Arts Visual Arts

Virtual First Friday with Blue Spiral 1 June 5

Blue Spiral 1 invites you to a virtual First Friday Zoom Q&A on June 5, at 5 p.m. The event includes artists from the show Warp + Weft currently featured in the gallery’s online exhibitions. The Q&A will culminate from a week of social media video posts featuring several of the artists giving tours or demonstrations from their studios.

Brendan Basket No. 407. Carole Hetzel, artist

“I am grateful for the opportunity to demonstrate the technical side of my work because it is somewhat unusual and difficult to describe,” says Amy Putansu, whose work explores the moodiness of sea and sky and employs the ondulé weaving technique. “And because there could be viewers from afar, I’m excited about the idea of reaching beyond the local market and connecting with other textile artists.”

Carol Milne will conduct a tour of her studio, where she “knits” glass in wax and then kiln casts it using the lost wax casting technique. Her exhibited works include two wall pieces demonstrating the difference between warp and weft knitting and two pieces in which hands are knitting themselves.

“This series, inspired by the M.C. Escher work in which two hands are drawing each other, started with the surreal and absurd idea of knitting yourself,” says Milne. “But as it evolved, and I lost key mentors in my life, it became more a meditation on the question, ‘what does it mean to become your own mentor?’”

David Samuel Stern will also conduct a studio tour. His exhibited works include portraits constructed by cutting and weaving together three separate photographic prints, and other pieces more closely related to collage.

“The work is meant to be seen as a physical, handmade object, which is not the typical result of photography,” says Stern. “Sometimes people assume that the weaving is done digitally, until they take a closer look.”

Warp + Weft also includes work by Clay Burnette, Erin E. Castellan, Margaret Dugger, Jessica Green, Carole Hetzel, Connie Lippert and Elysia Mann.

For more information visit BlueSpiral1.com, or go to @bluespiral1 on Facebook or Instagram.

Leave a Comment