Wednesday and the Art

An artist support group is an essential part of my doing art. A support group meets regularly with its main purpose being to nourish the artist within. For several years, from early 2002 until the end of 2007, my main support was Wednesday Group. We met nearly every week of the year at members' houses. We sat and talked, stitched, sometimes did explorations into new techniques, took in galleries, had guests over, and did drawings. There were three stalwart members, Emily Holcomb, Karen Schueler, and myself, though there were also several other people who came and went over the years. The three of us were already professional artists with varying degrees of experience. From the beginning we planned shows that two or all three of us participated in. We encouraged one another; we taught one another; and sometimes we learned together. Twice Karen and I went on two-night retreats to her brother's vacation home in Taos in art retreat. We painted, drew, dyed, and printed. The objective of Wednesday Group was not to learn the stitching, but to learn the art and techniques that support the stitching.

During the course of the several years we were together, we were in some group shows together. The three of us were in the Margaret Parshall Gallery for its debut exhibit at EGA's National Headquarters in Louisville. We each had about twenty pieces in the show. Karen and I showed at Marigold Arts on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. Emily and I showed at the Westside Unitarian Church in Rio Rancho, NM. There were more shows when all three of us also belonged to Silk Painters of New Mexico and we also were in the State Fair several times.

In August of last year, Karen Schueler and her husband moved away from Albuquerque to Delaware. It is now obvious that Karen was the beating heart of Wednesday Group. Emily drifted away, no longer a member of EGA. Kathleen Weston, a later member, and I tried to keep it going, but were unable over the course of several months to hold onto a viable group, so we declared it over early this year.

At the same time that Wednesday Group was meeting weekly, the Emily, Karen and I also belonged to Sandia Mountains Chapter (Rocky Mountain Region of the EGA). In the chapter there is an interest group, first called Stitches Plus and more recently called The Art of Embroidery, that meets about nine times a ear, basically September through May. It is a group of 5 to 7 people who are interested in studying the same sort of art techniques that Wednesday Group supported. In The A of E, however, we actively study the ways and techniques. The more experienced of us do two-hour lessons for the group trading off every month. We studied altered books one year, with the end project of an altered book original to each one of us. The next year we studied bookbinding and where we actually made whole books. Very exciting. A sewn-binding book is itself technically an embroidery. We have made paper for embroidery, we have done potato printing, have studied classic design theory. In short we are striving to learn the art behind the stitches.

The Art of Embroidery starts up another year of study and experimentation this September. We plan on doing some drawing, some deeper design theory study, and some experimenting with layering. Thank goodness for A of E.

And Wednesday Group is going to meet one last time--its last hurrah. Karen is back in town for the Silk Painters International conference. Four or five of us are meeting here at my house to say goodbye to a great group. To say that I miss our meetings is to say a tornado is a zephyr.