As 2010 draws to a close and ArtClothText heads into its fourth year, I would like to thank everyone for reading, commenting and contributing to the blog this past year. So…THANK YOU! Your support and enthusiasm have encouraged me, and make this blog worth reading. It was an eventful year for me, traveling to Japan, participating in group exhibitions, teaching and moving into a new house with my fiance. As I write this I am happy to report that I am at long last finished moving house and will soon be setting up a new studio.
2010 also saw the culmination of Poplar Gallery.Online, a curatorial project I started in 2006. The website will be folded over the next couple of months. An archive of exhibitions will be maintained on my personal website www.mackenziefrere.com. In the coming months look for an on-demand publication featuring the work of fibre artists, metal smiths, ceramicists and others who have shown their work on the website.
I have some exciting things planned for ArtClothText the new year including Studio Practice, a series of posts from the studios of artists, designers and craftspeople in Canada and around the world beginning Monday, January 3. I encourage anyone wishing to share their studio practice with other ArtClothText readers to send your images, text and links anytime. Later in the spring I will be blogging from a residency at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon. There I will be teaching a plant-dyes workshop and then creating a work in the retrospective exhibition “Laurie Herrick: Weaving Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” curated by Namita Gupta Wiggers. The exhibition will explore “…weaving as a living craft. Selected patterns by Herrick will be available on the web for weavers worldwide to interpret and share via Flickr. Five contemporary artists will participate in Museum residencies, creating personal responses to Herrick’s patterns and adding to this traveling exhibition.”
Finally, if you have not already done so, please consider donating to this year’s ArtClothText Cares fundraiser for the Mosaic Youth Group. The encouragement and mentorship of LGBTQ youth in our communities is as important now as it has ever been. We have come a long way, but negative images and stereotypes of homosexuality persist in the media, at school and worse, at home, affecting young people gay or straight. The ongoing tragedy of gay teen and even pre-teen suicides should be an alarm bell alerting us to action within our own communities. Projects like “It Gets Better” are doing a lot of good to change perceptions and allow LGBTQ youth to envision what their future might look like as queer adults, but I think we can do something to improve the situation of these young people now in our own community by supporting the Mosaic Youth Group. Making a secure donation is as easy as clicking “DONATE” on the top right sidebar.
Until next year, wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy new year!
image via Dr X’s Free Associations
