Yeiser Art Center

Yeiser's Yearly Fiber Art Show

http://fantasticfibers.theyeiser.org

FANTASTIC FIBERS is an international competitive exhibition that seeks to showcase a wide range of outstanding works related to the fiber medium. In four years Fantastic Fibers has grown to a truly international competition/exhibition.

Fantastic Fibers 2012 is hosted by the Yeiser Art Center, Paducah’s Gateway to the Arts. Located in downtown Paducah, the Yeiser Art Center is a non-profit visual arts organization celebrating more than fifty years of serving the community through exhibitions and education throughout the Tri-State Region.

Last year’s Fantastic Fibers 2011 had over 400 entries submitted by 187 fiber artists from Canada, France, Japan, and Qatar, and from 23 US states. 58 works by 47 fiber artists were chosen for the exhibit.

Paducah is the home of the National Quilt Museum. The American Quilter’s Society Annual Show and Contest will be held in Paducah from April 25 to 28, 2012.
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The competition/exhibition is open to all professional artists 18 years and/or over working in the field of fiber art. Contemporary and innovative works created with fiber as the primary medium are welcome. All work submitted must be original, completed in the last three years and not previously exhibited in a Fantastic Fibers exhibition. There are no size restrictions. A non-refundable entry fee $10 is required for each entry submitted for consideration with a maximum of five entries per artist. Entries must be submitted online by February 4, 2012.

Juror Luanne Rimel is an artist, curator, and currently the Director of Education Programs at Craft Alliance Art Center in St. Louis, Missouri. She holds an MFA in Fibers from Southern Illinois University and has taught numerous workshops and classes around the country. Rimel will award a minimum of $1,750 in cash prizes for this year’s exhibition.

Location:  Paducah, Kentucky, USA
Language spoken:  English

Fantastic Fiber Exhibit at the Yeiser Art Center in 2011

Tags:  Call for entries, exhibitions, art quilt, mixed media, contest, felt, fiber, workshops, 3-d, Paducah

Caryl Bryer Fallert / Bryerpatch Studio

www.bryerpatch.com

Caryl Bryer Fallert sewing with "George"

Fine artist, quilt maker, teacher, lecturer, gallery owner, writer, business person, these are the hats I am wearing at the moment (in the order in which I like wearing them). For 23 years I traveled to eleven countries on five continents to teach quilting art and lecture about my work. In 1997 I started the Bryerpatch Studio Internet Store, where I sell the fabrics I design from Benartex, and the patterns, instructions, and workshops on CD-ROM which I publish.

In 2005 I left the Fox Valley of Illinois, where I had lived my whole life, and started a new life in Paducah Kentucky's award-winning, historic LowerTown Arts District where most of my neighbors are also artists. I built a new studio, gallery and workshop center, where I continue teaching without having to take my whole show on the road. I love being part of a real community with lots of cultural activities avaliable within walking distance. You can visit my gallery and shop online at www.bryerpatch.com.

Artist's statement:  I make original, fine art for the walls of homes and businesses, from fabric that is stitched together and quilted. Most of my work is made from 100% cotton fabric, which is dyed and painted, then pieced, appliquéd, embroidered, and quilted on my sewing machine.
The focus of my work is on the qualities of color, line, and texture, which will engage the spirit and emotions of the viewer, evoking a sense of mystery, excitement, or joy.  Illusions of movement, depth, and luminosity are common to most of my work. The inner glow is created by hand dyeing or painting my fabrics in gradual progressions from light to dark.

Both my geometric color studies, and my more organic, curved seam abstracts are inspired by visual impressions, collected in my travels, in my everyday life, and in my imagination. Although some of my quilts include pictorial images, my work is most often about seeing, experiencing, and imagining, rather than pictorial representation of any specific object or species. When recognizable objects appear, they represent the emotions and flights of fantasy evoked by those objects. My intention is to focus on positive energy and depict that in my work.

I intend for my quilts to be seen and enjoyed by others. It is my hope that they will lift the spirits and delight the eyes of those who see them. I am constantly learning and my work evolves as I find new images in my imagination and develop the techniques to create them in cloth. As a teacher I believe that the magic of art lies in our heads and in our hearts. I love sharing my techniques with others so they can share their magic with me.

You can see my quilts in my online gallery.

Feather Study #30 by Caryl Bryer Fallert

Location:  Paducah, Kentucky, USA

Online shop:  bryerpatch.com

Brick and Mortar:

   Bryerpatch Studio
   502 N. 5th St. • Paducah KY
   Map and directions

Memberships:

   National Quilt Museum, Board of Directors
   Paducah Fiber Artists
   Friends of Fiber Art International

Languages spoken:  English

Tags:  quilt art, textile art, hand dyed, gradations, luminous, award winning, uplifting, eye dazzling, colorful

David Lucht

http://www.cowango.com/davidlucht

Cowango Studios is the home for two hardworking artists (who just happen to be married), Stefanie Graves and David Lucht. Stefanie paints the watercolors. David does the batik. We are both dedicated to improving our lives and surprising ourselves through the visual arts. 

Aritst's Statement:  Batik's origins lie in fabric design, so it participates in the world of craft where the object is meant to contribute a sense of grace and beauty to peoples lives. I try to bring forward that tradition of elevating the commonplace and utilitarian object, using it as a support for the imagery I develop to show batik's potential as a fine art.

In batik the image and the cloth become a fully integrated thing. There is no surface decoration in batik. The image is established in the fiber of the cloth. I find that to be a very powerful idea.

Batik painting presents many challenges for me and the sense of exploration and adventure engage me as I pursue the skills required for its mastery. But batik has also offered some surprising solutions. It created an escape valve which allowed me to access different areas of image making which I never considered using traditional painting media. These new freedoms and restraints now provide the place where my personal style can develop.

Coming out of the world of craft, batik appeals to me in so many ways: as communal, as beauty in the utilitarian, as an anti-elitist alternative. Batik is undiscovered territory. It has magical qualities of obscurity and revelation. The finished work is only seen in its entirety at the very end of the process, when the wax is removed and the image revealed.

Location:  Paducah, Kentucky, USA

Brick and mortar:

   Cowango Studios
   517 N 8th Street
   Paducah, Kentucky 42001

   270-908-0755
   (open the second Saturday of each month and by calling ahead)

Blog: Life in the Hyphen

Languages spoken: English, Spanish

 "The Darndest Thing", Batik by David Lucht

Tags:  batik, painting, silk, fine art, contemporary realism, world batik

Jefferson Street Studios

www.hand-dye.com

Bob and Helene Davis have renovated a late 1800's former grocery store into a home, studio and showroom.  Helene Davis is a quilt and  ceramic artist.  Bob does computer art and makes ceramic beads.  They sell hand- dyed fabric, hand-dyed shirts and beads at their studios and at several art quilter retreats around the country.

Location: Paducah, Kentucky, USA

Brick and Mortar: Jefferson Street Studios
   1149 Jefferson St, Paducah, KY 42001

Memberships: 

   Paducah Fiber Artists
   Paducah Area Painters Alliance

Languages spoken: English

"Incarnation", Art Quilt by Helene Davis

Jefferson Street Studios, Paducah, Kentucky

Tags: handdye, fabric, beads, art quilts, helene davis, bob davis, beads, contemporary

HeART of Healing Gallery

 

www.heartofhealinggallery.com

 

HeART of Healing Gallery is the art component of the Integrative Medicine of Kentucky, owned by fiber artist and healer, Dr. Christi Bonds Garrett. Christi has a special interest (and huge collection!) of Kuna molas and vintage kimono.  She is especially drawn to fiber art and textiles that make reference to the healing arts, thus many of her molas depict images of curative plants, medicine men and women, and scenes where patients are being healed.

Mission: to incorporate the arts into the healing process.

Christi is a member of the Paducah Fiber Artists.  Her quilts often make reference to Chinese or Native American medicine.

Location: Paducah, Kentucky (USA)
Online Stores: Etsy
Brick and Mortar: booth at 212 Broadway in Paducah
Blogs: HeART of Healing Gallery
Languages: English

Mola: Medicine Men Playing Flutes

Tags: kuna mola, kimono, applique, hilltribe, art quilt, miao, native american, chinese, herbs, shaman

Rayela Art

  www.rayela.com

 

Rayela is my name in Pashtu, one of the languages spoken in Afghanistan.  I had a gallery in Chicago, Dara Tribal Village, with Abdul Wardak of Afghan Tribal Arts (Also a TAFA member).  After we closed in 2004, I needed a new name for my solo business and liked how Rayela sounded.

I've made things all of my life and have worked with cultural textiles since 1988.  The marriage of all of my interests come together in how crafts and the arts can promote economic development, both for working artists and for distressed communities around the world.  So, I am interested in fair trade, recycling, green architecture and much more.  My website is split into two, one side focusing on the things I have made (mostly biodegradable, I sew and fold paper using the candy wrapper technique) and my entrepreneurial efforts.  TAFA is one of them and has been a wonderful experience for me.  It looks like I hit on a needed niche within the fiber arts community, but it is only as cool as it is because of the sum of its parts, the people it represents.

I grew up in Brazil (1962-1980), went to St. Olaf College in Minnesota (major?  Church and State Relations in Brazil.  What do you do with that?), lived in Chicago for 20 years, then moved to Paducah, Kentucky in 2005.  There is a large and vibrant artist community here and one of my monthly highlights is meeting with my peers, the Paducah Fiber Artists.  I spent most of my years in Chicago running retail businesses in Chicago.  I loved the diversity there and have friends from every corner of the world.  Now I do both online, spending most of my time at home, setting up products for sale and working on building an international fiber arts and textile community.  Someday I hope to travel again and do some research on textiles and on how they impact their communities.


Oh, and yep!  I started TAFA.  It was my brainchild, but it has taken off and become a wonderful community, far beyond my expectations!  TAFA is a wonderful place, full of eye candy and such a tribute to so many traditions, cultures and history.  But, most importantly, each member is a person who contributes in her or his own way, to the preservation of the web that binds us together.


Mission: To help preserve textile traditions, to educate the public about the social context of the artists, to empower the people who make them, and to increase market access to small-scale crafters and artists.


Location: Paducah, Kentucky, USA
Online Shops: Rayela
Brick and Mortar: booth at 212 Broadway in Paducah
Blogs: Rayela's Fiber Focus, Artezano Links, TAFA
Languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish
Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and others.   All under Rayela Art.

 

 Wallpaper Purse by Rayela Art
Folded Paper Weaving using the Candy Wrapper Technique

Rayela Art on Facebook

Tags: suzani, ralli quilt, textile stamps, textile blocks, molas, hats, indigo, batik, indian textiles, vintage quilts, vintage textiles, textile remnants, embroidery, cultural textiles