Congratulations Best of Show Artists!
Three Uncommonly Good Works
23 Sandy Gallery is pleased to honor three artists with a Best of Show Award for Uncommon Threads: The Handicrafts in Book Arts. These three works are exemplary in content, concept, techniques, materials—and all have impeccable workmanship.
Tekla McInerney for Lament
This book is a beautiful knitted work that hangs from the ceiling and drops into a custom made fabric bag. From Tekla's artist statement, "There is comfort in the repetitive motion of knitting. It quietly consumes time and offers great satisfaction when the end of a skein is reached. There is no such neat end to mourning. Like the stream of words in a thesaurus—the endless linking of one word to the next—recovery from loss is an endless practice with no hope of mastery." But, out of grief has come a lovely work. We were very excited last Friday when Tekla walked into the gallery and introduced herself. Turns out she flew in from Massachusetts just that day to join our First Friday celebration. And, it was her birthday to boot!
Elsi Vassdal Ellis for Notions & Fabrications | Remnants
Here at 23 Sandy we have been honored to have Elsi's work in every single juried show that we have held since opening our doors in 2007. As usual, Elsi's two works in Uncommon Threads are gorgeous, thought provoking and beautifully made. This book is "a fictional story about a struggling farmer’s wife’s life as expressed through the domestic arts of sewing, quilting and crocheting... this story had to be told in two separate volumes rather than one, that they should sit side by side, and it reflected the challenges of women of her generation." P.S. Watch for Elsi's solo show here in the gallery in February of 2012.
Nanette Wylde for Between Us
Felting is a fascinating technique that I've never seen done quite so beautifully as in this book by California artist Nanette Wylde. She tells us "Interpersonal communication is a woolly fog of intentions and perceptions, interpretation and memory." This is one book that you really should see in person. Felting must be a difficult medium to capture well in photographs because this book is so much more stunning than it looks on your little computer screen.
Congratulations to all three of these very talented artists!