What a lot of people don’t realize is there’s “art” behind the art. The art of making things work, the art of presenting, the art of bringing things to completion.

These are just a couple of photos from last week’s take-down of the Vital Threads show at Stephens College in the Davis Art Gallery. Annie Helmericks-Louder’s  husband John Louder is removing Annie’s butterfly from the wall. He’s especially motivated because he’s going to install his landscape paintings for the next upcoming show.

The wood piece is actually the hanging hardware for Annie’s huge art quilt, but you’d never have seen this elegant structure during the exhibition. It’s completely hidden behind Annie’s big butterfly that is composed of all sorts of fabrics, threads, and other embellishments. You can get a better sense of the texture of Annie’s work if you go to her website to see the nice close up photos she has on her welcome page.

One of the nice things about exhibiting with other artists, you get a chance to see how they pack, transport, and install their work. I’ve learned so much from watching other artists – both at shows I’ve been involved with and with my husband’s sculpture and gallery work. Plus, it’s just darn fun.

Annie’s system is pretty amazing. The wooden frame has small hooks screwed into it, and the hooks all match hand-crocheted rings sewn onto the back of the quilt. At first I thought she had crocheted thread around rings, but she said no, they are completely made of the yarn or thread so they are more flexible than metal would be.

For more photos of the exhibition, go to the Vital Threads photo gallery on my website. I’ve finally gotten my website converted to WordPress, something I’ve been trying to do for what seems like a year. I don’t have all my quilts there yet, but some of the more recent work.

Now after going to see Annie’s website, it makes me think mine needs a lot more work. Thanks for the inspiration Annie!

Over the weekend, Russ and I made a quick jaunt up to Columbia, MO to help install a two-person show at the Davis Gallery at Stephens College. The show called Vital Threads features my work and the work of Annie Helmericks-Louder, another Missouri artist who does art quilts, silk paintings, and fabulous plein aire pastels. Check out her website and roadtrip blog.

It was fun to meet Annie for the first time, and her husband who is also a painter and artist. Dan Scott the gallery director also brought his family, so between all of us, it was pretty quick work to get everything looking good for the reception coming up this Friday.

The Davis Gallery is a sort of retro 60′s space with floating stairs, waffle ceiling, cool chairs and a charming sculpture patio just outside.

The reception will be this Friday, August 27 from 4-6 p.m., so if you’re in the area, please stop by!

Vital Threads
August 27-October 14, 2010
opening reception: Friday, August 27, 4-6 p.m.
Stephens College – Davis Art Gallery
Corner of Walnut & Ripley
Columbia, MO 65215

layered cotton fabrics stitched with thread, 65"x50" by Pam RuBert

ITAB is a juried exhibition of work by artists exploring the intersection of fiber art with new information and communication technologies, to be held in conjunction with San Jose’s biennial ZERO1 Festival, the 2010 01 SJ Biennial, which runs from September 16-19, 2010. The exhibition includes 41 works by 28 artists from six countries—including Canada, China, Germany, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For more information and some images from the upcoming show, check out the museum website article.

San Jose Quilts & Textiles Museum, San Jose, CA
August 17 – October 31, 2010
Opening reception is Sunday, August 22, 2-4pm

But the odd thing is, I’ve never hung one of my quilts in a living space. So last fall when several of you commented on my blog that I needed to hang art in this space, I’d been meaning to get to it.

Big surprise here! This is what I consider to be one of my mid-size pieces — not really big, and not really small. But here in the studio lobby, it looks kind of over-powering. The sofa’s not small. It’s an antique red-velvet sofa I recovered with faux fur, and it’s a nice size for napping, or fainting, or whatever you want to call a mid-afternoon or middle of a late night crash.

Hmm, guess I’ll have to think about this some more…. maybe after a short faint.

The show will be in the Artspace at Untitled gallery until August 29. The gallery is currently checking into the possibility of traveling the show, so hopefully you’ll have the opportunity to see it in another city.

Art Quilts Lowell 2009 opened at the Brush Art Gallery in Lowell, MA last week as part of the big Lowell Quilt Festival. Maxine sent me word that my quilt Traffic Jam that is part of the exhibit was mentioned in this article in The Sun, and also that the festival and shows had great attendance.That exhibit will be up until September 19, 2009.

Both of these show articles were sub-lined somewhere with “Not your Grandmother’s Patchwork.” I can’t tell you how many articles that I’ve seen across the country with that headline or something similar. It used to bother me, but I’ve come to realize that it’s original in each situation, because the writer or reviewer in that region is trying to dispel a common misconception that a quilt art show will look like a bunch of quilts. And if their headlines get more new attendance at these exhibits and venues, more power to them!

Getting ready for a group show I’m part of that will open this Friday at the Waverly House of Contemporary Craft, I’ve been trying some different ways of framing smaller pieces. The figurative pieces are sewn to stretched canvas and framed. This one is called “Cell Cat on a Date.”

Contemporary Art Quilts by Pam RuBert
January 22 – February 13, 2008
Driskill Gallery
Jester Learning and Performance Center
Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar, MO
Gallery hours: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., M-F
Gallery Director: Dianna Callahan 417-328-1651

Although it was short notice, I was happy to be asked to do this one since I hope to have more solo shows in the future. It’s a beautiful gallery adjacent to the fine arts department and inside a performing arts center.

The gallery is sort of an L-shape configuration with glass walls on one side — allowing visitors to the performing arts center an almost full view of the artwork when the gallery is locked after hours.

Looking at Deidre Adams website yesterday made me realize that websites are wonderful for show for showing art, but seeing a photo of a real-life installation can re-frame how we perceive what we’re seeing in an internet gallery. Scroll down to the very bottom photo of this series to see one.

Last night as I was packing up quilts for my upcoming solo show at the Driskill Gallery, I was thinking one is easy to roll up and ship to a show, but sixteen is a lot to handle. Then I got to the gallery this morning, and I remembered why I started making art quilts in the first place. Not many other art forms can fill a whole gallery with just a couple of funny-looking burritos.

They look small in the gallery space, but wait — they are amazing exploding burritos! And out pop all the quilts, much to gallery director Dianna Callahan’s amusement…

Actually sixteen big quilts was too many for the gallery, so I brought three home. But there are a few odd-sized smaller spaces, so I’m back in studio, looking through some small work. Trouble is, I don’t make much small work.