Embroiderers' Guild of America LAFTA Exhibit and the Carnegie Center

I went to Louisville today and got to check out the LAFTA (Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists) juried exhibition at the Embroidery Museum and Resource Center of the Embroiderers' Guild of America. The show hadn't officially opened, so I really appreciated that the staff went ahead and let me and a friend in. Description tags were not yet on the pieces (since we were there before the "official" opening). The show has a nice variety of fabric and textile art. There is everything from a beaded rock to dolls, jackets, quilts, felted wool, silk pieces, collages, and knitted rope. The colors and textures of the pieces were wonderful to experience. If you get a chance to go, you should. The exhibit will last from June 7-August 22, 2009. It is located at 426 West Jefferson Street in Louisville, KY. Call (502-589-6956) or check the website (http://www.egausa.org/) for more information.

I also visited the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, IN, to see an exhibit called Faces of Faith: the Search for the Divine. It is made up of art quilts made by Penny Sisto. Penny Sisto is an internationally recognized artist who has exhibited throughout the US and abroad. She was born in the Orkney Islands off the northern tip of Scotland, but lives in Floyds Knobs, Indiana, today. She says of this exhibit, "My desire was to illustrate those paths which unite us...to show through these quilted images the whispers and inner prompting which guide us ever deeper into our individual Search for the Divine." She uses many different textiles in her art quilts--drapery, sleeping bags, lace, placemats, vintage evening dresses, t-shirts, shower curtains, upholstery, Chinese embroidery, etc. She makes good use of Goodwill store finds, Unique Thrift store finds, and gifts and cast-offs of friends. She combines these many diverse fabrics to make quilts that make us look a bit more closely at our own religious beliefs.