Flower Power to a Friend

Karen Belsky Loprete died two weeks ago, on August 1st. She was a creative woman with an incredible zest and flair for art. I cannot believe she is gone.

To all who knew her, let us embrace her spirit and joy. Let us sing higher, quilt vividly and stitch with abandon. Rest in peace dear friend.

Shake and Shuffle

New at the Arts Council of New Haven is the exhibit "Shake and Shuffle" which continues through September 8th.

My artworks are there for the remainder of this week so there is still time to stop by.

Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery
70 Audubon Street
Second Floor
New Haven,  CT 06510
Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm

Working in Series

Lazy Sunday morning in the stugdio playing with fabric. These little gems are destined to become greeting cards!:

Healing Art of Pathology

I have been offline for a bit. Sorry about that. Unexpected happenings sometimes hit and we have to deal with them. Glad you are still checking on me my friend!

Work in Progress

Although I have not been blogging I have been making art. Here are three updates about my studio:

• My fabric collage "Water Spout" is going to be the cover image for a book, The Healing Art of Pathology, to be published later this year by the American College of Pathologists.

• Several other pieces were chosen for an online exhibit by Midwest Fiber Arts Trail  and Fiber Art Almanac. More details on this to follow. 

• And I am thrilled to be chosen at random to be one of the participating artists for the Shuffle and Shake exhibit at the Arts Council in New Haven July 7-August 4.  The opening reception is Thursday July 14th from 5-7 p.m.

All the best,

~Mary

Art Website: www.MaryLachman.com

Book Website: www.MothAtTheWindow.com
Facebook: Mary Lachman Design and Moth at the Window
To Order: Moth at the Window: Poetry of Grover W. Clayton and Recollections of Indiana 

Quilt Me a River: Farmington River Quilt

I worked on Section 2. Rosalind Spann made Section 1. Both shown here left to right.

There was a good crowd of quilt lovers who came out to the Winchester Congregational Church last month to see 50 feet of the Farmington River created in fabric and thread.

Additional exhibit venues are being planned as well as a book to benefit river preservation!

Fondly Remembering Textiles

Have you ever considered what are your earliest memories of a favorite textile? I began thinking about this after a prompt from an online class that I am taking.

As a kid, one of my favorite fabric items was my bedspread. I know that might seem odd, but it was soft and textured, likely years old even when I was only 5. It was a nubby creamy cotton onto which were horizontal, machine stitched designs that created shapes in colored threads. I would trace the shapes over and over. Maybe I even traced them to fall asleep at night, this I don't really remember.

The designs includes a stylized "X", a person with hands raised in the air, and something else that was less well defined. I never knew if it a dragon or dinosaur or what it was. Looking at it now I think it might be a person in a yoga pose. What do you think?

Oddly enough, when I had the task of sorting through the farmstead after Mother died (it will be 10 years ago in a few weeks) I saved this bedspread. It is threadbare in some spots. It is patched in others. I know that patches to be sewn with my mother's carefully stitches. It survives folded in the closet of my studio. And every now and again a pull it off the shelf to trace the designs with my index finger.

What fabric item have you held onto from childhood?  Can you explain why or is it just something that you had to save?  I would love to have you share your thoughts.

Back from Philly

Last week I had a chance to attend the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) national meeting in Philadelphia.

I had been to Philadelphia several time in the past but had never explored the streets around Center City and any art galleries.  This time I did a bit of both.

I was completely thrilled with Barnes Museum with its collection of Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Pendergrast and Native African Art all hung together in vignettes through the galleries. Oh yes there were also metal door knockers, knobs and hinges that echoed shapes in the adjacent paintings. Everything was hung symmetrically and in strict dedication to the wishes of Dr. Barnes who amassed this amazing collection.

Dr. Albert C. Barnes (1872-1951) grew up poor and tough in Philadelphia but showed intellectual promise and went to one of the best high schools in the area. He earned a medical degree and then set up a pharmaceutical manufacturing partnership with a frien. They manufactured an antiseptic silver compound they called, Argyrol.

Barnes became a very wealthy man and was clever enough to sell his company before the stock market crash in 1929, so he retained his wealth when others lost everything.

Barnes began collecting art in 1912. He wanted to educate people about art. He collected what he loved and amassed a huge collection of paintings, sculpture, jewelry and textiles from the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, Europe and America. He displayed the collection in an idiosyncratic way that was not well appreciated at that time. The "ensembles" as he called them combined all the different objects in symmetrical arrangements throughout the galleries.

Learn more at barnesfoundation.org