No studio time this week. Lot’s of artist camaraderie and inspiration. I am attending SAQA‘s annual conference. This year the conference is in Oceania, but I only have to travel as far as my home office to participate. There are blessings in this pandemic and being able to learn about SAQA’s Australian and New Zealand members in depth is one of them.
Studio Tours
There is a new studio tour every day. The views! The flora and fauna! How can I not mention the talent? Breathtaking! Because it is a virtual conference we get to tour studios in Sydney, Canberra, Perth, as well as in Tasmania and New Zealand. Can’t do that when attending in person, can you?
WOW!
What I was particularly excited to see was the presentation by two key members of the WOW staff. I don’t have a bucket list. Have no interest in creating a bucket list, However, if I did, attending WOW in person would make the top of my list. Have I piqued your interest? Then pause and watch this highlights video.
One of my proud career moments is when I served as Chair of SAQA’s Global Exhibition Committee. It was during my tenure and thanks to the committee, Board and staff, that SAQA began to add 3D work and wearable art as eligible for consideration in the majority of our calls for entry. Must be my flirtation with drama in college and love costume, but I can’t get enough wearable art.
Spotlight Auction
The conference ends this Sunday. You don’t even have to be an attendee to participate in our final event, the Spotlight Auction. There are 270 4.5″ x 6.5″ fiber art pieces behind 8″ x 10″ mats. The are made by SAQA members from around the world. Check out the work. Even better, treat yourself to one or a handful of pieces. It is a great way to start or expand your art quilt collection.
I am linking up with Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Fridays.
Oh, big yes to the wearable art! Kudos to you!
Hope you took the time to watch WOW’s promo video. Such theater and talent. Hard to believe WOW uses local people vs. Paris Runway trained fashion models. I did get to see the Fairfield Fashion live in the early ’00s. I was already hooked on wearable art then.
Your spotlight auction piece is indeed a Breath of Fresh Air. How was the conference? Did you love it?
The big difference in SAQA’s 2021 virtual conference and the one in 2020 is this conference was designed to be virtual. Another advantage is the committee and staff who develop the conference had a full year vs 10 days. This meant all the presentations were created in advance or at least well rehearsed and prepared for a live participatory audience. Finally, SAQA was able to pull of the feeling of gathering with others, through casual meet-up rooms that anyone attending could set up. I saw meetings to play Banagrams (always hot at live conferences), for accepted artists in various exhibitions to chat, regional meet-ups, rooms for people interested in various topics and so much more. You could have set up a hand stitch gathering, Norma. There must have been over 50 different Discussion Board topics, too. I was active in one discussing the issue of aging and quilting. Best tip from that is a woman who has 5 minute hand yoga videos. Great for loosing the hands to stitch or relaxing them afterwards. The only downside is true of all conferences. I can’t do it all. SAQA gets two thumbs up from me on this.
So many beautiful pieces on the auction site!!!
Nancy, thank you for visiting the Spotlight Auction site. SAQA is fortunate to have many talented artists as members who share a passion and a willingness to support the organization with their work. I’m rather subjective, but I believe the work improves with each passing year. I love that the auction is open to members and non-members alike.
It’s so nice to see your studio workspace! Although I’m thinking “but where is the FABRIC? Why is it so CLEAN? Is everything OKAY?!!” When a see someone’s creative space all nice and tidy with everything put away, it’s like a restaurant menu that has photos of empty plates and no pictures of food. As they used to say in the Burger King commercials: “Where’s the beef?!” 😉
Rebecca, you crack me up. Yes, rest assured, everything is OK. I’ve been virtually touring studios, as I mentioned in the post. Some are so crammed with ephemera, tools, equipment, etc. it is downright scary. Others look like Marie Kondo clones. Just as scary. My studio falls into the middle most of the time, but closer to MK style than chaos. My whole house is that way. I can’t cope in chaos and clutter. I do have fabric, nicely stored on shelving just off the studio. My studio, like many studios, doesn’t occupy just one room. It is basically the second floor of our home. The studio is located on the open loft. My office occupies the sole upstairs bedroom, used only as my office. There is a sitting area which houses our bikes on trainers for winter exercise, but also my threads and tools on a peg board. In other words, there is beef, it is just nicely tucked in, almost hidden by the bun, lettuce and pickle.