Fabric and thread break new artistic traditions at Great Hall exhibit

A new art show at The Great Hall focuses on New England fiber artists.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20141107/FEATURES11/711079975/

Fiber artist Judith Reilly of Brandon puts the finishing touches on the installation of "Some Colors May Run" that was originally created in 1990 will be at the Great Hall in Springfield with four other original works. Published November 7, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Fabric and thread break new artistic traditions at Great Hall exhibit By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer Susan Balch started her love affair with fabric — and thread — at a very young age. “My love of the needle arts started at 5 years old, playing on my mother’s Pfaff sewing machine,” said Balch, a Reading resident. Balch and about a dozen other fiber arts artists are part of the new and unusual exhibit at The Great Hall at One Hundred River Street which opens this Friday. Inside the show, called “Fibrations,” is everything from meticulously designed and sewn patchwork quilts to a quilted interpretation of Gustav Klimt’s famous painting “The Kiss” to a quilted expression of the floods that damaged Alstead, N.H., nine years ago this fall. “There are quilts made for the wall, not for the bed,” said Balch. This is not a quilt show in the traditional sense, although Balch’s tour-de-force, “Eye Dazzler,” is the closest. The large quilt is an interpretation of an antique Germantown Navajo rug, and it is mesmerizing in color and pattern with reds, purples, greens and gold. Balch made it using the traditional machine-pieced and quilted methods. The quilt won the “People’s Choice Award” earlier this year at a traditional quilt show at the Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock. One of the most unusual pieces in the show is “Time Layers VIII,” by Nancy Pulliam Weis of Castleton, who has taught art at both Castleton State College and Green Mountain College. Weis’ piece doesn’t have traditional fiber in it; this is no art quilt made of dazzling color and texture. Instead, Weis has assembled what she describes as a sculptural metaphor for archaeology, and what she says is the “loss of information over time, and the hidden influences of past ideas, peoples and self on the present.” Late last week, as the show was being installed, Weis’ multi-media installation drew fellow artists to watch as Weis untangled a forest of copper-colored wire hooked onto deer netting. From a distance, the dangling wires looked like threads. The copper-colored wires were originally supposed to be pine needles on chicken wire, Weis said. “I’m creating an archeological dig,” she said. The wires/needles were to be hung over a table, where the “dig” was going to be re-created. Nina Jamison, director of exhibits for The Great Hall, and Balch collaborated on selecting the artists and their work for the show, Balch said. Balch is a member of the Studio Art Quilt Associates or SAQA and most of the exhibitors belong. “It’s an international organization for art quilters,” Balch said. In fact, some of the artists are from other New England states, including Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut. Judith Reilly of Brandon’s art quilts are usually landscapes, she said, but she included several quilts of faces in the Springfield show. Another stunning exhibit is by Christine Fries of Barre, who quilted a scene from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” based on a painting by John Waterhouse. The quilt centers on Miranda, with her swirling, golden red hair and green gown, watching a shipwreck. Fries said she used machine applique, hand applique, machine embroidery, layered tulle, and fabric paint. “These powerful romantic images, the sailing ship, the stormy ocean, the girl who finds true love, are what made me want to represent this scene as a quilt,” she said. Fries said that in Waterhouse’s painting, Miranda’s dress is blue, but she changed it to green because the blue one somehow didn’t work in her quilt. She even incorporated special mystery items in Miranda’s suede pouch. Fries, a native of Belgium who moved to the United States in 1982, said the quilt took a year to make, working five or six hours a day, only taking time off for holidays. Artists participating in the show include Frances Holiday Alford, Grafton; Susan Balch, Reading; Carolyn Enz Hack, Thetford Center; Karen Kamenetsky, Brattleboro; Judith Reilly, Brandon; Judy Dales, Greensboro; Christine Fries, Barre; Marilyn Gillis, Burlington; Rae Reynolds Harrell, Hinesburg; Nancy Pulliam Weis, Castleton; as well as Tafi Brown, Alstead, N.H.; Liz Alpert Fay, Sandy Hook, Conn., Susan Perrine, Woolwich, Me., Wen Redmond, Strafford, N.H., and Kate Themel, Cheshire, Conn. The exhibit, which is sponsored with the help of Springfield Regional Development Corp., will open Friday and remain through Spring 2015. There will be an opening reception on Friday from 5 p.m. To 7 p.m., with wine and light refreshments. It is open to the public. People are urged to use the Pearl Street entrance to The Great Hall.