Fiber Fusion Travelling Exhibition

Deborah Taylor: I Like The Way You Dance

The Surface Design Association of Washington State announces the Opening of Fiber Fusion, a year-long juried exhibition and celebration of textiles and surface design techniques, at the VALA Art Center in Redmond. The exhibition opened at Redmond Town Center’s VALA Art Center on November 10 and runs through January 15, 2017.

Axford: Counterpoint 1

A public Opening Reception at VALA was held on Saturday, November 19. Rock Hushka, lead curator at Tacoma Art Museum and one of the Fiber Fusion jurors, were giving a talk at the Opening.

Arisa Brown: Trepa

Additional locations include: Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend (February 2-26) and Schack Arts Center in Everett. (March 10 - April 3). The debut location was the Gallery at the Park in Richland, WA.

Claire Jones: Whole Surface Vitality 2

Fifty-four artists were selected for the four-city exhibition. Fiber Fusion jurors were Layne Goldsmith, University of Washington Professor of Art and past chair of the Fibers Program, Young Chang, MFA in Fiber and Owner­­–– Gallery IMA, Seattle and Rock Hushka, MA Art History and Director of Curatorial Administration, Tacoma Art Museum.

Nancy Loorem-Adams: Birth Of The Grid

Local Members Selected

Local Eastside chapter members whose work has been accepted include: Christina Fairley Erickson, Bellevue; Gale Whitney, Bellevue; Crystal A Edwards, Redmond; Maura Donegan, Issaquah; and Rebecca Wachtman, Renton.

Gwen Lowery: Wheels

Additionally, GJ Gillespie, Kirkland and Erika Carter, Renton will display work at the Schack Arts Center location. In conjunction with the exhibition, several of the Eastside members will have additional pieces on display at VALA.

Jeannie McMacken: Dinner At La Belle Equipe Smoke Dress

Eighty-eight artists representing 39 Washington cities and towns entered the competition with 246 entries. Artist techniques include fabric manipulation, hand and machine embroidery, painting, wet felting, shibori, bojagi, and botanical dyeing. Some of the unusual materials used include stainless steel, sock monkeys, gunpowder, vintage kimono, acrylic, newspapers, sand, wood, gut and hair.

Seiko Purdue: Bullet Cloth

Workshops Scheduled

Concurrent with Redmond’s Surface Design celebration, VALA will host a mini-workshop on dyeing and embroidery at the Redmond Senior Center. The instructor, Christina Fairley Erickson, also serves as the Executive Director of the Fiber Fusion exhibition. For information and registration contact the Redmond Sr. Center: https://apm.activecommunities.com/redmondparksandrec/Activity_Search/rsc-dye-and-embroider-mini-workshop/7107 or call 425-556-2314

Geraldine Warner: Cryoscape

Surface Design

Surface design art uses elements of surface design—which includes dyeing, painting, printing, stitching, embellishing, quilting, weaving, knitting, beading, felting, and paper making— or that in some way manipulates or alters the surface of a “textile.” A textile is defined as any material that takes on the properties of cloth. Work can be functional or non-functional, and can be for the wall, the body or as decoration.

Joyce Wilkerson: Cloth Shadow Line

The Fiber Fusion exhibition is underwritten by the Surface Design Association and sponsored by Blick Art Materials.

The Surface Design Association is a non-profit arts organization founded in 1977 and is comprised of artists, students, educators, gallery owners and curators. It has 215 members in Washington, and over 3,000 internationally.

VALA:- VALA (Venues for Artists in the Local Area) Eastside, was founded in 2010 by Jessica Kravitz and John Lambert based in Redmond, Washington. VALA’s mission to connect artists to artists, artists to the community, and the community to art is achieved by featuring local artists who are particularly interested in connecting to the community in meaningful ways.

For more information about Fiber Fusion visit: www.surfacedesignwa.com
www.sdafiberfusionshow.org,
www.facebook.com/surfacedesignwa/