Reborn from the scrap pile

Last winter I made a slew of  tiny collages. 

Getting ready for the opening at the ALL Gallery this month, I thought "I should wear something I made." Mid-August is way too hot for scarves. Then,like the first star at night, an idea was there. I cut some silk bias, ripped some hand-dyed cotton, grabbed beads, needle, thread, and a thimble. All day, while I gallery-sat, I stitched. When the opening came around, I wore this: 

Lots of compliments. Now I have a  project to carry with me to doctor's appointments, etc. I found I could bead in the car, which made the long ride back from visiting my mother in her Lancaster PA nursing home pass more comfortably.

I'll take the project with me Saturday when my family leaves for our one week away. No computer if I can help it. Instead, painting, beaching and just sitting in the sun with the dog.

Excitement in Lowell

Fabrication of Imagination 2010 is open at the ALL Gallery in Lowell. The show explores current ideas in textile arts and includes two of my recent pieces.

Reassembled
vintage and found fabric
Linda B. Dunn

Fabrication of Imagination runs through August 29. The gallery is open noon-4 on weekends, with extend hours for the Lowell Quilt Festival:

Thursday August 12 10-8
Friday August 13 10-6
Saturday August 14 10-5, with a Reception from 2-4

I'm gallery-sitting this Thursday and Saturday mornings. Stop by and say hello.

In addition to our reception at the ALL Gallery, Saturday August 14 will be packed with art and fiber activities. You can visit Quilt Candy, an outdoor, tented craft sale featuring fiber art, knitted, woven and felted items, embroidery, embellishments, and creative cloth. It will be held in the courtyard located between the National Historical Park Visitor Center, the Brush Art Gallery and Studios and ALL Arts Gallery in the heart of Lowell's arts district. Kyoto Kimono of New York will host a trunk show at the Quilt Festival. And the Brush gallery features Art Quilts Lowell 2010, curated by Jeanne Williamson Ostroff and Linda Levin.


If you visit, you can park for free at the Lowell National Park Visitors Lot. Lowell's museums and galleries are within walking distance of each other, and shuttle will run continuously between them throughout the festival. Hope to see you there.

Fiber as sculputure

With the air dry and cool, I am putting the last details on my sculptures. Long-ago lessons in making armatures reawaken. Plus secret knowledge gained years ago, when I interned at the RISD museum's textile department, about how bustles stayed up.

Both pieces are thoughts made visible. What is memory? How do we assemble our identity? How to we incorporate loss?

I also made a series of sticks and stones wrapped in old lace and fabric. I have disintigration on my mind. The real shock is how large-scale ideas emerge as I finish these smaller ones. I want to make whole trees from fabric. I can see them in my mind. Lace, sheets, silk. I can see it. How to get them to stand up? How to move them? Where to install? First I have to solve the problem of hanging these.