Last week, less than 48 hours after I arrived home from my two-and-a-half month long journey south, the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Fiber Structures class came for a studio visit.
The timing was super weird, and at first, I didn’t really know where I was going to get the energy to talk about my work for two plus hours. I was hardly present in the AK time zone, but I convinced myself to order my studio the best I could and let things fall apart or not.
About two minutes into the talk, I realized I was speaking to a group women who cared as much about thread, and cloth, and the manipulation of fiber as I do. Even under the influence of severe jet-lag it was a real pleasure.
Susan Joy Share is the instructor for the class. She is a visual artist, bookbinder, and performer. Here is some of her work featured on her website.
We met last spring when we both were Passport Artists for the Alaska State Council on the Arts Conference. Susan actually made the Passport. It is beautiful.
Conference participants and First Friday art admirers took their passports around town and had artists sign them.
It was a great event. Here I am signing my the passport with thread.
Susan received a BFA in sculpture from the College of Ceramics at Alfred University and studied bookbinding and conservation privately and at the Center for Book Arts, NYC. Susan’s C.V. more than qualifies her for the job. She has received a Rasmuson Foundation Fellowship, and is in collections at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The University of Alaska Anchorage’s Fiber Structures course is a hands-on introduction to traditional fiber structures and textile processes through a contemporary lens. The students had just finished a unit on stitching, so a visit with stitcher like me was a good fit. (Hence the strange timing.)
We talked about my storage system–oh how I love organizing things. And if you like that kind of stuff you might enjoy the post I wrote about my fabric filing system, and there is this post about how my studio became a creativity oasis.
We discussed what was on my design walls and why.
We chatted about thread.
It’s a good topic.
I can talk for a long time about thread.
I shared information about my journaling process and even got good feedback on how to improve on my process. For those of you out there who are using a glue stick to adhere photos to your journal pages, you might try double adhesive tape. That’s what I’m doing now. As you can tell–my journals include words, sketches, photos, even bits of fabric.
We ended the class with a long arm quilting lesson.
I demonstrated how I load a quilt and beginning stitching.
A few of the students actually got on the machine. (Okay, in this photo she is just pretending, but some of the students really did quilt.)
Then I shared some of the work I have done on the long arm.
It was a really good welcome home. Thank you ladies for a such a good visit.
You are truly remarkable to have a group on the heels of your trip! This is why YOU are the rock star! Quilt ON!
Thank you Nysha. And kiss that baby for me. I can’t believe he is ONE! So handsome, so adorable, so precious.
We were all inspired and continued discussion during our next class. I think you will see several of us in McCarthy in July! Thank you for generously sharing your time.
Thank you Pam. I really do hope to see you out in McCarthy. It is a great mixture of wilderness, community, and stitching. I think you all would like it.
Thank you for opening up your studio, your heart and your art to us. We all enjoyed your talk. We learned a lot about organizing a place as well as time. Your sketch books were wonderful.
Thank you Carol. It was a great visit!
This is a great and detailed post. Everyone was very excited about the visit to your studio. Your presentation was fabulous. You had great energy and were very generous showing us your amazing work and sketchbooks, especially so soon after your return. It was good to hear about your influences, inspirations, work process, teaching and exhibitions. A number of us saw your quilts at Blue.Hollomon and at the Anchorage Museum this month.
It was perfect to finish by talking about threads and showing us the long arm. We appreciated the demo and being able to try a few stitches. Thanks for all of the info on equipment and classes,too. I agree, you rock!!
This is a great and detailed post. Everyone was very excited about the visit to your studio. Your presentation was fabulous. You had great energy and were very generous showing us your amazing work and sketchbooks, especially so soon after your return. It was good to hear about your influences, inspirations, work process, teaching and exhibitions. A number of us saw your quilts at Blue.Hollomon and at the Anchorage Museum this month.
It was perfect to finish by talking about threads and showing us the long arm. We appreciated the demo and being able to try a few stitches. Thanks also for all of the info on equipment and classes. I agree, you rock!!
Susan- Thank you! It was my pleasure. Saw some of your wonderful work at Blue Holloman yesterday. They do such an amazing job of representing Alaskan artists.
And now, your studio can be all yours again. It looked so lovely when you had visitors. It would take me a week to clean up from 5 or 6 projects to be “presentable”. Maybe in January!
Mary- thank you for stopping by and commenting. When the boxes from my travels showed up, I ended up doing another cleaning which did indeed take a full week! I hope your Christmas projects are going well.