Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Sherry Kleinman - Pacific Palisades, CA

1.  What do you call yourself - art wise?  Sometimes I am an art quilter and other times I call myself a fiber artist------that later really combines the fine art side of me with my love of textiles.
2.  How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump? I like to work on several projects at a time, it is a great way to kick start ideas.  Inspirations seem to come to me while working on a variety of pieces.  Creativity seems to breed more creativity!  Taking my dog for a walk along the bluffs overlooking the ocean seems to be a great inspiration place for me...the grand vista of all that water and the ocean air have sparked ideas for quite a number of pieces.
3.  If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art?   I would remodel to make a bigger studio and travel the world visiting museums and galleries exploring places I have never been.
4.  Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.? Not really in an organized daily way, but I do like to cut and tear paper to try out an idea before I go for the fabric, kind of building block style.  I do have notebooks of photos taken by myself or by my 3 daughters (kept in plastic sheet protectors) that I often refer to for inspiration.  I work from an artist model once a week, and those drawings have been a big springboard for my work.  From the basic figure I expand creating a scene that tells a story.  I often don't quite know what the outcome will be or where my muse will take me.  I work best NOT having it all planned out ahead of time.
5.  Where can people see your other work this year?  shows, books, magazines, etc   California Fiber Artists  group shows (http://cafiberartists.com/); Bakersfield Museum of Art (March-May) Bakersfield, CA, Eureka Art Museum (June-August) Eureka CA, East Bay Mud (October-December) Oakland, CA; PAQA South ArtQuilts:Movement (May-July)Durham, NC
6.  Do you teach?  where?  I will be teaching for the Westside Quilters (Los Angeles) in April.....It will be a class on how to use water soluble media.....I love using water-soluble crayons and pencils on fabric and want to encourage others to try it.
7.  Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why? I have taken art classes at Brentwood Art Center in Santa Monica, CA for years and David Limrite's mixed media figure class has been the most influential.  David is a wonderful teacher who has taught me so much....and encouraged me when I ventured into the fiber world with my fine arts.
8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday? Quilt National and Quilt Visions are my long term goals.
9.  Describe your studio workspace.  I have one main studio (a spare bedroom) to work in but my projects often spill out into the rest of the house:   the dining room table to cut fabric, the pool table to store quilts and in another bedroom lives my long arm.  My husband and I make use of all the rooms our 3 daughters have left behind.  Sometimes we wonder how did we ever have room for them too?
10.  What 3 tools could you not live without? My Viking SE, my paints and brushes.
11.  What drives you to make the work that you do? I have an inner passion to create and explore, a curiosity to see what works.  I have never liked to follow set patterns as traditional quilts require.  Making art quilts was a wonderful revelation to me, that there were no rules I had to follow. 
12.  How do you balance your life? I have no problem with balance these days, as my daughters are grown and my husband retired (he can be found on the golf course or tennis courts).  So I have wonderful long days to work in my studio creating art, something I didn't have time for in my past life.   Since I made my first art quilt 6 years ago, it has been a wonderful time for me:   making new friends, traveling to shows, and creating art.  But I guess I do wish the days were longer...never enough time to make all the art that is inside my head wanting to come out!

http://www.sherrykleinman.com/
http://www.californiafiberarists.com/

1 comment:

  1. Hi Sherry, Art quilter, or fiber artist, you are certainly those titles!

    ReplyDelete

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