Art Exhibits - Archives

This “sampler quilt” was made after I won a consolation drawing in a fabric challenge at a quilt show in Elko, Nevada. I made one of the squares and was given the others. You will notice that all of them use a common “challenge” fabric. Along with the squares, I received an extra length of the challenge fabric to help in completing my quilt. I had the squares for many years, uncertain of how to combine all the diverse patterns and color schemes harmoniously. One day it just all seemed to come together.
This is a “friendship quilt.” The squares used on the front were made by friends and fellow quilters in Mendoza, Argentina, where I lived for 7 years. (The Argentine flag is on the back.) The grape fabric came from a “left-overs” bin in a small quilting shop in Victoria, BC. I bought it thinking I would use it for a single square. When I got home, I came up with the idea of placing it between the rows of squares to represent Mendoza’s vineyards – which meant I needed more fabric. When I checked back, the Victoria shop had sold all it carried, so I had to search on-line for another source. Eventually I was successful, and the quilt came together.

1975 – Quit Smoking…Took up Cross Stitch…Voila! Connie Mallison

The Marlboro Man collage is one of a series of Marlboro Man collages I did while living in Montana. Rumors that the Marlboro man in the ad was gay and the fact that cigarettes gave one cancer made the faux tough-guy, outdoorsy cowboy ads all the more ridiculous. Paul Piper

This art work shows my father, as “Rapper Jack”, performing in a night club. I wrote the words to the sea chanty (The Ballad of JHP) which he is rapping, and the figures in the “Whales Tale” club are characters from the chanty text. Curiously enough, they look a lot like him!
This work celebrates the power of words and the power of rhythm and the power of healing.
It is made with paper, gouache, black pen and a great deal of glue.
Leslie Hall

Winterlude, is a body of work composed of oil paintings, exploring the notion of decay and the female body. The subjects in the paintings are sailboats, abstracted and visually explored. I begin by focusing on a specific part of the boat, generally a zoomed in perspective. I then use color and shade to represent the image and simplify the work into abstract forms. The sailboats in the images have been left out for winter, and collect leaves and other matter. As both a sailor and an artist, the boat is interpreted to me dually. First, it serves a functional purpose, to stay afloat, to keep water from entering. I find it interesting when these boats are depicted away from their functional purpose, and full of water, it’s as if to say they have now lost their value. I interpret them secondly as a metaphor for the body, in particular, the female body. It is hard to ignore the female connotations associated with the body of a boat, for example, referring to a boat as a “she”.

The nature depicted in the image can be seen as a parallel for society and the painting as a whole, a metaphor for societal decay on the female body. By painting these images I am recognizing the weight of decay upon the body, a gradual deterioration to an inferior state. The female body, like the leaves in fall, grows old, and eventually dies, however, the leaves will grow back. The same is true in society, collectively the human race continues on in generations, the old pass and make way for the new. Yet while the season change is annual and the old leaves must be shed to make room for the new, the deterioration of the body is permanent, irreversible. The boat then, can be seen as vulnerable. Unprotected and prematurely exposed to the harsh elements of nature, left to accumulate matter and speed up the natural process of death.

Debbi Kenote