Women’s work

I attended an arts festival last weekend; displaying and selling my work. Saturday was a spectacular day and I had lots of folks visiting my booth and the sales were consistent all day long. Woke up Sunday to pouring rain which led to even more rain until mid day. It gave me an opportunity to visit with a young fiber artist for a long introspective chat.
We were talking about fiber art versus painting to which she said that painting is technically fiber art as it is painted on canvas. Great point.
We pondered an issue that has been visited many times by many people. That of why fabric/fiber art seems to lean toward function over form. This led us to wondering about our own thoughts regarding our work. Many times thinking that it is "less than" or not important some how. I thought about my own journey away from this attitude. I grew up in a household where sewing was woman's work that was necessary to living. We sewed clothing, mended, knitted and created many functional items. So I looked around my booth and saw many functional pieces among the wall quilts and continued to ponder. I am still in that place today. Wondering about my work as an artist. This young artist challenged me to think about moving toward form over function. To grow along more experimental lines with my sewing. To be bold with my ideas.
Talk about coincidence. This woman contacted me a few months ago to ask me for a ride to the show....... couldn't do it due to space limitations..... but there she was standing right in front of me.
If you read this Elin...................... Thank you.

Posted by Sharon at 9:19 pm | Leave a comment

This journal is a place where I can share about what's new in my professional life as an artist, share tips and things I've learned, and give you insight into my art work. Leave a comment!

I invite gallery owners to for information and a wholesale price list of my work. I am always open to discuss having my fabric art in your gallery.