Exploring Layers

Exploring Layers is the latest regional SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) show that will be touring various venues in the Sate of Oregon for the next year and a half.  This is my piece that was juried into the show.  I called it Rift Valley.  I have been wanting to make a piece for many years called Olduvai Gorge and was collecting fabric printed with any type of bones.  When it came time to really put the pieces together, it seemed too site specific and too "boney".  I envisioned something more expansive and more universally understood.  I was inspired by looking a picture in my dentist's office to make something that looked more like a landscape without being too realistic.  I have been moving toward greater abstraction in my work in the last year or so and really enjoying it.  As this came together it seemed like the perfect balance between realism and suggestion.  I am happy with the change of perspective between the center and the two outer edges.  Hopefully, it brings the viewer in closer to study the details.  And, yes, there are a few bones deep beneath the earth.

This show is debuting at the Chehalem Cultural Center, February 21 - March 28.  The artist's reception is March 7 from 5 - 8PM.  The address is 415 Sheridan St, Newberg, OR and their hours are Tues - Sat, 9AM to 6PM.

Here are a couple of detail shots.  See the bones?