Wen Redmond - Strafford, NH

1. What do you call yourself - art wise? artist/ mixed media/ digital fiber /contemporary art in fiber/ fiber artist  
2. How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump? Slump? I don’t seem to get slumps. Swamped, yes- I get swamped with ideas. Impatience, yes, I can’t wait to dig in and get started. The only thing I don’t have is enough time to explore all of the inspirations I receive. The time to fully immerse in art, completely, fully.
3. If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art? Build a new studio, and get started! Get housekeepers, accountants and personal shoppers to do all the chores.
4. Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.? I have journal physically for years. I make hand bound books and write, draw and collage within their pages. However, I have been bitten with the blogger bug. I love to post techniques, inspirations and announcements online on my blog. I use other digital processes now to journal and create digital collage.  
5. Where can people see your other work this year? shows, books, magazines, etc I have just finished with a Solo Show in Portsmouth NH. I posted a YouTube with a brief tour. I just finished a fine craft show called Craft Boston. Recently my work was accepted into National Fiber Directions Exhibition Wichita KS, The Pen and Brush Salon des Refusés, NY, NY and Quilt National, Columbus OH. I’m in several online galleries such as Artful Home https://www.artfulhome.com as well as brick and mortar galleries. I have recently been published in several books, featured on my blog and more recently, Cloth Paper Scissors Jan/Feb 2011 and Quilting Arts Magazine Dec/Jan 2011 issues.
6. Do you teach? where? Yes- I will be offering a 4 Day Workshop MIX IT UP! at Surface Design Association’s Confluence Conference June 13-16 2011. This is a wonderful venue in a new location. Fiber Heaven! http://dev.surfacedesign.org/2011-SDAWorkshops.php Pigging backing this, I will teach my Piecing in the Flow at the 2011 Minnesota Quilter's Show and Conference, Minnesota on June 17. On August 26-28, I will offer Fab Fabric Painting, at PRO Chemical & Dye in Fall River, Massachusetts. In September I join Bayberry Quilters of Cape Cod for a Trunk Show and workshops Easy Image Transfer and Holographic Memories. 7. Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why? I have several fiber artists-heroes. The list includes Joan Schultz, Fran Skiles, Dorothy Caldwell, Susan Hammond West, Maya Angelo, and Leslie Avon Miller. I love Dorothy Krause and Mike and Doug Starn’s photography.  
8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday? I was accepted for the very first time in Quilt National. Thrilled! I would love to be in Quilt Visions before I hang up my sewing machine and brushes.
9. Describe your studio workspace. Right now, I have 2 studios, in home and outside the home in an old mill building that I share with other artists, musicians and businesses. I use the home studio for business, printing, and completing work. The mill studio is my public space for workshops and Open Studio events, wet studio, and inspiration incubation. Someday soon I hope to build a large studio and condense into one convenient in-home studio location.
10. What 3 tools could you not live without? My computer, camera, and paint!
11. What drives you to make the work that you do? The Mind-Boggling Spirit of the Universe.  
12. How do you balance your life? I don’t. I struggle with balance. I will take most of 2012 ‘off’ to address this very issue.


WEBSITE http://wenredmond.weebly.com/
BLOG http://fiberartgoddess.blogspot.com
SAQA NH/ME/VT Co Rep
YOU TUBE Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/wenredmond
Member of http://www.fiberrevolution.com/
Twitter http://twitter.com/wenredmond
ETSY SHOP http://www.etsy.com/shop/wenredmond
Artful Home https://www.artfulhome.com/artist/7983.html
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/wenredmond
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/wen.redmond
Niche Finalist 2008 and 2010

Loris Bogue - Simi Valley, CA

1. What do you call yourself - art wise? An artist 2. How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump? Usually I look at artwork in books: paintings, drawings, photographs and art quilts. 3. If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art? I would take lessons from the best artists I could, studying photography, drawing and painting. Then I would build a nice studio where I could display all my art and where I could hang out when I wasn't traveling around the world visiting art museums. 4. Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.? There's "a" scrapbook for each topic I'm interested in, photography, drawing, cartooning, graphic art, typography, all taken from magazines and newspapers. Then I have my own sketchbooks: one for drawing faces of famous people, sketches for the art classes I take, watercolors I've painted, and a little book where I write down funny things I've heard, among others. 5. Where can people see your other work this year? shows, books, magazines, etc. On my website and blog. I don't have much new textile art this year, because I'm studying illustration and web design, which takes up a lot of my creative time right now. 6. Do you teach? where? Yes, this year I've taught classes on how to photograph your quilt (translated = Photoshop Elements 9) and a freeform piecing class. I teach at Quilters' Studio in Newbury Park, California. 7. Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why? There's no one artist. I like contemporary art because I look at it and think, "I could do that!" Or "that would translate into fabric really well!" 8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday? I'd love to be in Visions one day. I understand that you have to enter to be accepted, though. So I need to do that. 9. Describe your studio workspace. I have my own studio as well as my own office, so I'm fortunate to have two bedrooms of the house for myself. I've also taken over the garage walls and loaded the shelves with dye supplies and art supplies. 10. What 3 tools could you not live without? My sewing machine, my digital camera, and my computer(s). 11. What drives you to make the work that you do? Having learned to really "see" and pay attention to my surroundings inspires me to want to use the colors and the textures I see to create something of my own or to try and reproduce what I see. 12. How do you balance your life? I'm still trying to get everything done without having a daily structure the way I did when I was raising a family and then working a 9 to 5 job.

http://www.lorisbogue.com/
http://lorisbogue.wordpress.com/
Co-rep SAQA SoCaL/SoNev
http://saqasocal.blogspot.com/

Gayle Simpson - Thousand Oaks, CA

1. What do you call yourself - art wise? I am an artist. I was a high school art teacher for many years, and was lucky to show and sell my paintings in juried indoor and outdoor shows around the West. I have a BA in Art from UCSB, two teaching credentials, and have curated and juried shows....for pay!!!

2. How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump? If I need to boost my creativity, I listen to classical, or Native American flute music, horn concertos or the Doobie Brothers; or I will attack some ideas after a good Extreme Quilters meeting. If we are going on a trip, I will do some photography that I can work into a new series of art quilts as soon as we get back.
3. If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art? It would be fun to build a major arts museum in our area. It would be designed by Jeffrey Nemeroff, and featured in Entra magazine. I would show all of the TSB, EQ and my other artist friends’ work.
4. Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.? Sketchbooks are great for traveling, but I find them confining for everyday work. I prefer diving into a composition hands-on, after I have thought it through. My design board and our pool table top are my areas to “sketch” on. I have a four by five foot magnetic metal board in our bedroom (built by my husband) for my journal. I cover it with current ideas or inspiration.
5. Where can people see your other work this year? shows, books, magazines, etc. My exhibits this year include: “Art From Cloth: Extreme Quilters 2011” (a show I chaired last year;) the end of the tour of “The Sky’s The Limit” (it was in Veldhoven, Netherlands, last I knew), and the SAQA Auction 2011. I hope to be juried into the “Sense of Adventure” and “International Patchwork Competition 2011.”
6. Do you teach? Where? I have taught classes at Houston 2008, and 2009. I do two workshops in Coeur d Alene, Idaho, every summer at Bear Paw. I sometimes teach at Quilter’s Studio, Newbury Park, CA and teach and lecture for California Guilds that book me at the SCQGC “Meet the Teacher” event.
7. Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why? Mary Jardine, Cottonwood, AZ , fabric artist, and Wayne Thiebaud, UC Davis, CA, painter, are my strongest art influences. Both are incredible with color, design and composition. I owe them both a lot for their inspiration, and have geared many trips around meeting and talking with them at their exhibitions.
8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday? The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles would be a fun venue to exhibit at; also, the Montalvo Center for the Arts in Saratoga, California and the MOMA in New York City. I also have five years of photos and lessons for an art quilting book, and would like to eventually publish it.
9. Describe your studio workspace. My studio workspace is in our kitchen dining room, with storage in three other rooms, and three cupboards in the garage; I used to have a big studio upstairs in a previous house, but I felt isolated. In the summer, my studio is one half of the living room in a cabin; I work standing at a high table most of the time.
10. What 3 tools could you not live without? My three most necessary tools include an expansive Plexiglas table top both at home and the cabin (made by my talented husband;) an adjustable drafting chair; and Japanese fabric to add here and there to the domestic cloth, batiks, and hand-dyes.
11. What drives you to make the work that you do? I am not sure why I am so driven to create; I have been motivated to do so since about 15. I can’t go anywhere without visual overload, and I also love to push others to create, to exhibit, to explore, and to make a series of every idea.
12. How do you balance your life? Balance comes from rest, having a fun family, hiking, and travel to mellow places like Sedona, Napa, and Idaho. I have made 103 pieces, and am obsessed with this lucky lifestyle of art quilting.

http://sites.google.com/site/cdagayle/home

Judy Coates Perez - Chicago, IL

1. What do you call yourself - art wise? A mixed media textile artist.

2.  How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump?  I don’t force the issue, I will do something, like knit, that feeds my need to make something and engage another part of my brain. I also read, listen to audio books and look at the world around me for inspiration.

3.  If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art?  Make more of it. I would love to just make art whenever or however I want and not have to try and make a living as well. Where is that handsome millionaire when you need him?

4.  Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.?  My blog is the closest thing I have to keeping a journal, and I have fallen out of the habit of keeping regular sketchbooks the way I used to. I have a lot of different sketchbooks and papers all around the house, so I tend to pick up whatever suits my needs when I want to work out ideas.

5.  Where can people see your other work this year?  shows, books, magazines, etc

International Quilt Festival, Lesley Riley’s new book “Create with TAP” and Quilting Arts magazine

6.  Do you teach?  where?  Yes, I teach for International Quilt Festival, national quilt guilds and Create and I am thrilled to be teaching in New Zealand for a second time. 

7. Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why?

There are so many diverse artists that I admire, I don’t think there is one that stands out above the rest.

8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday?  I don’t really have any specific goals for my work other than just to be seen, I am actually really bad about entering shows, it’s probably the last thing I think about doing. 

9.  Describe your studio workspace. a mess, lol, it’s a big open urban loft space with large south facing windows, two large work tables, a couple sewing machines, over flowing shelves, and drawers, flat files and file cabinets.

10. What 3 tools could you not live without?  paint, computer and a camera

11. What drives you to make the work that you do?  compulsion?

12. How do you balance your life?  It may not be that balanced in some peoples view, lol. My young adult kids and I work and live in a loft in downtown Chicago. Our main living spaces are: the studio- the largest space in the loft where we spend the most time, the kitchen- where everyone tends to hang out when not on computers or making art of some kind and the library which doubles as a family room. It’s a bit unorthodox for the typical family, but it works for us.

http://judyperez.blogspot.com/
http://paintedthreadsprojects.blogspot.com/

Susan Brubaker Knapp - Mooresville, NC

1. What do you call yourself - art wise? Fiber artist, quilt designer and quilting teacher. I make both fiber art and traditional quilts; I sometimes say that I have “multiple personality quilting disorder.”
2. How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump? I’ve actually never had a slump. I have enough ideas to keep me hopping for several lifetimes. I have a busy family and two school-aged children, so the lack of time to create is my biggest problem.
3. If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art? I’d try to find a way to change the world with my art. I would love to make a difference somehow, to leave the world a slightly better place when I die.
4. Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.? Well, I am trying to keep a sketchbook. I love to work in a sketchbook, but it takes a discipline I have not quite mastered yet! My “journal” – the written component of my creative life – is my blog!
5. Where can people see your other work this year? shows, books, magazines, etc The main place is my second book, “Point, Click, Quilt! Turn Your Photos into Fabulous Fabric Art,” which comes out in July from C&T Publishing. I'm also in the 700 series of Quilting Arts TV, and I have two Quilting Arts DVDs on machine quilting and thread sketching. I'll be featured on an episode of “The Quilt Show” with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims this year, too.
6. Do you teach? where? Yes, I love to teach! I teach at quilt guilds across the country, and I'll be teaching three classes at IQF-Houston this fall; in The Netherlands and at Hudson River Valley Fiber Art Workshops in 2012; and at Taupo Symposium in New Zealand in 2013.
7. Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why? The work of Vincent Van Gogh has always fascinated and inspired me; I think it is because it is such a pure visual expression of powerful emotion.
8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday? I would love to have my work accepted at Quilt National and other high-level art exhibitions. But exhibiting is not as important to me as simply making art that I love, and that makes me want to jump out of bed in the morning and create!
9. Describe your studio workspace My studio is a 14' x 14' room that used to be a guest bedroom. A few years ago, I painted it bright red, and then I noticed that my parents stopped staying with us when they came to visit. When questioned, my mom said that sleeping there “was like sleeping in hell.” So out went the guest bed and in went my cutting table and sewing machine ... voila! I had a studio.
10. What 3 tools could you not live without? None, really. In making art, I think there is nothing indispensable except creativity, passion and time.
11. What drives you to make the work that you do? Self expression. All my art is a personal statement about my hopes and concerns for our world – primarily, the need to pay attention to and care about the beauty of the world, the miracles that are all around us every day.
12. How do you balance your life? Balance is something I strive for, but have not yet achieved. I think it is perhaps unattainable. But it is okay; I have a fabulous unbalanced, life!

http://www.bluemoonriver.com/
http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/

Yvonne Porcella - Modesto & Arnold, CA

1. What do you call yourself - art wise? I am an artist and create original art quilts using a variety of fabrics and techniques. Through out my career, my work has been exhibited in many national and international exhibits and collected by public institutions and private collectors.
2. How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump? I experiment with a small work, using a new color scheme or different technique.

3. If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art? Contact Museums for exhibits and donations.

4. Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.? I do have sketch books but I do not currently post daily thoughts or new concepts in a journal. I took a year off from my routine of a daily journal.
5. Where can people see your other work this year? My retrospective at San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles has closed in January; Stanford Art Spaces at Stanford University March to May 2011; Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts, April to July 2011; Mistlin Gallery Modesto, CA month of April 2011; C&T Publishing POD books; permanent installation at St. Mary's Hospital, San Francisco, CA Hayes at Stanyan Sts., framed art quilt located in Oncology Department; SAQA Gallery pages, www.saqa.com; Beneath The Surface, International Quilt Festival/Cincinnati OH, April 2011.

6. Do you teach? where? on a cruise to the Baltic, May 2011; Camarillo Quilt Guild, November 2011.

7. Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why? I have many artist books that I refer to often: Stuart Davis, Jim Dine, Wayne Thiebald, Ivan Bilibin, Niki de Saint Phalle, Miriam Schapiro, Hundertwasser.

8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday? Invitational one person show at any New York or San Francisco museum.

9. Describe your studio workspace. I am fortunate to have a beautiful large studio in a remote area with few distractions. All my supplies are there and easily accessible, and I have time to play!
10. What 3 tools could you not live without? Bernina Sewing Machine, Olfa rotary cutter/mat, scissors

11. What drives you to make the work that you do? I have the luxury of time, space, and ideas and after years of success, I fully commit myself to making art because it defines who I am

12. How do you balance your life? I have two places where I can live, one has a large studio where I work, the other has archival storage and access to stores. New supplies are not available near my studio so I spend one to two days a week stocking up on what I need, visiting friends, enjoying driving on remote roads and contemplating new ideas.

http://yvonneporcella.blogspot.com/
http://www.yvonneporcella.com/

Artists Profiles for The Space Between

Q&A - The Space Between artists will be answering these questions about their artistic journey.  They will be posted one per day - Monday through Friday. 

1. What do you call yourself - art wise?
2. How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump?

3. If money wasn't an issue, what would you do with your art? 

4. Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.?
5. Where can people see your other work this year? 

6. Do you teach? where?

7. Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why?

8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday?

9. Describe your studio workspace. 
10. What 3 tools could you not live without?

11. What drives you to make the work that you do?

12. How do you balance your life? 

Yvonne Porcella will be our first Artist Profile on Tuesday, April 5th