The Art of Embroidery and Prospectors

At seminar I was asked by someone I was acquainted with how we foster creativity and original work within our chapter and region. It seems that in this person's chapter original work was not really done nor was it much valued. What was valued was pure technique. The chapter couldn't understand what was so great about the 19th EGA Exhibit or the Fiber Forum Exhibit both shown at the seminar.

I guess that Sandia Mountains Chapter has been lucky to have several artists who were members through the years. Rocky Mountain Region is also lucky for the same reason. When I joined the Guild in 1977, I joined a chapter that had two or three people doing original work. This was just before regions were set up, but the chapter was in Collingswood, NJ. I didn't know any better and so I did original work right from the first. It must be just luck that a chapter gets a mix of originality and technique. But it is rare to have someone join a chapter who does original work right off. We have Rita Curry-Pittman who joined a year and a half ago, so are lucky.

How do we foster originality? In Sandia Mountains Chapter we have an interest group called The Art of Embroidery. We study skills that are not strictly speaking part of embroidery, but are part of design and part of mixed media. It is a small group but we are active and have results from our studies. For instance, tomorrow A of E meets here at the house in the morning. We are going to have a lesson in sketching. We are also planning the rest of the stitching year (from September through May) at this meeting. This year we will study sketching and layering, a part of mixed media design.

The region as a whole also encourages originality two ways. First it has a program called Prospectors. at each region seminar. Prospectors is an exhibit of original work in which there is no jurying, no judging, and no prizes. it is simply a forum for people to show their works in a safe, non-threatening way. The only rules are that it has to be original or an original adaptation, it cannot be a teaching piece, and it cannot have been shown before at Prospectors. It is a way for emerging artists to get their work shown and maybe get some feedback on it. This particular program has been going on about two decades and so is a success just for longevity. The second way is giving a cash prize for the Rocky Mountain Region Award in the National Exhibits. Winning the awardis a great honor, but the money prize along with it really encourages people to enter the exhobot. Only eight of the thirteen regions offer a prize.

I do not mean to imply that there is a dichotomy between original work and great-technique. A true artist in embroidery both does original work and has great skills. It takes study and practice--surely a main theme throughout these blog posts.