More Photos and Responses

Here are more memories from Bennington, January 2018. 

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Mixed Media with Susan Webster

"Susan intuited a direction that I need to take in my art and came up with an exercise that made me see the light!"

"I enjoyed my fellow participants and the level of their expertise. I have found one of the best features of NCSW is the participants as much as the teachers."

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"I explored a size I never worked in, and new techniques with tools I have used before."

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Drawing with Evan Crankshaw

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"Mind expanding, nurturing, yet progressive instruction. Good momentum each day."

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"Evan's exercises taught me to slow down as I draw sometimes, and to be strong and fierce at other times."

"I was delighted and surprised at the endless amount of support and insight and new ideas and solutions..."

"A wonderful, warm group of attendees who were really thoughtful about where Evan was trying to take us."

More to come...

Looking Back at January 2018: Sculpture with Sylvie Rosenthal

Power tools and hand tools, including the famous Holy Gallahad, were all put to use in shaping and carving three-dimensional wood forms. 

What the participants said they learned:

"Joinery, use of tools, practice, patience, sharpening techniques."

"Wood grain matters!"

"Be creative, use positive and negative space, light and shadow, texture, shape...Be playful. Plan but be flexible. Don't be afraid of mistakes..."

"Sylvie gave inspiring assignments in terms of conceptual depth, and she encouraged exploration in student work."

"I explored my own capacity to slow down, look, see, think. And I was constantly inspired by Sylvie and my classmates."

Political Stitchery -- Guest Blogger Adrienne Sloane

Sometimes what is happening on the larger political context spills just a bit too much into my consciousness and gets released in my art.  A new work of mine in this vein, The Unraveling, is a knit American flag that I am in the process of unraveling over time, reflecting my views on the current administration.  Revealing the Constitution as it comes undone, The Unraveling is now on view at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA through May 20.  For more on the exhibit, click here. 

Here's a detail of the piece, showing the U.S. Constitution as the flag unravels.

The Fuller Craft Museum has also been collecting examples from the pussy hat movement that contributed so much to the visuals of last year’s Women's March. Marking the one-year anniversary, Revolution in the Making: The Pussyhat Project opens on January 21, in conjunction with another fiber show, Threads of Resistance. As a part of the opening, the Museum plans to hold a Craftivism Roundtable Panel discussion on the role of needlework in affecting social change. Details here.  

In another very interesting project along similar political lines, I brought an old American flag with me on a teaching trip to Australia last March, when the American inauguration was still very much on everyone’s mind.  Inviting people to write their uncensored thoughts directly on the flag, offered me incredibly interesting opportunities to engage with how Australians felt about our election. I am now looking to expand my fiber vocabulary by embellishing the flag with free motion embroidery, which is why I signed up for Follow the Thread with Paula Kovarik in January.  I am so looking forward to the workshop.

Adrienne Sloane is a fiber artist who lives and works in Massachusetts, but teaches and exhibits around the world. She first attended North Country Studio Workshops as an instructor, and has returned as a participant and as a volunteer on the Planning Committee.