#saqa

Textile Talks is doing a lecture on cosplay! Free! Over zoom!

"The History of Cosplay as Textile Art hosted by SAQA. Join us March 11, from 2:00-3:00 PM EDT (GMT/UTC -4) for the next Textile Talk!"

"Discover how cosplay has evolved from fan passion to a vibrant form of textile art. Beyond the stitches and seams, cosplay is a deeply communal practice, one rooted in collaboration, skill-sharing, and creative expression. This talk traces its creative history and celebrates the makers, stitchers, and dreamers who transform fabric into shared stories and build global communities that preserve textile art along the way."

Info and registration here care of Quilt Alliance

(I would have linked the host Studio Art Quit Alliance but they don't update their website mrgr grgr)

[Excited explanation] A group of textile arts museums and organizations have been hosting weekly lectures, free, over zoom, they are delicious and human and range from "You're still muted" to Harvey Fierstein and his wall quilts, from Japanese mending to Michigan undergarment worker unionization, from the oldest Black quilting guild in the US to Mongolian felting traditions.

I work on website updates almost every day, but somehow, I never get around to updating my own website. Although I am late in announcing, I am thrilled that my piece, EcoSarra, has been juried into the SAQA Global Exhibition StitchPunk.

The Call for Entry asked the artists to “reimagine a world through an alternate, extraordinary timeline. Imagine our bodies merged with our devices or a world shared with sentient robots or other life forms.

What would a refrigerator, a clock, or even a lawn mower look like if it ran on steam power?

What sort of people would live on the streets of a decaying metropolis, starkly divided between haves and have-nots, with police drones patrolling above and neon lights cutting through the thick, dirty air?

Will science and technology free us from mundane daily chores, or enslave us to a global corporate master?

The opportunities are endless. Artists are invited to explore the science fiction worlds of cyberpunk, steampunk, dieselpunk, biopunk, atompunk, clockpunk, nanopunk, and more!” (SAQA Global)

The title EcoSarra is a nod to Sarraceniaceae in my vision of Forest/Bio Punk.

EcoSarra

I gave up friends, family, and the outside world to create a future for my plants – my bioengineered family. The constant negative backlash over bioengineering forced me into my safe place, my world inside Green Lab. Along with my carnivorous babies, I grew, changed, and thrived as the outside world destroyed itself. My latest experiment, becoming a part of the chain, both absorbing carbon and creating my own form of oxygen may be the only way to survive the destruction.  I look into the mirror and wonder if I will ever leave or want to leave. I become more and more like my babies every day.  For now, we are safe inside Green Lab. Thankfully cockroaches did survive the disaster. Yum! Lunch!

Materials: Wire and mixed media armature, salvage army surplus, ice- dyed silk organza, various threads

Techniques: Armature building, assemblage, ice dying, hand-stitching

The first venues scheduled for the exhibition tour are:

New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, Massachusetts: April 30 - July 13, 2024 Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, United Kingdom: August 1 - December 31, 2024

The Art of Cosplay, presented by SAQA

SAQA [that's Studio Art Quilt Associates]

Jul 26, 2023, 2-3pm EDT (GMT/UTC -4) [that's tomorrow, roughly]

Free, over zoom, tomorrow, preregistration link on the page. Ft. Casey Renee, Michael Burson, Janelle Santner [if they are on Tumblr, let me know] Part of the Textile Talks series, still going strong after 3 years and making my Wednesdays a little better every week.

My 2023 SAQA Spotlight Auction piece, Stitch Study #1, is shipped and ready for the Toronto Conference. Now, I eagerly await joining it in Toronto in April.

The final piece is 6” x 8”. The Spotlight Auction will be an online event taking place during the 2023 SAQA Conference Pathways to Possibilities. The auction will be available on Handbid to a worldwide audience. All proceeds will help support SAQA programs.