Game Changers

Today marks my second hop into blog hopping. I'm honoring--and hoping to get people to visit--the blogs of my buddies Ruth Ann Olson  and Mary Lachman.

Ruth http://ruthanneolson.blogspot.com/ is a friend, a prolific quilter, and a member of Sisters in Cloth, a quilters' group on the Connecticut shoreline.  Maryhttp://www.marylachman.com/ and http://www.mothatthewindow.com/ is not only a quilter but a writer, having just brought out an edition of her late grandfather's poetry from the 1930s.

And I...I'm doing the blog hop with Ruth Ann and Mary, and not only that, but today I can report on a show I saw this morning:  Game Changers:  Fiber Art Masters and Innovators.

 It was at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA.  I'd never heard of the place until a teacher at Snow Farm, the Williamsburg, MA art school which I've attended twice recently, mentioned it.  This particular teacher, who taught structural knitting, has an assemblage constructed of knitted of wire in the Fuller's current show.

Today I went to see that show with my Hartford buddy Linda Martin and my college roommate, Rosalie Lamontagne, who lives in Whitinsville, MA, about 45 minutes from the museum.

"From the humble beginnings of human needs to survive, fiber artists today have turned the basic necessities of the past into art of the highest quality," the Game Changers brochure reads.  "Quiltmakers are taking the grid and the crazy quilt and concentrating on color over pattern.  Embroiderers are designing elaborate wall pieces, and the sewing machine is now as important in the fiber arts as the loom has been.  Novel materials such as cantaloupe rind, wasp nests, and film strips are being used.  The world of fiber art continues to amaze with its multiple facets."

The piece below is made of cotton and wire.

Time of Ten Suns by Carol Eckert

A tapestry, like the one below, is much closer to the kind of art that comes to mind when I think of fiber art.  But look at the colors in this tapestry!  And the weird figures:

Warrior of Night in the Blue Light by Maximo Laura

Here's a nontraditional fiber art.  These figures are actually knitted with wire.

Truth to Power by Adrienne Sloane

The nontraditional fibers in Odd Pair, below,  include melon rind, cedar bark, and wasp nest fiber:

Odd Pair by Jan Hopkins

 This map of New York City is constructed with giant stitches:

New York City Map by Ruben Marroquin

These cowboy boots are constructed of twigs:

Boots Sculpture by John McQueen, with my buddy and college roommate Rosalie

My favorite piece in the show was this one:

Summer Meadow by Carol Shinn

Can you believe this one was created entirely with thread painting?

Outside, the museum's grounds bear exploring:

Linda and Rosalie

 I especially like the path traced by these three boulders:

The trip was a day worth taking.  A whole museum, just for craft!  Who knew?