Story and Photos By Emily Lee Stehle
Connected by a Thread
Everything You Wanted to See
in Surface Design in One Place!
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Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild Member Show
Through April 28
Mirella Cimato Gallery, St. Pete
Details here
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“We each make countless connections with all types of living things as we move through our lives. Some are slight and barely noticed. Some are not so great.
All affect us in some way.”
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“Lines are one of the elements of designs. Lines also connect us as humans,
making us stronger together.”
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If you have an interest in fiber (in this case fabric, yarn, thread) color and manipulation techniques, you might plan a short trek to St. Peterburg Opera Company’s Mirella Cimato Gallery. Featured until the end of this month is an inspiring exhibition of work by 25 artists of the Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild.
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Now what is surface design? Simply put, it is “the coloring, patterning, structuring and transformation of fabric, fiber and other materials,” according to the Guild’s definition. So almost anything you think you can do with fabric would fit.
The show shows the full gamut. All the pieces show mastery of technique in multiple creative processes – dyeing, painting, printing, photography, stitching, quilting, weaving, felting, beading, knitting or crochet. All pieces are for sale, priced from $79 to $2,800. Most of the works are vibrant, luminous, shimmery, bright and shiny. Others are in neutral or darker-toned palettes of color.
All of the works in the show took skill, patience and an artist’s eye. I enjoyed examining all of them, but I admit there were two favorites for me. I’ll explain those later.
The work explores many surface design techniques – shibori and salt-dyeing in Sarah Newberg King’s silk ties, a “happy experiment” in accidental dyeing in Ice Flowers by Sherry Dorst, and batik by chance, Wesley Reed’s Nexus.
Reed, who has experimented in batiks for 50 years, decided to “let the wax and dyes do the creating and wait until I iron all the wax out to name them.” Nexus was displayed at the 2021 Florida State Fair and was among my favorite fiber works exhibited.
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Concepcion Poou Coy Tharin’s White Shawl Blue Pattern is handwoven on a Mayan backstrap loom in “pik’bil” traditional style, a technique handed down through generations. The beauty and simplicity of the delicate blue on white design belie the painstaking work of carefully lifting each thread in the desired shape in weaving.
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Several artists expressed their views through their work, telling a story or commenting on world situations.
Katie Deits, executive director of Florida CraftArt, has been inspired to become “more of an environmental activist. We Will Never Forgive You! is a luminous wall hanging created from hand-dyed cotton, thread and Peltex. Deits writes, “In Greta Thunberg’s (2019) speech to the United Nations, she told the Assembly, ‘We will never forgive you!’
“I was profoundly moved by her commitment, knowledge and passion… I created the fiber piece with a breakdown screen printing technique in honor of Greta, and the embroidery as if children had written it.” A QR code on the identifying label will take you to Greta’s speech and transcript.
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Environmental works by Elizabeth Neily (Mangrove Mandala), Susan Lumsden (Corkscrew Swamp: Listening!), Carol Hess (Great Florida Birding Trail) and Mary Ann Pickard (The Beautiful Science of Regeneration) beautifully remind us of the lush riches we take for granted!
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Neily’s mandala (silk dyed with Colorhue dyes, topstitched) is part of a series celebrating Florida mangroves. Lumsden’s piece brings to mind the cacophony of color and sounds from the creatures of Corkscrew Swamp in South Florida. “The sounds within the forest vary by the minute. Wood storks, limpkins, cicadas, pileated woodpeckers – they all make a ruckus,” she writes in her narrative.
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Hess (Birding Trail) was inspired after traveling and RV camping in many of Florida’s state parks. She rusted cotton and added botanical eco-prints, recycled tea bags and original color pencil drawings to create her wall piece.
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Mary Ann Pickard printed photos on cotton and machine quilted shibori and commercial batik fabrics and embellished her piece with white organza and blue jay feathers. Her piece depicts an “amazing” shelf fungus that came to grow “on a tree stump to take it back to the earth and nourish the new tree” (a tree Pickard planted).
Shout by Sarah Butz, Are You Packing by Kathleen Peel and What Attitude #1 tell stories that invite the viewer to want to know more.
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Shout, Sarah Butz (Detail)
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What would a fiber show be without functional, art-to-wear? Both pieces are outerwear. Barbara Williams used upcycled vintage garments and unknown materials for her pieced Kimono-style jacket. June Colburn created a Tatewaku (tah-tay-wahh-koo) Opera Coat out of vintage Japanese wedding kimono and silk satin brocaded obi fabrics. The Turkish coat is sewn from many narrow fabric panels.
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Aida Sheets hand-dyed and rusted cotton fabrics, took kimono silk, cut all into strips, and then wove them together. Thread was placed randomly on the woven piece and then stitched for All Who Wander are Not Lost.
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The touch and experimentation of fibers in a charming pretty-in-pink piece, A Field of Hearts by Patricia Toscano, provided her with endless joy. Peggy Wertheim, the only marbler in the group, used acrylic paints on Texoprint paper for Sunset Burst, while Dana Maley created an homage to Henri Matisse, The Sprites of Spring, in cyanotype (a photographic printing process that produces prints in a dark blue) with stencils, hand stitching and framed with hand dyed cheesecloth.
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Cathy Simms machine quilted and appliquéd cotton and metallic fabrics for Night Star. Mei-Ling St. Leger’s Protozoa – Blue where she explored “space, texture and density in an unstructured environment” in knitting, crochet and looping was the sole yarn piece.
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My favorite fiber art piece is Pauline Salzman’s Ball Girl, an attention-grabbing fabric image of a puppy at play. I don’t have a dog but this appliquéd cotton machine-stitched quilt was so lively and expressive, I fell in love with her.
The stitching is extremely detailed. The color palette so appealing. A purple-pink nose! “This is a puppy having fun with her family, flying through the air, chasing a ball.” Fun. This puppy makes me feel happy.
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My second favorite piece is a triptych of small embellished, beaded and embroidered felt assemblages titled Joy #1, Joy #2 and Joy #3 by artist Anna Jonsdottir. I used to be a beader and responded to the colors and rich textures of her pieces. They elicit joy. After reading her narrative, I got why the Joy series has such appeal.
Jonsdottir writes, “Life throws us curveballs. Life gives us choices and sometimes an unprecedented virus puts life on hold, but these challenges also give us the possibility to grow, to develop, to better ourselves. After many months of waiting, feeling helpless, surviving, I chose to take control. This series reflects the joy of being, through the manipulation of threads.”
Indeed. The joy of being. So aptly stated and expressed.
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The Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild offers educational and experimental venues, supporting individual artistic creativity while promoting an attitude of mutual respect and exchange in all areas of surface design.
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The Guild meets the second Monday of each month,
6:30-8:30 pm at Good Samaritan Church,
6085 Park Blvd. N., Pinellas Park FL 33781.
surfacedesignguild.com
surfacedesignguild@gmail.com
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The Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild Member Show
is on view through April 28 at
The Mirella Cimato Art Gallery
at the St. Petersburg Opera Company
2145 1st Ave. S, St. Petersburg
Hours: 1-5 pm Monday-Friday or by appointment
727-543-9190
