comings and goings and fa-la-la-la

It has been a busy few weeks I am happy to announce ... between my fiber work & my dresses I have been in 5 shows, this weekend there are some ins and outs and closings! First, this past week the amazing show, Carry On at the Attleboro Arts Museum ended, alas all good things must come to an end. I was so honored to be a part of this compelling and provocative show. The staff at the museum said that the response to the show was phenomenal. Here is a photo from the Sun Chronicle of navy veteran J. Richard Lebel and my Tongue Necklace. Lebel contributed astounding poetry to the show and read a haunting piece for the opening reception. However they had to make room for their 2010 Members’ Exhibition in which Treacherous is being exhibited. The show runs from Dec 11, 2010 – Feb 4, 2011 (Holiday closing: December 23 – January 6, 2011. re-opening on January 7th).


Another closing in the New Art Center's Icons + Altars Benefit Exhibition. Tomorrow, Sunday December 12th, is the closing reception & ticket drawing, 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m ~ this is when the ticket holders find out which piece they have won. I am hoping to attend because I hear it is a lot of fun. And I would love to see who gets my piece, All is Well. Click here to see all the entries.

Lastly this coming week my creatures & womb wrap are coming home. Art Organic, at The Harbor Art Gallery, UMass Boston is closing Dec. 15th. So it has been an exciting and full few weeks, spending lots of time in the car, delivering, picking up and going to receptions ~ no complaints here! Just need get my head into the holiday spirit ..... I can't believe it is December!!

peace!!

Art Organic

Finally I was able to get to the Harbor Art Gallery at UMass Boston and see their show Art Organic ~ it is a beautiful show!!
Some of Jodie Colella's pieces ....

I loved seeing how the curator decided to exhibit the creatures!! & I LOVE how my womb wrap is displayed - how it hangs and I especially love the shadow that it cases. this piece is from Janet Kawada, part of her Time series - marking the physicality of time

..and then we have the wonders of David Lang!

peace!!

Out & About

A little update of the comings and goings of the artwork of Virginia Fitzgerald ~
Last night was the MassRecycle's Annual Recycling Awards @ the Artist for Humanity EpiCenter,Boston and a few artists, including yours truly, were ask to exhibit artwork made from recycled material. This was an easy one for me ~I exhibited Black Widow (the VCR tape dress), Glass Slipper and the Paper Mache Bustiere. It was such a lovely event as well as a zero waste evening!! really nice!!! The Epicenter was a perfect venue for this event being a green, high-performance, sustainable building ~ "the Artists For Humanity EpiCenter was awarded LEED Platinum Certification from the United States Green Building Council; it was the first project in the city of Boston to have earned this distinction. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings." The building itself set the 'green' tone with many different reused materials ~ the Ladies room was so cool, the toilet paper holder was made out of the bottom of a used water cooler bottle. I was happy to be included because i am a big fan of all things recycled. Years ago my business centered around recycling, creating bottle cap jewelry and accessories. I used the bottle caps as frame for my artwork and sold the pieces to stores around the world ~ so this is not a new trend for me. And it was exciting to see the 'recycled' artwork of the other artists. David Lang exhibited three pieces, and one of them he made especially for the evening, 'Return', and it was a show stopper!!! Check out his blog to see some of the pieces as well as the creation of 'Return'. The other artists were ~
Jeannie Dunnigan, Paula Estey, David Lang, Michael Ulman, Marty Ulman & Bill TurvilleIt was a feel~good evening!!

And then tonight there are two openings of shows that are exhibiting some of my work ~
First ,the opening reception for ArtOrganic at the Harbor Art Gallery, UMass Boston is tonight, November 18th, from 5:00 - 8:00 P.M. This show has many of my fiber pieces as well as the work of Jodi Colelle, Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord, David Lang, Janet Kawada and Derrick Te Paske. (Click here for the post with all the artists' links) The show runs from November 15th through December 15th. And I hope to make it to the opening near the end (one never knows with Boston Traffic).

And the second opening is for Carry On at the Attleboro Arts Museum, tonight from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. i am going to start there for two reasons. one this show is running in conjunction the city of Attleboro reading Tim O'Brien's The Things That They Carried so I am thinking this could be one big book group with artwork. As i think I mentioned before I was really moved by this book and I am eager to discuss it. Also I am planning to wear one of the pieces I made for the show, Tongue necklace, during the opening which will be fun. I just need to figure out what else to wear in the next few hours.

Both shows are exciting shows and the openings promised to be fun ~ I wish that i could clone myself :) but maybe I can make it to both openings!! But if you are in the area of either or both openings please stop by - i don't think you will be disappointed!!!

peace

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Travels and other interesting sites.

In the past few months i have been bathing in the lush world of fibers ~ my creatures have been gathering interest and have been in some shows; i have been exposed to new and different techniques and amazing artists; and I have been discovering wonderful articles and information on interesting blogs and websites. I have wanted to share these discoveries here and tonight after watching this video I figured I would share a few of my finds.

As i forge deeper into this luscious and intricate world of fiber art i am aware of a quiet connectedness, a sense of community, as if the rich history of fiber work and handicraft is still present and binding the people and the work together. An example of what i mean is the story of how i learned about this video. On Veteran's day, when the girls were out of school I took them and two of their friends to the Boston Museum of Science. A great museum for the girls to play for long periods with the many exhibits so i came prepared ~ I brought my crocheting. And while i was curled up on a bench crocheting and another mom was intrigued. She asked if i was following a pattern and i explained my 'organic' approach to crocheting. This reminded her of an article she saw on the web about crocheting, science and mathematics. I was interested so I gave her my card in case she remembered where she saw it. Well the next day she sent me the link to this article and the video about this crocheted coral reef and the story behind it. Here Margaret Wertheim speaks of how crocheting is the only way to model a certain mathematical theory and how their coral reef project has grown exponentially including many from around the world. This reminded me of Mandy Greer's work ~ a community forming around these artistic endeavors. I found this video very interesting especially after dropping my creatures off at the Harbor Gallery for their Art Organic show ~ so see what you think. The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Travels from Ireland to the Smithsonian.

Another one of my favorite 'fiber' finds is the artist Joetta Maue and her blog. I love to read her blog, it introduces many wonderful shows and artists ~ in fact her most recent post was about a show in London: Louise Bourgeois: Fabric Works. :) Joetta's work is beautiful and inspiring - i love her uses of old linens. This is an example of her work, on the right.

The last artist is will share this evening (as it is way past my bed time) is Abigail Doan. I discovered her work surfing the web and was memorized. Her blog is also a great read ~ showing many interesting works. I was particularly intrigued with the Knitted, Knotted, Netted show.

And this is just a tiny fraction of all the amazing work out there (which can be intimidating!!!) And many of the artists that i am drawn to do talk about a 'community' with their work, which is what i was trying to allude to earlier. There seems to be an invisible web connecting these works and the artists and the viewers. I see my interaction at the science museum as an example ~ how this mother and i have made a connection. In fact after she looked at my web site she realized that she knew my dress project work, and in fact she had pictures of some of my dresses on her phone. My brain is a little tired to clearly explain this sense of connection but I do feel there is something about 'handiwork' that softens people, breaks down some barriers and lets us connect a little more. I think this is shown in the tremendous interest in knitting and crocheting after 9/11.

I invite you to take a look at these artists and there will be more to come - I promise!!

peace & good night!!

My 'Creatures' are out on the town ....

Today I delivered 6 creatures and my 'womb wrap' to the Harbor Art Gallery at UMass Boston for their show, Art Organic. This is very exciting because they wanted as many creatures as I could give them ~ so my babies are out in the world, some for the first time.

This show will also be the debut for my 'womb wrap'. I did exhibit it during my open studios a few weeks ago, in fact as a participatory piece. I set it up so that anyone who wanted to could put on the wrap and sit in my big, orange studio chair and just 'be'. I created this piece with the idea of being able 'go back to the womb', as a sort of sanctuary. I spent a few years knitting this piece in my organic approach ~ adding different yarns, and increasing and decreasing the stitches when it seems appropriate. It is two~sided which gives the piece a significant weight and comforting quality. For Art Organic 'womb wrap' will not be able to be worn but it will be hanging, in fact the plan is to suspend it in the middle of the gallery so that it will be able to be viewed on both sides and (hopefully) spin.

There is another interesting 'wrinkle' to this show ... when talking to the curator of the show, Steven Pirrello, about the numerous ways that my creatures can be exhibited I realized that i wasn't married to any particular way of exhibit them. And Steven showed real excitement about the creatures and understood their characteristics and their versatility. So I am letting Steven decide how each creature will be exhibited. Giving him that freedom seemed so right because these are 'creatures' ~ morphing, oozing and perching. In fact as they sat
on the floor waiting to be dealt with they were very reminiscent of sea urchin just washed up on the shore.

Art Organic will run from Nov. 15th - Dec. 15th, with the opening reception on November 18th, 5:00- 8:00pm. There are six artists exhibiting works that have an organic feel or work with organic materials. It is a great group of artists to be included with ~ Jodi Colella, Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord, David Lang :), Janet Kawada and Derrick Te Paske. The Harbor Art Gallery is on the UMAss Campus, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA, on the first floor of McCormack Hall, phone number# 617-287-7988. Stop by for a treat. Peace ~