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| Connections #3 - 50" x 24" hand dyed cotton by artist, hand embellished with embroidery thread, machine-pieced, machine quilted Jana Van Wyk copyright 2014 |
My current focus is painting; however, for many years I hand-dyed cotton and created art quilts. I was an active member of PAQA-South, the Professional Art Quilters Alliance-South and helped coordinate the 2006 PAQA-South Conference.
I entered Connections #3 into this juried show:
2007 ARTQUILTSmarkings
April 27 – May 30, 2007 Page Walker Arts & History Center, Cary, North Carolina
Connection #3 was not accepted into this show; my "markings" were the hand embellished markings that I created using embroidery floss. Looking back and doing a self-critique, I believe one of the reasons it was not accepted is because my markings do not stand out in a photograph. Remember curators and jurists are only looking a photographs that are usually projected to a screen.
Of course I was disappointed to be rejected. What did I learn from this?
1) Not getting into shows is simply part of being an artist, get used to it, and move on.
2) This art quilt now hangs happily in a focal spot between my sunroom and family room. Visitors see this art as they enter our kitchen. I displayed it on a wall with a medium dark neutral color and often my friends will say "those colors really pop against that wall". So simply enjoy your work if it doesn't sell and show. Maybe this one is meant to stay with me for now.
