For the week of October 14th – 21st.
This Past Week:
We had our Textile Art Show, “Fabric of Community,” opening on October 6th, and the show has received numerous accolades thus far. The show runs two months, through November 30th.
The centerpiece for the show, a marriage quilt made by a small community of friends for the wedding of Tully and Donna Rowe (seen above image). (Included at the end of this update is the show’s Exhibit Statement.)
This Week:
The Arts Hope Group meets again, this Wednesday, at Liz Morgan’s House, 6:30 P.M..
Also, this week is the deadline for getting in submissions for the upcoming issue of Feast, our very own in-house art magazine. Contact Liz Morgan with questions on deadline or submission protocols.
This Upcoming Week:
Entries for the Maker’s Fair are being accepted, see Carnie and Ashley Littlefield with questions, or visit HopeArts Facebook, Instagram, or very own HopeArts.org website for details.
Textile Art Show, “Fabric of Community” Exhibit Statement :
Our Lord knit us together as a community, starting with each separate thread of our bright souls and weaving through us to create a masterpiece. What we in Hope Arts love about this show is that textile art has all the traditional elements of painting with composition, pattern, symmetry, and color but with added dimensions that painting itself cannot possibly entail. It is three dimensional, like us, and so inviting you may want to touch (please don’t!)
Much of this work has been done in community; as has been the case across centuries and culture with textile art, and even more so than other art forms. It used to foster mentorship, with the older women counseling the younger women as they pushed the needle into the fabric or worked the knitting needles deftly in their hands. As they wove fabric, they would weave stories. These stories would build up a foundation of truths: ‘oh, that is how I can handle an unruly toddler not wanting to learn to potty!’ Community and togetherness may just be the answer to many of our current woes and bringing us back to relationship with Christ.
The centerpiece of this show is a marriage quilt made for Donna and Tulley Rowe by their friends. Seated next to Christ on the art wall, in connection with the wall project on stage, is also an old sewing machine. This was one of the first from the Oklahoma territories and on which many a wedding dress were sewn. Marriage in itself is one of the most redemptive weaving messages our Lord has given his people. This strategic placing of the machine within the space and show serves as a metaphor not only of us all being knit together in community, but also of the bride groom at the marriage supper who weaves in truth with every word: ‘take and drink, have life, be one with me…’ and ultimately to the Grand Weaver who ever and always, carefully and skillfully, knows just what we need for each moment of being.
We hope you enjoy the show as much as we have, artists are from Hope and our community and have poured their soul into their work so lovingly and please receive this gift. We are woven in with you friends. 