Circular Abstractions -- the Opening

Last Wednesday Wendy Hook (my fellow Fort Worth art quilter and good friend) and I flew to Muskegon, Michigan, for the opening of an exhibit curated by Nancy Crow, "Circular Abstractions."  

It all started two years ago.  Nancy Crow invited the two of us, along with 60 or so other artists, to submit a piece for consideration for an exhibit she had long been dreaming about staging.  An exhibit devoted to art quilts that riff off the traditional bullseye pattern.  An exhibit of very large quilts, all approximately 80" x 80".   An exhibit that would open at the Muskegon Museum of Art in the summer of 2016 and then travel to other museums.  

How could we say no?  We couldn't.  It was too wonderful an opportunity.

We got straight to work.  Or Wendy did.  I struggled quite a bit with the piece, making sketches, cutting swatches, playing with layouts.  I had many ideas, but I rejected them all, until I finally felt that I needed to just stop waffling and start piecing.  And voila! Wendy and I were both accepted into the show. 

The really difficult part was that we were strictly forbidden to post pictures of our work, either in progress or completed.  That's hard for a blogger.  

So here is the big reveal.  My quilt, made for Circular Abstractions, "Orbital Plane #1."

So, as I said, we flew to Muskegon last Wednesday.  And as soon as we got there we scoped out the museum.  

The grand facade

The main door,

We didn't get to go inside until the next day.  First we had a private showing for the artists and their families.  It was wonderful to see the quilts without crowds of people.  Much better for taking pictures.

This is just a small portion of the pieces in the show.  They were AMAZING!

After our private tour, we signed books.  Hundreds of them.  Literally.

And then it was time for the opening.  Nancy introduced the 31 artists who attended.

And the exhibit officially opened.  We stood by our pieces and answered questions.  It was a wonderful and exhausting evening.

I took many more pictures of individual quilts that I'll share in a later post.  I'll just close by saying it was a fabulous trip.  I saw many good friends and made a few new ones.  And I'm very very proud to be a part of this amazing exhibit.

One question I got repeatedly at the opening, "This is Orbital Plane #1.  Is there (or will there be) an Orbital Plane #2?"

I'll tell you what I told them.  Who knows?