Water Series at the Holland Area Arts Council MI Arts Exhibit

Water Series: 2

The Holland Area Arts Council in downtown Holland, Michigan, is hosting the 2016 MI Arts Competition and I have two pieces in the show, both in the Water Series.

I did four pieces in January and February 2015 that consisted of collaged fabric and freeform machine embroidery, mounted and hung as 2-D textiles.

The first one and the second (shown above) were first in the FUMC's "Celebration" exhibit that February.  The fourth was in the Lowell regional show that spring, the third was in the Muskegon Museum of Art's regional this summer 2016 and now the second and fourth are in the HAAC's MI Arts exhibit.

For pieces and flat work that was just an exploration of techniques using many different types of hand printed and dyed fabric, it has paid off very well in being able to show them at many different exhibits.  It seems as though my textile figures still are not accepted as "ART" as flat textile work now is.  Have to do more work on that front.

I loved combining the deconstructed screen printed cotton knit fabric (top of #2 above) with the textile painted/printed synthetic and the discharged cheesecloth (bottom) to create this perspective of water in many forms.

Water Series: 4

In Water Series: 4 the top is a black rayon from India that was first shibori stitched with round kumo circles.  I discharged it with dots.  Below that is mostly discharged cottons and a lot of cheesecloth and knits.  The green is a hideous green acetate muslin that's printed with black textile paint and was the perfect combination with the ochre yellow.  Always keep those ugly fabrics because they suddenly become just the right thing with the right patterns and colors.

Unfortunately the colors in the details for #4 are not quite right, too blue.  The colors in the full image are the right ones.

Each one of the Water Series shows water in so many different forms:  running in streams, sluggish in swamps and wetlands, boggy clay with weeds, at night in still reed ponds with the moonlight flowing down, in ice and blizzard storms, underwater with seaweed and reflected light.

Water Series: 4, Detail

Water Series: 4, Detail

I'm looking forward to somehow combining these techniques in a form I still call "Structures"--- not flat but 3-D, not a figure, but a textile form in the round.  More experiments and exploration!