Sock art quilts and Decision Portraits in Greenville

(Above: LOOKING FOR A MATE, a public sock art quilt, in progress .... on my studio floor. Click on image to enlarge. This quilt top is complete!)

Last November during the annual autumn art crawl, Vista Lights, my public art quilt project called LOOKING FOR A MATE was held at River Runner, a local kayak and canoe shop. The Vista Guild sponsored the project by designing and paying for several advertisements in the weekly, free newspaper. People came....with lots and lots of cool, mateless socks! (The blog post covering this fun evening is HERE. The original proposal is HERE.)

Well, since that time I've been stitching the donated socks to the recycled felt. (The 100% acrylic felt was originally packaging material for brand new kayaks and canoes being shipped to River Runner.) At last the top is complete! I've also just acquired a great plastic tarp from my friend Jane Friedman. Her family had no further need of camping gear and needed to "dispose" of it. Thus, the sock art quilt will have a repurposed backing. More photos coming!


(Above: Genius, sock art miniature quilt. 17" x 14". Recycled socks and felt. Hand stitching. Click on image to enlarge.)

Yet, I didn't use all the socks on the quilt. There were frankly too many blue and black dress socks and white athletic tube socks. One sock was donated long after all the socks were pinned and mostly stitched....but it inspired me! How could it not! Thus, I created a miniature art quilt featuring this particular sock with a few of the other "leftovers"!


(Above: Genius, reverse. Click on image to enlarge.)

The batting for this miniature quilt is more of the recycled acrylic felt from River Runner. The back, however, is repurposed acrylic auto upholstery felt.


(Above: Central lobby at Warehouse Theatre, Greenville....with a selection of Decision Portrait Series. Click on any image to enlarge.)

Socks, however, are not occupying all my time. Just yesterday I installed a selection of my Decision Portraits at the Warehouse Theatre in Greenville, South Carolina. The artwork will be on display during a run of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? starring Mimi Wyche, Chip Egan, Debra Capps, and Brock Koonce, January 21 - February 5th....although my exhibition will be up through Wednesday, February 23rd....when I'll give an "artist's talk" before taking down the work.



The first photo was taken from the front door. The photo above is the view back toward that front door.



Above is the interior wall with a break leading to the restrooms. The concession area is just off the image area above on the left. There are stairs leading down to the theater just off the image above to the right.



The short flight of stairs from the central lobby bring audience members to the theater seating. This wide, long hallway includes the window treatment above. I hung fifteen Decision Portraits from a provided black metal ceiling grid in front of the windows. Title cards are placed on the lower right side of each piece.


It was difficult to select the pieces for the show...especially since I have another exhibition with the Decision Portrait Series that opens at Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, North Carolina before this show comes down. The work I picked for Warehouse Theater includes:

Advocate
Argentine Tango Dancer
Atheist
Blood Donor
Cheater
DUI III
Family Role Models
Gift of Life
Happily Ever After Again
Husband II
I Buckled Up!
Immigrants
Inventor
Living With HIV
Making a Difference
Midwife
On Fighting Cancer I
On Fighting Cancer II
Overcoming Domestic Abuse
Patriot
Pet Owner
Prisoner I
Recycler
Standing Up for Peace
State of the Economy
Twenty-Five Years Sober
Unplugged
Vintage Clothing Vendor

Yet, in one sense, all 107 portraits are there because I printed another book with the story behind each piece. The pedestal below is right inside the front door!