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March 26, 2019

A Full Circle| by Jo Demetra reflects on an early ArtWeek & her creative journey

A  Full Circle, by Jo Demetra – Bold & Sophisticated

For the past 10 years my creative expression, aside from gardening, has been very unusual, bold and sophisticated beaded jewelry. Beads that I had collected while working in the corporate world that sent me to the Far East many times. I loved it and will always love making jewelry.  My jewelry is  what got me involved with SeArts , but in the process I left behind a love..my industrial sewing machines that sat unused in my studio.

I would think about what a thrill it was to be the only and first textile artist to be part of Artweek over 40 years ago and to be part of a group wearable show at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA the following year. Not many galleries or museums were recognizing wearables and accessories as an art form at that time.

Life threw me a curve ball   and I ended up working as a designer, product developer and director of international sourcing for 16 years. When those jobs ended I really began to miss my roots in design.

Several close friends encouraged me to go back to sewing..and making the bags that I had started thinking about years ago. They loved them and never saw anything like them. I had a lot of the materials to start sewing again…the only thing stopping me was me..So I jumped in with both feet and started with my favorite..the quilted leather bags. 

I am not going to say it was blissful because it wasn’t. I had to retrain myself after 30 years. I was determined that all this knowledge was in my memory. So things came back..the pattern-making, the cutting ,the sewing and the quilting. I absolutely love making the bags. The bags are a combination of re-purposed and new leather and lined in leather or raw silk. A bit architectural, a touch of Deco and never mass produced.

So, here I am, 40+ years later, participating in Artweek on Cape Ann..Total  full circle and I am in love again. I hope you come by and take a look….

Jo Ann will be part of the Spring Kick off Event April 26-28 at the Castle Manor Inn.  Tickets available on Eventbrite!

2017 Celebrate Wearable Art Marketplace

 

March 2, 2019

seARTS & Wearable Art Group Announce Spring Show Artists!

Please join us in welcoming 14 incredible artists and two guest speakers to our 2019 Spring Kick-Off!   Additional details and slideshow available here!   Get your tickets now on Eventbrite for the fun Friday evening social and Sunday Brunch. Friday night, just $25 before March 25th! Saturday and Sunday free admission and $25 for brunch buffet.  Celebrate #ArtWeek on Cape Ann at the #CastleManorInn with your friends from #seARTS, the #CapeAnnChamber, and #DiscoverGloucester!

November 14, 2018

Adorning Boston and Beyond| Society of Arts & Crafts honors jewelry icons

Adorning Boston and Beyond| Society of Arts & Crafts honors jewelry icons & today’s innovators!

It’s wonderful when Boston’s leading institutions collaborate to create excitement around a theme.  That’s in fact what has happened with the series of related exhibits, talks, and events related to the history and present artistic achievements around jewelry design.

Address by Jennifer Rayburn Billings, Chair Board of Trustees & models wearing works at the Exhibition Opening November 8th.

Boston and environs have been a hub for jewelry design for some time.   Building on the MFA’s newest exhibit, Jewelry, The Body Transformed,  Heather White, curator and Mass Art Professor has created a stunning exhibit featuring  “pioneers of the art jewelry movement, prominent educators, and innovative artists who continue to change the way we think of jewelry and body adornment.”   Alongside this exhibit, enjoy ceramic works displays “Our Cups Runneth Over” through Feb 17, 2019.

October 28, 2018

Uneasy Beauty: Discomfort in Contemporary Adornment at the Fuller Craft Museum

Uneasy Beauty: Discomfort in Contemporary Adornment at the Fuller Craft Museum – Guest Post by Artist Harriete Estel Berman

Wearable art often shackles itself with the overly constraining condition to be easily wearable. This implicit limitation is tossed aside in an extraordinary exhibition at the Fuller Craft Museum titled “Uneasy Beauty: Discomfort in Contemporary Adornment.” Curator Suzanne Ramljak selected a diverse group of work largely from the art jewelry field with a heightened emphasis on the “art”.  Every piece was obviously selected with great insight.

Throughout the exhibition, the intersection of adornment/jewelry/clothing stepped up to the challenge of raising thought-provoking, even inspiring topics, all while expressing sensitive aspects of beauty.

Bras are generally considered de-rigueur undergarments in western society, but they are no protection from the assault of breast cancer. This is where the bras of Mimi Smith examine wearability in a whole new way. The Protector Against Illness bra series includes Maximum Strength vitamins, Tamoxifen, and pink fabric ribbons.  Wearing this bra would be pointless, but displayed on the wall, it seduces us by its beauty, and is ultimately disquieting in revealing our vulnerability to cancer.

Can a person wear a 13-pound breastplate of gun triggers, gun bolts, gun barrels, and brass shells as a defense again gun violence? Bally reconstructs the components of guns while confronting our vulnerability to the random acts of gun violence in our society. What is wearable to protect us from bullets? Suits of armor were considered wearable battle until guns could pierce the steel. What will protect us?   Image to the left [ Brave 4: Breast Plate, 2013 Gun triggers, gun bolts, and gun barrels, brass shells, stainless cord, 925 silver 26” x 11 ½” x 2”]

The common shirt collar has morphed through the history of clothing from white lace, starched linen, to starched shirts. In “Uneasy Beauty” we get to examine our modern definitions of white collars and moneyed Corporate Collars, through to worn out collars as Momento Mori.  Daniel Joacz.Gigantic formal collars in plastic are ready to wear and promising to elevate the personage with a unique identity.

When Suzanne Ramljak invited me to be part of this exhibition, it was an invitation to push myself into new territory. Having made jewelry from recycled plastic trash for years, I wanted to expand dramatically to highlight the enormous problem of plastic waste accumulating in our rivers, oceans, and communities.  This was an opportunity to make a fashion accessory that might redefine expectations.  The overwhelming length and size of this boa is intended to stress the excesses of plastic waste as uncomfortable, restrictive, and strangling, the same way that marine fish and wild life are impaired by plastic waste.

Model wearing a 26-foot long boa necklace of recycled black plastic by Harriete Estel Berman.

Accessories are not always easy to wear, but they can heighten and enhance individual expression. By exploring or extending the meaning of wearable, this exhibition of adornment can present issues and underscore themes full of “Uneasy Beauty.” Don’t miss this show (through April 21)  at the Fuller Craft Museum. It will change your perceptions of wearable art forever.

Check out this post about “Uneasy Beauty” at the Fuller Craft Museum for more images and insight.
Uneasy Beauty – Original, Personal, and Provocative

Harriete Estel Berman uses post consumer, recycled materials to construct artwork ranging from jewelry, Judaica, sculptures and installations of social commentary. Her work is included in the permanent collections of 16 museums and  featured in over 38 books.  Berman is the author of the Professional Guidelines and ASK Harriete offering professional development advice and information to the arts and crafts community.

October 18, 2018

Discovering the Artistry in Fiber| An Author’s Journey By Anne Lee

Discovering the Artistry in Fiber| An Author’s Journey By Anne Lee

in today’s art world, traditional methods, processes, and materials are evolving in fascinating, dynamic, and sometimes challenging directions—and the resurgence of fiber art beautifully illustrates these trends. Fiber artists today explore a multitude of materials, natural and synthetic, traditional and unexpected. They combine different fiber techniques together in a single piece, push technical processes, and cross-pollinate mediums. They explore social, political, economic, and environmental issues. They are today’s storytellers.

Excited by these trends, Ashley Rooney and I suggested to Schiffer Publishing that we compile a book on contemporary fiber art; published in 2017, the resulting Artistry in Fiber series—Wall Art, Sculpture, and Wearable Art—showcases the amazing creative energy of over 300 fiber artists captured in 1,500 images and enlivened by their own words. It was thrilling to bring this project to fruition and equally gratifying to participate in the October 4th seARTS Wearable Art Panel to discuss how these artists are pushing the boundaries of this ever-evolving art.

Wearable Art explores the materials, methods, and messages in an art form created for, and enlivened by, the body. Artists frequently reclaim and recycle materials, creating beauty from waste:

 

Korean-born Yong Joo Kim focuses primarily on “unattractive and mundane” hook-and-loop Velcro to create sumptuous jewelry resembling pleated felt. Others expand the narrative use of natural materials, such as the plant stalks Sharon Kallis grows from seed to final knit piece over the course of three years. Some explore unexpected synthetics—strands of acrylic paint, artificial hair, plastic, fiberglass, tape, and in the case of Kathryn Stanko, strands of thin wire. And, they combine different fiber techniques together in a single piece, braiding, tacking, weaving, and knitting in seemingly endless variations: Rebecca Wendlandt’s exuberant surfaces are a delightful example.

Technically, wearable art soars with the artists’ imagination, experimentation, and expertise.  Both Polish-born Ania Gilmore and Argentine-Dutch Luis Acosta manipulate paper into jewelry, but with

 

strikingly different results: she molds mulberry fibers into malleable pieces that can be further manipulated by the wearer, while he stitches together repeated paper forms. Other artists cross-pollinate mediums, incorporating paint, metal, and all manner of found or repurposed objects. Myung Urso, for instance, often observes “how different elements play out in their own way, helping to define the destiny of each work.”

Ana Lisa Hedstrom, Aphrodite of the Sea

The artists’ messages are as diverse as they are themselves, influenced by anything from personal tragedy to political awakening. As one of the softer veins of art, the luscious and palpable nature of wearable art—such as in Ana Lisa Hedstrom’s Aphrodite of the Sea—attracts us by its beauty and expression. However, there is sometimes an undercurrent that can be uncomfortable: the piece is made from recycled plastic bottles, and Aphrodite is in fact crying tears of oil in her beleaguered ocean.

Susan Taber Avila’s Vascular Expression, meanwhile, is part of a

Susan Taber Avila, Vascular Expression

series focusing on women’s health issues and in particular cardiovascular disease, the number one killer of women. And, Tina Lazzarine’s collars demonstrate the complex identity of women as both oppressed and empowered, using contrasting hard and soft materials to express these dichotomies.

The creative possibilities in the area of wearable art are endless and bound only by what is personally beautiful and expressive. A wearer can find a means of individual expression unavailable in our mainstream world of mass production. More than pure adornment, the intimate interaction between wearer and art is both physical and emotional; the body literally breathes life and movement into a piece, while also adding meaning and context.

These are works of art akin to a painting or piece of sculpture, and as such should be treated the same way: collected and curated, purchased and preserved, studied and shown.

Published in 2017, the three volumes of Artistry in Fiber (Wall Art, Sculpture, and Wearable Art) are available at Schiffer Publishing (www.schifferbooks.com), Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other stores. THROUGHOUT THE MONTH OF OCTOBER, THE BOOK CAN BE PURCHASED IN GLOUCESTER AT THE CAPE ANN MUSEUM GIFT SHOP  Anne Lee can be contacted via email: AnJamLee [at] aol.com

PHOTOS ARE IN ORDER WITH THE TEXT.  [Scroll over photos to see artist information]