Seaside Spectrum at Convergence 2014

I just mailed off our Seaside Spectrum; where color meets fiber to the east coast for its showing in the A Lively Experiment-All Media 2014 Exhibit at Convergence in Providence Rhode Island.   Showing July 16-19th at the Phode Island Convention Center in Providence.

Seaside Spectrum- where color meets fiber is a collaborative piece created by the Seaside Weavers, an ecclectic group of textile artists on the Westside of LA.  We all competed by creating pieces in various colors to part of the final submission. Seaside’s entry is a collaborative entry conceived by me and Merna Strauch consisting of twelve pieces in the twelve colors of the color wheel done in a variety of fiber techniques.  Each 4 by 10” piece is framed in a silver frame. 

The Selection Process

The process started in May of 2013 with construction of the Seaside color wheel made of bits of paper from various magazines and paint chips. Each member was then challenged to create a piece in some fiber technique in the color to which they were assigned. Many members did multiple pieces. In the end there were over 45 pieces from which to select the twelve for our Seaside Spectrum entry. 

Then the fun really began.  All Seaside members got together and in true Seaside fashion - collaboratively chose the best twelve pieces representing its color wheel. In the end, there were many artistically beautiful and technically perfect pieces not chosen because they simply did not get along with their neighbors in the color wheel.   Like Chagall said, All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.  The selected twelve pieces for our entry were best friends with their neighbors.

I created four pieces; 2 yellow and 2 green.  Only one got selected to be part of the Seaside Spectrum; look for the green one below; green pencils wrapped with green silk along with a green pencil sharpener.  One of the "rejects" was picked up by Small Expressions so all was not lost!

Here’s a list of the winners by color along with their fiber technique.

Red                   Barbara Jones              Silk paper fusion

Red/Orange      Maureen Gilchrist         Crackle weave

Orange             Barbara Jones              Wet felted wool

Yellow/Orange  Marj Meadows              Bargello needlepoint

Yellow               Judi Freed                    Woven with crocheted embellishments

Yellow/Green    Helene Korn                 Tapestry with feather

Green               Nicki Bair                      Silk yarn wrapping

Blue/Green       Margie Fine                  Tapestry with mixed novelty yarns

Blue                  Carolyn Sell                  Ply split braiding single course oblique twining

Blue/Violet:       Karen Leckart               Woven twill checks

Violet                Debbie Shoenberger    Tapestry- eccentric weave in handspun yarn

Red/Violet:        Karen Leckart              Embellished plain weave

The Final 12

When you are at Convergence make sure to check out the A Lively Experiment exhibit and see the Seaside Spectrum: where color meets fiber.  It will be fun to see how the curators display these twelve pieces.  So many different ways