dimond

watercolor, acrylic, ink jet transfer, monotype,collage on paper

27"h x 20"w - 2011

As we began to plan for this show we discussed what the mutual interest was that connected our work. This is the statement which describes that connection.

The three artists in this exhibition have found their own unique solutions for presenting evidence of their awareness and the resulting effect of personal experiences, social issues, culture, history, and media on their studio activities. Using various techniques they explore their ideas to create signs and symbols that reflect their resolutions to these influences. Viewers of the exhibition will find evidence of this synthesis in the rich variety of works on display.

Many if not most of the world religions and philosophies will say that we are all connected. I like that thought and this show is centered around the idea that despite our efforts as individual artists, there is a common bond and a connection.

Really, I Insist - Sydney Cross

screenprint with hand-colored matrix

11"h x 13"w - 2011

The show runs from January 30 to February 25th at The Arts Center which is located at 120 Main Street in Greenwood, SC. The hours are 8:30 - 5pm Monday - Friday and 9:30 - 1:30 on Saturdays.

There is a reception Friday the 3rd of February from 6-8pm and you are invited. For more information you can contact the museum at 864-953-2462.

More information is available at:http://www.emeraldtriangle.sc/ArtsCouncil/Gallery.aspx

Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7. I love hearing from you and Remember:

Commenting is FREE!!!

A Change of Pace

Rice Stitch

I posted an article recently about the return of The Dots. The piece was hand stitched with rice stitch. The detail I am showing today is of a much larger piece in which I am again using rice stitch. I took a very deep breath before I started this work as it is perhaps an area of 24" x 45". I love to work large but I have never committed to stitch such a large area in this way.

When I began to learn to quilt I hand quilted several full size works with a traditional quilt stitch but it is just too hard on my hands and as I began to make more work I felt pressed to "move along" so I began machine quilting. So how do I find myself with several large pieces in various stages of completion, all being hand stitched?

I think the answer is I always knew I felt connected to this process. I took the Expressive Stitch class with Dorothy Caldwell a couple of years ago and loved that. It reminded me of how much the touch of hand adds to work. During the last year I collaborated with Kathy Loomis on a blind stitching project and we are continuing that work to be presented at some point in the future.

Another large factor in this change of pace is due to my personal commitment to slow down and enjoy my studio. I decided to take a break from entering shows and just work. I had a show in the early fall at USC Upstate - Pieced Together, with my husband, Tom and we have another show coming in February at The Arts Center in Greenwood SC along with our friend, printmaker Syd Cross. so I'm not totally out of sight but I'm not having to think about show entries, acceptance or rejection, shipping and receiving etc. It's rather refreshing.

This change of pace requires that I accept the investment of time that is required and enjoy the physical aspect of the work. I hang the work on the design wall often and enjoy the progress and I also make a point of rotating which work I'm actually working on. This keeps it fresh for me. I am also continuing to keep at least one work going that is more inline with what I had been doing and just today I am preparing to put the facing on a new work that is machine pieced, appliqued and machine quilted. Mixing things up seems to help me feel productive.

Well Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. You are the reason I choose to blog and I appreciate your comments and support.

Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7. I love hearing from you and Remember:

Commenting is FREE!!!

Sydney A. Cross: A Passion for Printmaking

Syd Cross in her studio

Syd Cross is one of my closest friends. Our friendship began 28 years ago when she was hired by Clemson University to teach printmaking where she continues teaching today. She has always been passionate about printmaking and dedicated to her students and her work. Syd is also devoted to her cats, is an avid gardener and enthusiastic horsewoman. These subjects often appear in her prints along with topics relating to women, culture, current issues and politics.

Syd's resume is impressive and I don't want to leave anything out. With this in mind, I'm going to present her questions and answer's first and then present a more lengthy bio. I want to thank her for sharing this work with me for my blog as several of these are new as of this week.




SUBTRACTION----Woodcut, 24" x 35"

INTERVIEW

QUESTION: Syd, I have known you for many years and I know that you are very dedicated to your work and are consistent in your efforts. Please share with us something of your studio routine and something about your methodology in the studio at the point you begin a new work.


SYD: There are a couple of ways that I get started in the studio.


Historically, the method I have used most in generating work begins with an ongoing archive of AP wire and magazine photography that I have amassed over the years. I will roll out tracing paper and begin sketching, using those archives as source material. I will composite figures and spaces from this activity. I may sustain this sketching exercise for a few days, which results in a collection of drawings that are often disparate from each other. At this point I usually begin cutting the sketches apart and composing them with one another to find unexpected relationships. In doing this I find themes start to be suggested. The overlapping of the images even when pragmatically stacked to consolidate table space can prompt new meanings that I find intriguing. Another methodology that I have also started exploring is collaging of the actual source material rather than drawing it first. I have found this method inspires a different implementation of process than the hand drawn compositions.


SEQUENCE---Woodcut, 24" x 35"

QUESTION; How did you choose printmaking as your medium?

SYD: Initially, printmaking was attractive to me because I was seduced by the expertise one needed to have command of in order to execute it, particularly lithography---in the mid seventies when I was a student there was a status connected to having this expertise. More importantly, however, printmaking was an extension of drawing, which I loved, but if offered many more possibilities. There is still nothing as wonderful to draw on as a Bavarian Lime stone.



SIFT---Lithograph & Screenprint, 20" x 15"

QUESTION: Your work often appears to tell a story. If that is correct, is it important to you that the viewer interpret the work in a specific way?


SYD: My work is meant to be read, hopefully, in a lot of different ways. If everyone understood the same thing from my pieces or only saw one thing I think I would be disappointed. Having said that, there are specific cues that I insert in the work to prompt a subject for dialogue.




UPDATE---Lithograph & Screenprint, 15" x 20"


QUESTION: With all the constant and immediate communication our society has today, what role does the visual artists have to play?


SYD: I am old fashioned--I don't think the role is much different for artists today. I believe artists serve to show us the questions we should consider asking, make statements about the world around them and even share their vision or version of beauty or the sublime. I also believe that quality of craft is still important no matter how esoteric the conceptual nature of the work may seem.


I do think there is a lot of art that attempts to address 'constant and immediate communication of our society today' or poses questions about it that possesses so little intrinsic visual or artistic investment that it ends up reinforcing the very thing it hopes to critique OR fails to qualify as art.



FAME -- Linoleum Cut, 10" x12"


QUESTION: Please step back in time and tell us whose studios you would like to visit.


SYD: I would love to see the difference between the studio of Bernini and that of Michaelangelo. I would also like to observe the etching studio of Stanley William Hayter, Rembrandt, or Durer.


MARKET-- Lithograph, 9" x 8"


QUESTION: Is there any major project you have in mind that you have not yet attempted?


SYD: Yes. What are they?----that keeps changing. I have whole series of painting and sculptures (believe it or not) that I hope to take on. My biggest challenge is working through a series of work in a timely manner that is productive and intense rather than scattered and stalled as often happens when you teach full time.

GALLERY--- Screenprint, 10" x 8"


RESUME

Sydney A. Cross, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Northern Arizona University in 1977 and her Masters of Fine Arts from Arizona State University in 1980. She has been teaching printmaking, drawing and design at Clemson University for the past 28 years. Always professionally active, she became the vice president and then President of the Southern Graphics Council (1996-2000), which is the largest printmaking society in North America. In 2000 she was awarded the Provost scholarly Achievement Award and that same year she received the President's Commission on the Status of Women's Outstanding Faculty Award. In 2005 at the SGC conference held in Washington D.C. Sydney was selected to be an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Clemson University.


She has also been awarded residencies at Frans Massareel Graphic Center in Kasterlee, Belgium and the Virginia Center of Creative Arts in Mt. San Angelo, VA. She has given numerous panel presentations at regional, national, and international conferences and symposiums, including the Southeastern College Art Association in Richmond, VA, Print Odyssey conference in Cortona Italy, 2003 National Association for Humanities Conference in Austin, TX., and SGC conferences held in Richmond, VA, Morgantown, WV and Cincinnati, OH.

As an artist she has participated in several important portfolio exchanges, including Suite X, printer's Almanac, Tempe Suite, and Imaages 1990 and Drawn to Stone, a celebration of Two Hundred Years of Lithography. Her work can be found in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Smithsonian Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA, Fogg Art Museum, Aambridge, MA, the Museum of Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium, and the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Her work has been exhibited regionally, Nationally and internationally. In addition to solo exhibitions, she has had work included in the 25th Bradley National Print and Drawing Exhibition, Peoria, IL., Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, Kenosha, WI, "Hand Pulled Prints III", Stonemetal Press, San Antonia, TX, "Mixed Media" at the Slidell Cultural Center in Louisiana, Paper in Particular, Columbia College, Columbia, MO, and the Irene Leach Memorial Exhibition, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA.

Thank you Syd for sharing your beautiful work. Terry