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Creamery Art Quilts Show To Open First Friday, September 5
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Springfield Regional Arts Council will host the works of three well-known art-quilt artists -- Pam Rubert, Lettie Blackburn and Emmie Seaman -- for its September exhibition opening First Friday, Sept. 5, with a public reception from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m, .at the Creamery Arts Center (across from Hammons Field). The three artists will also participate in the free ARTalks from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Creamery Arts Library and will discuss techniques of their fascinating craft.
Pam Rubert will show a new series of mixed media quilts called, "Wish You Were Hair". She says the inspiration came from her collection of vintage postcards from around the world. Famous monuments such as the Sydney Opera House, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and St. Louis Arch are transformed into hair styles and rendered in colorful fabric and thread making humorous picture stories that she hopes will entertain and inspire those who frequent the Creamery Arts Center, old and young alike.
Lettie Blackburn and Emmie Seaman's exhibit, "The Nature of Things", features art quilts and color photographs by Seaman on a floral theme and art quilts and watercolors by Blackburn on a theme of a variety of trees. Cutting cloth into many little pieces and sewing them back together to create a new fabric has always been a fascination for Emmie. In addition to textiles, gardening is another of her loves. Photographic images of Emmie's garden flowers and surrounding vegetation inspire the manipulation of fabric for small art quilts. For Lettie, it was a long anticipated return to the world of art after years in the corporate world and her primary media are watercolors and fiber. She draws inspiration from what she knows best…the natural world of trees and other living things.
Pam Rubert, born in St. Louis, finds that her life and art has been largely influenced by her Japanese heritage. She feels that "the power of art is the ability to take us to new, fantastic, or unexpected places -- real or in the artist's mind." Pam started making art quilts in 2004 and since then her work has been featured in national and international exhibits such as Quilt National and Art Quilts at the Sedgwick, in a 2006 PBS nationally televised documentary, and has won awards in the Husqvarna Viking Exhibition and International Quilt Festival. This fall her work will be exhibited in California, Oregon, Africa, the UK, and a museum exhibition in Holland, and in 2009 in books published by Voyageur Press and North Light Books.
Emmie, originally from Missouri, has returned after 30 years in the SE Coastal United States. She lives in a rural area overlooking Lake Stockton where she designs small art quilts reflecting the view of her world. She is a recognized Master Weaver in the Handweavers Guild of America. She has received the First Place Award for innovative quilts from the American Quilters Society in Paducah, KY, and a Judges Choice Award in the "She Made Her Mark" exhibit at the 2007 Quilters Hall of Fame, Marion, IN. Currently, she exhibits in the National Small Art Quilt show in Groton, NY
Lettie's work has been accepted into numerous juried shows, she has won many awards and her work is in private collections across the country. Most of her work is created from photographs she takes while either in her native Minnesota or in Missouri. Her approach, whether in watercolor or fiber, is intuitive and instinctual rather than studied and is based on a preference for strong linear design, color and organic forms. She is a member of the Leech Lake Arts Legue, The Artists of Minnesota, Uncommon Threads, Studio Art Quilt Associates and is on the board of the Springfield Visual Arts Alliance.
The Creamery Exhibition Hall is open Mondays to Fridays, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and entrance is free. The First Friday Art Walk reception is also free and open to the public. For more information, contact Springfield Regional Arts Council, 417-862-ARTS(2787) or go to www.SpringfieldArts.org.