Teapots & Textiles

Maine Fiberarts exhibit

Exhibition: September 28-December 17, 2016
Reception: Sunday, November 13, 2-5 p.m.

Topsham — “Teapots & Textiles,” ceramic teapots and art quilts by Cumberland resident Meryl Ruth, is on view at Maine Fiberarts, 13 Main Street, Topsham through December 17. A Reception will be held on Sunday, November 13, from 2-5 p.m. and the event is free and open to the public. Ruth will be on hand at that time to talk about the many processes involved in her work.

Meryl Ruth is know both nationally and internationally for her whimsical ceramic teapots and enjoys emulating the look and feel of fabric in her ceramic work. Says Ruth, “My mother’s passing a few years ago jumpstarted in me a shift in perspective regarding fabric. It dawned on me that my first love—fabric—was a medium I wanted to work with more directly, through sewing, quilting, fabric paint, silkscreening, airbrushing and hand painting. This passion for the fiber arts derives from my fondest childhood memories of my grandmother. I spent hours watching and learning from her as she sewed on her treadle sewing machine. This very vivid memory eliciting love, grace, peacefulness, and warmth is recreated each time I work in the medium.”

Ruth worked as an art teacher for twenty-eight years, many of those at Deering High School where she taught techniques that she uses in her work. These include: photography, silkscreening, appliqué, airbrushing, weaving, free motion stitching, and quilting.

Maine Fiberarts’ show includes over nineteen ceramic teapots and one made of fiber. The teapots are inventive and humorous sculptures that have won Smithsonian, Niche, Viewers’ Choice, and other awards and have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Spotted leopards, detailed pugs, French horns, and a curvaceous Marilyn Monroe, are all rendered in clay. The show also includes sixteen quilts. Finally, a few of Ruth’s sketchbooks and drawings mark the progression of work from inception through to final form.

Founded in 2000, statewide nonprofit Maine Fiberarts promotes the work of Maine fiber artists, craftspeople, farmers, and entrepreneurs. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Friday, 11-4; Saturday, 11-2. Along with revolving exhibitions, the group just published a photo book about “Fiber Art Masters: A Visual Tour to Maine Artists’ Work and Studios,” and is currently producing a printed Fiber Arts Midcoast Mini Tour. To learn more about the current show, visit http://www.mainefiberarts.org, call 207-721-0678, or visit the Topsham gallery.

Contact:
Christine Macchi, Executive Director
Maine Fiberarts, 13 Main Stree, Topsham 04086
Phone: 207-721-0678 or 207-449-8573, cell

The Craft School Experience

Podcasts

Many of you know the Maine Poet Laureate Stu Kestenbaum who served as the Director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts for 26 years. Stu is now the interim director at Maine College of Art and he is working with The Craft School Experience, a consortium of five craft schools, listed below. All of them have fabulous learning opportunities!

• Penland School of Crafts Penland, North Carolina http://www.penland.org
•  Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, Tennessee http://www.arrowmont.org
•  Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington http://www.pilchuck.org
•  Haystack, Deer Isle, Maine http://www.haystack-mtn.org
•  Peters Valley School of Craft, Layton, New Jersey http://www.petersvalley.org

From The Craft Schools website: Craft schools across the U.S. offer an educational opportunity like no other. Here, you’ll find internationally-renowned instructors, intensive and focused study, and time for exploration in beautiful residential settings. Those of us who have be fortunate enough to spend time making art at Haystack know how true the statement is about the place.

Stu has interviewed five artists so far in a continuing series of podcasts available by CLICKING HERE. The interviews are very interesting and a great resource to share with students who are interested in learning about the lives of artists and/or are considering being artists themselves. The artists and information on them, taken from The Craft School Experience website is included below.

Roberto Lugo is a potter living and working in Vermont. He grew up in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia and began his creative life writing graffiti. Roberto is a professor at Marlboro College, and he talks about the different languages of academia, the pottery room, and the community where he was raised and the challenges and joys of truly communicating across cultures.

Rowland Ricketts is an indigo grower and artist based in Bloomington, Indiana. He studied traditional indigo making and dyeing techniques in Japan, where he was living after college and where he met his wife, Chinami, who is a weaver.

Vivian Beer is a furniture designer and the winner of HGTV’s Ellen’s Design Challenge. Its about learning how to blend traditional making with new technology, and how her time on the tv design contest showed her that not only can great design be made more cheaply, but it should be.

Sonya Clark is about family, roots, textiles, and the joys of making art in a community.

Tim McCreight is a jeweler, teacher, publisher, writer, and activist.

Sculptor Tom Joyce trained as a blacksmith when he was a teenager. His art work can be found in museums across the country, including the National September 11th Memorial and Museum in New York City.