Art from Santa Fe

A couple weeks ago I got to make a trip to Santa Fe, NM. One of my very favorite placed in the US.  Friday nights are art nights for the locals so we started off with a visit to SITE Santa Fe.  SITE is a very contemporary art galley.  The kind of stuff that makes you scratch you head and go, "huh?" (Or maybe that's just me ;)

My favorite exhibit, as it turned out, was in the very first room.  Fabric art blankets, mostly from wool with accents of silk and even metal bits, made by Marie Watt.  I notice that on her site she calls these "blankets". I had some discussion with the exhibit attendant about them not being quilts ;)

My definition of a quilt is pretty loose, but it does have to have a top, a back, and some kind of stuffing layer in the middle held together with stitches through all three layers.  Essentially her art lacked a batting layer, but the work was nonetheless impressive in all its detail and skill.

I noticed this one that clearly had a quilt-influenced pattern. The design is made from wool applique.  These are all pictures I took at the gallery (pretty cool of them to allow photos) but if you like these then you should definitely check out the artist's site for gorgeous photos so you can see the the work better.

The best part of this exhibit was that gentle touching of the art was encouraged! These pieces are so intensely textural that that really made the experience.

After SITE Santa Fe we headed over to Canyon Road where most of the art galleries are. Fridays are openings so we wander down the road slowly, going in anywhere that looks neat or might have snacks ;)  The Waxlander Gallery is one I remember from previous trips have some really cool things I liked. This time they were having an opening of an exhibit by Suzanne Donazetti called Evolving Intersections.  These aren't fabric, they're copper. She colors 2 copper sheets, then slices them and weaves them together. The effect is stunning.

This reminds me of something I have seen quilters do where they slice up two print panels and mesh them together somehow.  I didn't get any good pictures there so you'll just have to take my word for it and go to the site to see the professional pics.

Rory was spoiled rotten by my parents while I was gone, I don't think she even missed me too much!  She is progressing with all her quilt-monitoring duties, like taming the binding strips and sleeping on the desk.

This is how we work

It's a hard life ;)