Studio 7- Artful Dimensions- A New Art Home!

It has been a long stretch since my last post. I was on track to change this habit for 2012 but then something came about that put all of my Art Spaces in a Dither!!! Art Spaces?? Plural??? "What is she talking about?", you may be saying to yourself. I know that I would be if I were you! Well the bottom line and big news is, I am now the proud and delighted resident of Studio 7 at Artful Dimensions Gallery in Fredericksburg Va!! My fiber art was juried intot his unique gallery dedicated solely to 3-D works, back at the beginning of December and I was thrilled. This is a true artists cooperative with each member working at the front desk several times a month and sharing all of the duties for keeping such a concern running. We are also a Non- Profit organization and one of the top goals on our mission statement is to offer lots of community outreach in the arts. That means lots of classes at reasonable and affordable prices as well as free events . I have searching for a teaching venue and now I have one!! Artful Dimensions has a dedicated classroom space that will soon be buzzing with activity with all sorts of artistic exploration.!

I took my husband down to see the place on New Years Day as I had to drop off some new work. There we met our organizational President and ceramic sculptor extraordinaire, Christine Lush -Rodriguez. Tom was so impressed with all that had been done to renovate the warehouse/garage/wood workers/Rave site/space and so impressed with the atmosphere and the all that came with the organization, that as we were leaving he asked me when I was going to apply for a studio space!!! I was flabbergasted!! Now you all know that I have a large space in my basement and that it is in a constant state of use and upheaval and I thought that in no way would I even begin to consider renting a studio as I had all that I did already. He obviously thought other wise! it took him about 5 minutes to convince me that I NEEDED to be down at Artful Dimensions and a vital part of the community that was being created and that I could not afford not to rent a studio!! So I am now fully ensconced in Studio 7 with the beautiful purple transom over my door- Meant to be!!!

(At the time that I made my move in plans ,there were only Studio 7 and 8 free- The transom of Studio 7 would have been one of my favorites had all the studio's been available!!)

moving in

We made the decision on Thursday January 5, delivered the check on Friday January 6 and started to move tables form my basement studio down to Studio 7.

One corner of my space with a comfy chair waiting for visitors , next to one of my shelf units full of fiber books and some art samples.

(Bringing in a comfy chair started a bit of a ruckus in the gallery as several of my fellow studio artists scurried about to outfit their spaces with comfortable seating. It was either that or lock my door so my yellow chair did not up and leave the room!!:) )

My plans are to move my fiber arts work- Embellisher machine, felting, some sewing and book arts projects down to Studio 7 and leave everything else at my home studio. There were some added benefits to all of this moving. Much of the overflow clutter in our garage has now been sorted, purged and reassigned to spaces in the basement studio , freeing up lots of garage space.

In my next post I will have more pictures of my space but for now I want to share some of the artwork that is featured in our wonderful gallery and created by the 14 other artists members of our cooperative. ( I will provide links to web sites for those artists who have a web presence so be sure to check them out.)

Ceramic Sculpture by Christine Lush-Rodriguez

Fabulous wood sculpture by artists Brian Raynor (right) and Joe Wilkinson (left)

ceramic wall piece by Christine Lush- Rodriguez.

Amazing miniature polymer clay relief sculpture by artist Melissa Terlizzi. This piece measures 5 x 7 inches in total.

Sculptural work with found objects (racing bibs) by mixed media Sculptor Laura Allen.

The stunning silk weavings of weaver Diane Kowalski, amazing to see all done is silk!!

Three of my sun printed and beaded art quilts.

Wonderful fiber wrapped cactus sculpture by fiber artist and painter Lynette Reed.

The delightful Mantis Praying by metal artist Bill Richardson.

Stunning glass work by glass artist Ben Childers.

Wonderful semi -precious stone and bead jewelry by artist Dee Antil.

These are just a few of the highlights o the artwork behind offered at this amazing new Gallery! I hope that any and all of you will drop by in person or virtually to see what is going on as we continue to grow!! We are on the hunt for at least 15 more Artist members so if you do 3-D work and live int he area and want more info, drop me a line and I will set you up with an application to begin the jury process!! This is going to be so much fun!!!!

I will be back very soon with more news about my new adventures, some new projects and processes and general info about my whirlwind art adventures!!