Visual Arts Fellowship from Mississippi Arts Commission

Share my joy over this exciting news! I was awarded a $4,400 Visual
Arts Fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Commission to be used for
further development as a fiber artist. The press release in the Hattiesburg American is quoted below:

Martha Ginn receives Mississippi Arts Commission Fellowship
(Jackson, MS) – Martha Ginn of Hattiesburg has been awarded a $4,400 grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC).
This grant is a portion of the $1.5 million in grants the Commission will award in 2009-2010 and will be used to further her development as a fiber artist. The grants are made possible by continued funding from the Mississippi State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“The individual artists across the state continue to offer their talents to prove the value of the arts in Mississippi. Their creation of art and participation in local events and activities helps to insure the economic success of their community. The Mississippi Arts Commission is proud to support their efforts,” said Malcolm White, Executive Director of MAC.
Martha Ginn creates original fiber art pieces, combining traditional quilting techniques with non-traditional materials and methods, often blending fabric with paint, layering, and extensive surface stitching. The fellowship is to be used to support the artist’s professional development or the creation of new work. She is active in South Mississippi Art Association, Pine Belt Quilters, Mississippi Quilt Association, and the Area Development Partnership. Her work has been exhibited at the Lucile Parker Gallery of William Carey University, the Mississippi Arts Commission Offices, and is currently on display at the Cottonlandia Museum in Greenwood, Mississippi.
The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state agency serving residents of the state by providing grants that support programs to enhance communities, assist artists and arts organizations; promote the arts in education and celebrate Mississippi’s cultural heritage. Established in 1968, the Mississippi Arts Commission is funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wallace Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation, Donna & Jim Barksdale, the Phil Hardin Foundation, the Mississippi Endowment for the Arts at the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson and other private sources. The agency serves as an active supporter and promoter of arts in community life and in arts education.

Exhibit at Cottonlandia Museum, Greenwood, MS

The Cottonlandia Museum in Greenwood, Mississippi, is one of the Mississippi Delta's best-kept secrets! It chronicles the history of Leflore County with special emphasis on the cotton industry, but it also houses fascinating artifacts which tell the history of the area, including one of the largest collections of historic trade beads known. The town and county are named for Greenwood Leflore, a Choctaw chief, planter, and Mississippi State Senator.

A fine art collection includes works by Theodora Hamblett, Marie Hull, William Dunlap, and many others. It is my honor for 35 pieces of my fiber art to be displayed from July 9-August 27 in two rooms of this charming museum.

Heavenly Bodies, Sycamore Leaf, Ghost Flower, Butterfly Crossing, Sun Print on Damask
Black & White Series: Rose Garden and Falling Ginkgoes
In the Beginning, Pyrotechnics


Pyrotechnics, Mariposa, Leaf Shadows, Wisteria & Fern


The Elements Series: Water, Fire, Earth, Water

Angel Trumpet (foreground), Finding My Way, Fish Eyes, Purple Mountains

Cabin in the Woods (collaboration with Mary Nell Magee)

Opening Reception table with Jennifer Whites, Art and Education Coordinator, and Mary Safarik, Education Outreach Coordinator, with the "green" decorations made from recycled materials. The vibrant colors were chosen to coordinate with the bold colors of the fiber art.

Mississippi Magnolias, Color in Chaos, Tropical Paradise (collaboration with Mary Nell Magee), Island Tree

Artist talk describing techniques and inspirations

Crazy Patch Sunflowers, Bird's Eye View

Dave Freeman is the Interim Director of the Museum; Hildren Streeter is in charge of maintenance and also helped us hang the show. The museum is located at 1608 Highway 82 W in Greenwood. Open every day; phone 662-453-0925 for hours.

Mississippi Arts Commission Display April-June

While my solo exhibition was on display at the Lucile Parker Gallery at William Carey University in January-February, Malcolm White, executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, saw it and had his assistant, Candice Thomley, call and invite me to show my work in the Gallery of the MAC office in Jackson. The MAC is the official agency for the arts in Mississippi and is housed on the 11th floor of the historic 16-story Woolfolk State Office Building, 501 N. West Street, a half block from the capitol. What an honor!
The display space in their office consists of five free-standing double-sided black wooden panels. On four of the panels I hung larger works, while on the remaining six I placed from two to four pieces. The works will be on display from April 6-June 25, with a closing reception on June 25 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. All state employees are invited to attend.

The Elements Series: Earth, Fire, Air, and Water

The Wellness Center Pool (Institute for Wellness and Sports Medicine, Hattiesburg) and photo inspiration.

Mary Nell Magee and Elaine Magee helped me hang the exhibit.

Artist Talk at Solo Exhibit

About 50 people attended the Artist Talk on February 3 at the Lucile Parker Gallery to hear about my path from traditional quilter to contemporary fiber artist. Of course, the question was asked, "How long does it take?" I had to admit that I rarely work on one piece at a time from inception to completion, so my answer would have to be a wild guess. When the joy is in the creating, the length of time required seems insignificant.

The exhibit came down February 11 and I will eagerly anticipate my next opportunity to show a body of my work. I have been invited to display in the gallery space at the Mississippi Arts Commission in Jackson from April 6-June 25.

Quick Draw Benefit for AIDS Services Coalition

Twenty-four artists rose to the challenge of producing a piece of art in an hour's time (plus 15 minutes to frame it) as a benefit for the AIDS Services Coalition in Hattiesburg, MS, last Sunday afternoon. South Mississippi Art Association sponsored this second annual event. Ticket holders milled about the huge Bottling Company (the 100-year-old former Coca-Cola bottling company remodeled as a lounge) enjoying food and drink as they watched the artists at work. John Wooten's steel drum and singing provided great background music. As he kept the artists posted on the remaining time on the clock, his music added a psychological boost. Beautiful island music in the early part, becoming more fast-paced the closer we got to the ending bell.

Artists worked in oil, watercolor, pencil, and--ta-da--fabric. We were allowed to bring a beginning rough sketch to begin our project. I had fused my fabric elements onto the background piece and layered it with batting. I brought the threads and Neocolor II crayons I needed to embellish the piece, along with my table and Janome 6500 and scissors and a few pins. The finished piece fit into an 11x14 frame and brought $200 at the live auction. The event is definitely not for the cautious and intimidated--a great way to help us gain confidence in our decisions and creativity. The visitors enjoyed asking questions and watching the artwork take shape. It was interesting to hear "Oh, that's the way you do that!"

Show Publicity

The local newspaper, the Hattiesburg American, devoted 3/4 page in the 1/18/09 Sunday paper to three photos and captions about the show--pretty exciting! The invitation piece, Regenerating Fire, sold, breaking up the four elements. However, it was so much fun to make that I just might repeat it.

Successful Show Opening

A cold and windy night did not keep a large crowd from attending the Opening Reception. There were 39 pieces in all--two full-size quilts from my hand-quilting days displayed along with quilts for the walls down to 5x7 framed pieces. My quilting friends and my art association friends had to come, but even my tennis friends came! What a rewarding and humbling experience for me to be able to share my passion with friends, university faculty, staff, and students, and art lovers from the community. Many people were surprised to see the variety of techniques and materials displayed, when their expectation was to see handwork like they remember their grandmother making.

Chatham Meade, curator and director of the Lucile Parker Gallery, is pictured with the Kitchen Garden series--thread-painted vegetables and a large appliqued pumpkin.

Solo Exhibition

The Invitation:

Lucile Parker Gallery

William Carey University

presents

Martha Ginn:

Mississippi Fiber Artist

January 15-February 11, 2009

Opening Reception

Thursday, January 15

5:00-6:00 p.m.

Regular Gallery Hours

Mon-Fri 1:00-4:00 p.m.

or by appt. 601-318-6528

Chatham Meade, curator and director of the Lucile Parker Gallery, said, "Mrs. Ginn and her work with fiber materials truly enhance the Hattiesburg community as well as the art world of Mississippi. Her work includes both nontraditional art pieces which are her original design as well as more traditional quilt pieces. Her work includes the use of transparencies, metallic threads, and other fiber related materials not traditionally used in fabric pieces. Mrs. Ginn's work celebrates the beauty of Mississippi by creating art from the forms, shapes, patterns and colors of leaves, trees, flowers, land forms, celestial bodies, and other natural objects in a way that is truly unique to her and of her own design and creative innovation."

See

http://www.wmcarey.edu/AboutWCU/GalleriesandCollections/1149/LucileParkerPhotos.shtm for photos of works from the exhibit. Following the current exhibit will be solo exhibits by Tommie Rodgers of Laurel, MS, and Chatham Meade of Hattiesburg, MS.

Edgar Allan Poe's birthday

January 19, 1809-October 7, 1849. Quilters and fiber artists are commemorating the 200th anniversary of this mysterious poet's birth by creating postcard-size pieces (4"x6"). These will be submitted for display online and later donated to Collage Mania, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, coordinated by Virginia Spiegel. Virginia's previous efforts have raised more than $165,000 for the ACS through her Fiber For A Cause projects (The Collage Mania link is: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CollageManiaCall08.html.) Reading about Poe's life and his work has been a delightful excursion! Wikipedia is a goldmine of accessible information.

My piece is created on a white antique linen napkin with Poe's name, birth/death dates, and R.I.P. penned with a Sanford permanent pen. The raven is appliqued black satin with black and purple/blue/green variegated polyester threads. His eye is a yellow fabric circle (like the beak), with a gold sequin, a black star, and a white seed bead. The heart is red felt.

Thread Storage for my Superior Threads Shopping Spree

I was the lucky recipient of a $300 Superior Threads Shopping Spree for Thread Artistry in our recent fiber art and quilt show (for "When Worlds Collide"). What a neat problem to solve--where to store more of my favorite thread!!

This involved rearrangement in my homemade spool cabinet to get my treasures in a more usable, visible location nearer the sewing machine. I have another storage area for more thread, but Superior's Rainbows and Nature and Living polys and King Tut cottons are my favorites and deserved a better display. The black cabinet sits on a storage cabinet that extends across the wall (think of a window seat but no windows on this wall). I actually use this seat as my sewing chair and have the drawers easily accessible on my right.

Current threads for a project can sit on the seat beside me until they are replaced in their drawer. After unwrapping a new spool, I use strips of Hugo's Amazing Tape to keep the thread from unwinding. It grabs to itself without any stickiness and can be used over and over. I cut it from the roll with pinking shears, so the pointy ends make it easy to find on the tape roll and on the spool.

PBQ Show Results

When Worlds Collide, 18" x 36"

Finding My Way, 65" x 65"

In addition to my "VisitHattiesburg" piece winning the $250 purchase award in the Miss Hattie's hat challenge, "When Worlds Collide" was awarded the Thread Artistry $300 gift certificate sponsored by Superior Threads. "Finding My Way," the expanded mariner's compass quilt mentioned earlier in my blog, won first place in the pieced wall quilt category (prize was 8" Gingher shears). Three other pieces won ribbons--Pyrotechnics (pictured below), Fire, and Earth.

Pyrotechnics, 21" x 25"

Miss Hattie's Hat

Wow! What an honor to win the challenge and have my quilt win the $250 purchase award by Hattiesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. There were 18 hat quilts submitted, and each 24" x 24" piece was an outstanding display of ingenuity and creativity. There were feathers, ribbons, bows, veils, fur, and flowers. All the pieces will be displayed in the Saenger Theatre in downtown Hattiesburg after the Pine Belt Quilters show is over this weekend. My piece, entitled "VisitHattiesburg" will remain the property of the bureau to be used in the visitors center.

We received about 475 quilts to hang for the show; Flavin Glover began the judging process today on small categories as we were hanging the larger ones--61 in the team-large-pieced, and 44 in the theme (two-color quilts) category. Lake Terrace will be quite a sight when the show opens Friday.

Finding My Way . . . and Showtime

Here it comes, ready or not! When I sew on one more label, I will have completed all my entries for the show. We are allowed only two per category, and I have entered eleven pieces in five categories. Whew! Glad to have everything finished. Well, almost everything--still need to turn in a piece for the silent auction. An interesting aspect of our show will be the Miss Hattie's Hat Challenge sponsored by the Hattiesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. Below is their logo (which I have permission to use), but I will wait until after the show to post a picture of my challenge piece.

I pulled out from a closet a mariner's compass project I had started about 12 (?) years ago and finished it this summer. I had designed an expanded compass for the center in a Judy Spahn class years ago and added 8" compasses all around on a black sugar-dot background. It was hand-pieced, with a hand-pieced border around the octagon shape, squared off with four large corner blocks and more 8" compasses. My husband kept saying it was too beautiful to stop before full bed quilt size, so I kept trying to elongate the design without liking the results, hence the reason it lived in the closet for so long. Finally I saw that I needed to follow my own creative instincts and finish it in the way I was visualizing it. All this thinking brought about its real name--no longer just "the Mariner's Compass Quilt," but "Finding My Way." It's 65" square.

Center block is approximately 20" across; round blocks are 8".

We wanted to grow to a bigger show, and, working with the Hattiesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau (http://www.visithattie.com/) and the Hattiesburg Convention Commission, we will display almost 500 quilts on October 10-11-12 at Lake Terrace Convention Center at the intersection of I-59 and U.S. Hwy. 49.

In addition to the 480 judged show entries, we will have a silent auction of wall quilts plus a special exhibit of 12 of Vicksburg master quilter Martha Skelton's quilts. The new book, Martha Skelton: Master Quilter of Vicksburg (by Mary Elizabeth Johnson and MQA, through University Press of Mississippi), will be available during the show through Main Street Books.

Third Annual Juried Art Exhibit at William Carey University

The third annual Juried Members-Only Show by South Mississippi Art Association opened on Thursday night, August 28, at the Lucile Parker Gallery on the William Carey University campus for a two-week show. Three of my pieces were juried into the show: a Shiva/Angelina piece called "Neon Lights on Wet Streets," a framed quilted silk painting, "Angel Trumpet," and a framed fiber art piece, "Crystal Beach." Crystal Beach is part of an Elements series and won 2nd place in SMAA's April 2008 Focused show.
The Members-Only show features, in addition to my fiber art, oil, watercolor, acrylic, photography, and 3-D wood and clay sculpture.