The Reception

Horrible lighting for photos, great lighting for viewing

Road construction, detours and frequent showers be damned, Sandpoint art patrons came out in full force for the ArtWalk opening receptions last Friday. I discovered that my pieces were hung at the end of the second floor of the Cedar Street Bridge in POAC's office. Sway was the one chosen to hang at a separate location with other representational artwork of artists exhibiting at the bridge. These remaining three made a nice grouping in this little corner space. I was pleased. And I was a bit surprised at some of the superlatives used in reaction to these. Fracture has been out before, maybe more than once (I lose track), but I don't remember it garnering the high praise it got this time round (stunning, exquisite, oh my!). It's always interesting to get others' take on a piece and one man who is a native but now runs a shop in Japan said it had a Japanese feel to it, high praise indeed in my mind. Of course, there were many noses close to Leaf Cluster VIII studying that garnet stitching, then looking over at me with either a look of disbelief (You must be crazy! Yes, just a bit!) or a nod of approval that all that stitching was worth it to get that kind of background texture. And then there was the man who confided that Float reminded him of a tarot card and took the time to point out why. I'm not overly familiar with Tarot cards but I could see his point.

There's not a great deal of wall space in this office but the windows looking out onto the walkway allow visitors to peek in at the art even when the office is closed. These sculptures are by Patrice Webb. It's a good location for fiber pieces as even with the windows, it doesn't not receive any direct sunlight. I didn't have a chance to check out the exhibit beforehand and no time to take pictures during the reception so you will have to wait to see the rest of the art at this location and the physical attributes of the bridge. POAC was able to take over several empty storefronts along the length of the bridge so visitors were treated to several "galleries" as they traversed the walkway as well as some pieces hung on wall space along the walkway. A challenging but effective space for exhibiting.

Back to the office space, besides my pieces and the sculpture, one of my art group members, Terrie, also had quilts there. She displayed four original designs that she has patterned either for individual sale or have been published in one of her books. The realistic nature themes always go over well here - more than one man stopped to take in the fishing one, pointing to the details that make it so special. Click on the photo for a large view to see those details. Rounding out the selection were four photographs of local birds and flowers. The Cedar Waxwing got the most comments. All of us seemed to have a story about encounters with that bird.

Once again, it was great to see so many people come out to view the art and interact with the artists. Such positive feedback as I received has me once again feeling I'm on the right track with my current little obsession with leaves.