the Philadelphia story

Friday morning, Marty and I headed down for the weekend to attend the opening of Art Quilts at the Sedgwick. This is the Ben Franklin Bridge, the gridwork of which I could not resist shooting and which will undoubtedly turn up somewhere in my work. I didn't have a piece in this year's show but several of my good friends had pieces juried in: Diane Savona, Judy Langille, Judith Plotner, and Jette Clover, so we went to celebrate with them. Anyway, it is always such a fabulous weekend for textiles in Phila that we go no matter what. Weather on Fri wasn't promising but it ended up being a perfect day for walking - mild and sunny. Not so for Sat, which was COLD (I was wearing 5 layers, including my ski jacket) raw, and pouring rain. No matter. We had a great time. Friday afternoon we headed straight for the Snyderman-Works Gallery for the Fifth Biennial Fiber Exhibit. An eclectic show of fiber pieces to-die-for, and I mean to get back there before the exhibit ends on April 29. I think it is the strongest fiber show Snyderman-Works has had to date. I did not like everything -- but all of it was stimulating. Go if you can. It was great because I saw some people I knew and met some I had not previously run into but had wanted to meet among the members of Friends of Fiber Art as well as Art Quilt Network New York who were there. At the Sedgwick opening, Friday night (henceforth called Art Quilts Philadelphia because it will remain in center city). I finally met Lisa Call and Pam Rubert, both of whom had work in the show. It was so hectic and crowded that we hardly had time to chat, but it was great to see them. And of course, I kept running into my friend Mary Manahan, which is always a treat. Mary wasn't so crazy about the exhibit at the Snyderman and I can certainly understand that, since there were some rather strange pieces and everything from gut to wire. Fiber at Snyderman-Works is defined very broadly. I didn't like everything but there were a couple of pieces I would gladly have acquired if I had won last week's lottery. Here are just a few links to the artists I thought did especially interesting work. There were many more. Yvonne Bobrowicz Barbara Lee Smith Dorothy Caldwell Mary Merkel-Hess Shizuko Kimura Rebecca Medel Meantime, back at the Sedgwick opening and the next day at the brunch, I was so busy yakking that as usual, I forgot to take a lot of pictures. But here are the few I did take. I might note that everybody looked about ten times better than my photography makes them look. But, oh well.

Lisa Call, Pat Autenrieth, Pam Rubert

Valerie Goodwin & Sandra Woock

and in a moment of pure, spontaneous joy --

Corni Forster and Jette Clover

My high-living and late nights for the weekend have caught up with me and I'll try to finish up my report tomorrow night