Leni Wiener

I am pleased to be included in an upcoming show in White Plains called “Hanging by a Thread” which features work by sixteen artists all made using recycled materials.  It took me a while to decide how to approach this invitation, as I only work in fabric–not in other materials.  But the challenge was an interesting one, so here is my approach.

Wanting to remain true to traditional quilting (which is, after all, where art quilts come from) I decided to use materials that we regularly throw away without thinking too much about.  These included: food packaging, mailing envelopes, postcards, newspapers, old jeans, candy wrappers, the plastic netting that vegetables come in–just to name a few.  I cut these all into 1.5 inch squares, seperated them by value, and used them to create this portrait of a homeless woman.  There are a total of 1600 squares; the finished size is five feet square.

From a close vantage point, the piece just looks like a quilt–a seemingly random placement of equal sized squares.  As the viewer moves farther back the image begins to appear.  From a distance of about 15 feet, the image is quite clear.

here is a closeup of the kinds of items used in the artwork:

a bit farther back:

now, as seen from a distance:

Anyone can attend the opening–here is the invitation–if you are in the area, please come and see what promises to be a very interesting exhibit.  I will also be part of a panel discussion with other artists on Wednesday evening, April 15.

The recent fires in Australia have left many homeless–among them the sister (also a quilter) of a SAQA member.  I put the word out to SAQA NY, and the response was overwhelming–fabric and thread and books came pouring in.  (Quilters are really wonderful people.)  I called the woman from UPS who posted a response recently after my negative post about UPS, and told her that we were sending a box to those Australian fire victims.  I asked if UPS would cover the cost of shipping the box, and was pleased to hear that they will.  So kudos to UPS for helping us do the right thing, and for coming through for me to turn a negative experience into a positive one.

thanks, UPS

And thanks, of course, to the SAQA NYers who came through, too.

Yesterday was the official opening of my show at the Oresman Gallery in the Larchmont, NY Library, and quite a few people were nice enough to attend.  The gallery is long and narrow, I have my work on one wall and a group of photographers have the opposite wall–a nice relationship between photography and my photo inspired fiber art.

Then my NY assemblyman, George Latimer introduced himself and presented me with this certificate (which he apologised will not reduce my taxes).  How cool is this?

All in all, a good day.  It was very interesting to see all my work hanging together–it is the first time I have gotten a sense that it is a body of work, rather than a pile of stuff on the bed in the guest room!  It was also interesting to hear the comments, which pieces most people responded to–which gives me a sense of what direction I should continue to persue.

Thank you to all of you who attended and helped make me feel so special.

Two of my Art Workshop students, Denise Bradley and Ife Felix have work in the Artists in Bank Street’s Backyard Exhibition in NYC.  If you are near NYC, check it out:

Exhibition Date: February 2 to 28, 2009
Place: Bank Street College, 610 West 112th Street (off B’way), New York, NY
Exhibition Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-8pm, Saturday 10am-3pm
Featured Artists: Anna Alvarez, Sonia Barnett, Michelle Bishop, Denise Bradley, Aleathea Brown,
P.J. Cobbs, Valerie Deas, Ife Felix, Laura R. Gadson, Obatola Wilhelmina Grant, Pat Mabry, Robyn Mahone-Lonesome, Dindga McCannon, Misha McGlown, Ruth Miller, Dionis Ortiz, Esuardo Alexander Rabel,
Ayanna Ricco, Barbara Russell and Shimoda

Here is Denise Bradley with her two art quilts:

No matter how well I look at something while I am working on it, when I take a digital image and put it on the computer, problem areas become instantly visible.  While putting up the last post I noticed two things that I hadn’t seen while working on it–that the fence post wasn’t straight, and that the shirt looked too pale.  Not just because of the color in the original photo–I make those sorts of “artistic decisions” all the time.  But it just didn’t stand out enough against the green in the background.  So here are those two small changes.  Funny, but just a little change can make a big difference:

And now I see that the bench legs closest to the front need to be shifted a bit.  If you own a digital camera, there is no better way to see immediately what needs to be changed.

ok, my blog, my soap box.  Yesterday I had a truly horrendous experience with one little bitty package that needed to be sent by UPS.  Well, twelve hours and a migraine later customer service told me they were truly sorry I had a less than satisfactory experience.  I won’t bore you with details–just think twice before you use UPS.  I never will again.

ok, in order to recover and try to get rid of the stomach ache, I started work on a new piece–a small one just to get my mind off the ongoing disaster.  I decided this time to experiment with fewer pieces so that I would have a more graphic look to the finished piece.  I also tried to choose fabric with lots of unexpected patterns.  I am at the glued down stage–first the original photo:

and now the fabric interpretation:

yes, as soon as I posted the picture, I can see that the fence is crooked.  I will fix that.

just a reminder that my show is up at the Larchmont Library (from Feb 2 through 27) and the opening is this saturday from 3 to 4:30.  So, please, if you are in the area, stop by for a glass of wine and say hello.