Hi everyone... hope you will make time to stop by my Facebook Page for some updates as spring moves closer here in Kingston...
Classes will resume at the Tett Centre and beyond soon. https://www.facebook.com/garnerbethany/
Here is a little post to let you know what I am up to in my Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning Studio 214D art creation space these days!
Blue, and green and gold in woven wool cloth yardage for new garments - off the loom at home, created for jackets down the line, with silk painted by hand once again... and here I am at home today, hand stitching on wool going round and round in circles.
We welcome all of our friends and neighbors, from our Community and visitors across southern Ontario to join us at the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning for our Resident Artists Exhibition in the Gallery, Lower Level from December 9 thru December 20th.
The ponds are refreshed with the rain waters that arrived in force last week. Traveling birds, fowl celebrate and lands are happily coming to life once again
So here we are in November and the days are getting shorter, the time clocks have changed to the FALL BACK range and we in Eastern Standard Time are struggling to try to remember that! The leaves are down and the trees are starkly grey and lonesome looking... with many gatherings of the birds and squirrels and small animals seeking shelter as the days are cooling.
The Kingston Fibre Artists Show at the TETT was a huge success with many of our art pieces finding new homes, and I have a wonderful new piece from Janet Elliott hanging in my home...
Her's is a story of angst and fires raging through Western Canada, but a reminder that we are not immune to tragedy and are the keepers of the land. This artwork will be passed along to my son and his son and hopefully, the message will travel forward - the EARTH is our responsibility! The trees, the fields, the birds, and the small and large animals.. all on our collective responsibility list! (Janet's piece is on the left in this show photo below).
Other works on this wall of beautiful art were created by Robin Law's Field, Seymone Armstrong Lori Everett and Wilma Kenny. Well done ladies - so beautiful.
The Kingston Weavers and Spinners had a wonderfully attended show from Thursday Nov. 4th through Sunday the 7th and we extend so many thanks to all of the many visitors - some who had never been inside the TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning and happened by, as well as the devoted fans that can't wait to shop the KHWS Sale each fall. Congratulations ladies.
I had the pleasure of visiting with friends in the Quinte Fibre Artists group a week or so ago, and while on my way to Belleville, stopped to pick up my treasured artwork painted by pal, JOAN REIVE, and bring it home to add to my collection. This work is a treasure as Joan is a renowned Ontario and Canadian Artist - I am blessed.
Me - well I have been housebound due to a back injury for almost a week now, but mending nicely.
Hoping to have some additional walking photos to share soon... see below... Cataraqui Trail. Until then... lots of HGTV, some reading including some new planning for weaving when I can get back to my looms. Looking forward to the last of fall days watching the weather change and my Lake Ontario view outside my Studio window tell her story!
Bethany
Good news from our KINGSTON HANDLOOM WEAVERS AND SPINNERS GUILD Sales Team.
The objectives of the Kingston Handloom Weavers & Spinners Guild are, to promote interest and education in weaving, spinning, and related fiber arts.
Monthly meetings that feature guest speakers, demonstrations, show and tell, take place on the second Wednesday of each month, except July and August. There is a social time at 6:30 pm, followed by the general meeting at 7:00 pm. Members of the general public are very welcome to attend.
Members may take advantage of our workshops, equipment rentals, a fully equipped weaving, and spinning studio, and an extensive library that includes hundreds of books, magazines, and videos that cover topics such as spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, and basketry.
The Guild welcomes all levels of interest in traditional and contemporary weaving, spinning, and other textile arts and crafts.
Come see what we’re all about!
ART THREADS
is open at the TETT CENTRE
370 King Street West, just off Sir John A Blvd.
in the west end of downtown Kingston
October 24-November 4, 2021
10 am to 4 pm, with artists in the Gallery for greetings
To our friends and always to visitors to the SAQA area across Ontario, the Kingston Fibre Artists welcome you to enjoy our Annual Show this next two weeks if you need a lovely ride to Kingston.
14 members, all creating the most beautiful art have finally had the opportunity to come back to the Gallery on the lower level of the TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning a located on the Lake Ontario Waterfront. Our Opening was wonderful yesterday, and we enjoyed seeing many friends, community neighbors and distance visitors enjoying our art over the 10 am to 5 pm first day to visit the Gallery.
Many of our members are or have been members of SAQA and we certainly have all benefitted from our associations with each of you along the way!
QUESTIONING, What's Next, Bethany Garner, 2021, Art Quilt
CLOTH IN COMMON
https://clothincommon.com/
Summer is flying by and it has been a busy albeit fairly locked down summer... and being able to create ARTWORK is all the fun I need to just keep working away during these days when we all are still pretty well homebound. We arts practitioners are busy enjoying walks, taking solace in the world around us, and yes, setting calendar dates for possible openings for galleries and shows. MAYBE even being together with the friends and relatives we all love so very much to be with... LIVE, in the same room or at least out of doors... a few feet apart!
Living in the beautiful City of Kingston, ON, and sharing the water views from Lake Ontario through my Studio window with a few visitors is wonderful! As the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning opened its doors once again to the public - all Kingston Frontenac Health Unit rules in place and being observed so well, we are seeing a few visitors now and then. Many folks are just staying close to home and immediate family!!
I recently accepted an invitation to become a member of CLOTH IN COMMON, a tremendous 12 Artist Collective of the most amazing artists, living and practicing their art worldwide. Having followed this group for MANY years now as they shared their new artwork, created in the homes/studios that I would dearly love to be able to step into one day... I am honored to have this opportunity. Over the past few weeks, I finished my first contribution to the group's ROUND 3 Series. Each year, 6 quilts, created by each member, working on the agreed STRUCTURES theme and with a prompt by Karol Kusmaul to work on FACES.
My 40"h x 26"w quilt started with the base fabric from Cultured Expressions and owner Lisa Shepherd in New Jersey, USA. Her cloth lines are original, created by young artists in Africa, and are a group I have supported with cloth coming into my collection over many years. This piece is Jacquard linen, hand-dyed and purchased as a 2 m. piece. It speaks to me of the virus that is circulating through the background of our lives... and while yes, I know this piece was created long before we knew about the Covid-19 virus, the artist who created the cloth may have had experience with circulating. deep visions in her own creative mind.
I selected fabrics from my growing Marcia Derse collection, and drafted some small line figures and card stock patterns, and got going... creating a group of ten figures with BLANK faces - unknown but collective friends I may know, but perhaps are gathered somewhere about the world during these pandemic days. What are they considering - "QUESTIONING, What's Next". Africa has billions of humans who have not even seen a vaccine... no shots in arms, no outdoor vaccination centres, drive-throughs, health unit walk-in centres... AND SO MANY LIVES LOST TO THE PANDEMIC..
The people gathered here in my workspace... each little figure a bit different and giving me the time to think about where we are, and who we could be if we just all pitched in to save the world!
The finish line was set by a "prompt sharing" on the 27th-31st of July, when each member of the collective shared their work and story on our blog: (have a good peek and enjoy all of the series and artwork, and if you have time, go into Rounds 1 and 2 and see what has happened as the artists worked through the various themes and prompts over the years.
https://clothincommon.com/category/musings/
Finally, I added a series of hand-stitches and may add more now that the piece is "finished and framed (and yes, I can do that now, filling empty spaces carefully by hand). Hope you enjoyed the story!
See you along the way - at my Studio 214D the TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning on W. King Street in Kingston, or here at the blog. I will try harder to get back to posting along the way! Hard to believe we are walking into August!
(photo inspiration, Virginia Spiegel, SAQA Artist, and arts practice friend)
ART of Creativity and Survival during the Pandemic
Bethany Garner
The Tett presents resident artist for a ZOOM presentation on May 20, 2021
6:30-8 pm in Studio D, Tett Creativity Studios
Registration: https://art-of-creativity-
During the past year, the time I have been able to spend with my Arts Practice while a Resident Artist at the TETT Centre's CREATIVITY STUDIOS has been a quiet meditation on the situation we have all been exploring together during the Pandemic Days here in Canada and specifically in Kingston.
I am so pleased to be one of nine Resident Studio Artists who each practice their skills and create amazing new art in their studios at the TETT. Since joining the cohort in 2019, I have so enjoyed the opportunity to share my skills and artwork with students and visitors across the Kingston and Frontenac County area and beyond. While the time is available, we all are using our studios to create as the pandemic Health Regulations allow. The chance to be actively teaching our in-person classes has been restricted for quite a long time.
WE MISS YOU, our art friends, dancers, musicians, and visitors!
This presentation allows me the chance to not only support the Kingston Arts Community through your registration and attendance at the TETT Centre's TETT TALK on May 20th but to have the time for sharing an evening of my artwork, talk about what inspires me to continue exploring new skills and techniques. It will be fun to enjoy an in-person chat with each of you attending and share how I have survived the quiet days and weeks during the pandemic's progression over the past 13 months.
I do hope that you will come along and enjoy time with our Community friends who love a Zoom talk... and the chance to have time for questions and share your thoughts about your artwork is important to me. We will have time at the end of my presentation to do just that!
Joining the presentation is easy: just click on the EVENTBRITE link at the top of the page and register through their tickets portal for your seat in our evening talk. The donations of your fee will go directly to the TETT Centre for the ongoing support of classroom events starting as soon as our KFL&A Public Health professionals are able to lift the restrictions for in-person classes at the TETT.
We all look forward to those wonderful days with area friends and especially the youngsters to seek to come and visit and learn with us here at the TETT.
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THE LINK to register with friends near and far. Everyone welcome!
https://art-of-creativity-
I look forward to having time with you and please feel free to share our link for the talk... the more who attend, the more chance for YOU to share in the evening of slides sharing, artwork viewing and learning about my inspiration with friends around the world as I work on projects during these quiet days.
Bethany
www.bethanygarner.com
Welcome to SPRING - where we are sharing another Ontario "shutdown" 28 days and loving the sanctity of the trails, the beauty of new growth, and time here together as we take this gentle walk into another season...
Just thinking of the preciousness of this beautiful April 2nd Good Friday morning ...starting off as a beautiful day! The sun rises earlier now and the days are growing longer, and the clouds have been moving out. Bits and pieces of the world are seeming to fall into place as the green of newly sprouting tiger lily pants are just outside the bedroom window, and the crepe myrtle plants are coming back to life.
I have been creating art and using studio time for some "just be in the space" time. One new Indigo quilt hanging on the wall and another is awaiting its change for being under the needle. A goal is to work toward surrounding myself with Indigo this spring and celebrate BLUE - blue water and blue skies and all things blue.
 |
FOR THE LOVE OF BLUE, Bethany Garner |
The Blue Jay and the Northern Bluebirds are returning to our yard, seeking nesting. The trails are open and the creeks are flowing. Porcupines are coming out of hiding and climbing to the tops of the newly budding maples to feast on the first leaves. Coyotes have returned to howling at the moon, and this week, our grandson stood on the deck with our son and listened to the song... wondering and waiting to see them, but they never appear... 'just out there" somewhere nearby.
This piece was created as a replacement for several art quilts I made for the same CONNECTIONS Fibre Artists show at the Grimsby Art Gallery in 2020 which was canceled. I sold the three pieces to help support the rental payments for my studio space at the TETT Centre, and they were only in my collection at the studio for a short time. I am always happy to see my work appreciated and become part of a collector's art in their home or office.
This piece just needed to express a story - behind the screen printed barbed wire is a story of days that made me pause and consider a bit clearer what life is all about. The words that are hand-stitched at the bottom (and this is not a great photo) reflect the pandemic days we are stepping into..
Family, Health, Outdoors, Cooperation, Love, Vaccine, Determined, Forgiven, Anger, Hikes, Participation, Reading, LIVE!
Black cotton, match-stick quilted, and hand-embroidered letters in the words. DONE!
So, as we move through the holiday weekend, and make our way along the "shutdown" days... may your lives be calm and the opportunity to create be a major part of your daily plans. Take some walks and be inspired by what is happening in the world around you. Take along your camera and share the beauty with others.
Join an online classroom and make some new art in ways you have never thought of: My Plans are
* tor work through an amazing online "Community Stitch Challenge - Paper Samplers" class with Jennifer Collier through TEXTILEARTIST.org - great fun!
* to wind multiple warps for hand dyeing using both Procion Fibre Reactive Dyes and Natural Dyes
* to work on the OHS Weaving Unit One samples that need to be finished so I can get the warps I am dyeing onto the JANE 40 loom and keep that moving forward.
* to work on Tien Chen "Krokbragd" weaving and try some at new pattern designing for the samples
* to work some magic on my new Ashford 32" rigid heddle loom - weaving linen yarns into stunning cloth for new art quilts (I have 32 cones of Boken's Linen ready to go!)
* to sell my ASHFORD Knitters Loom/Stand and four reeds - $450 (anyone interested)
* to find a new home for the 36" Leclerc Loom in my studio, with three reeds...$400
Have a wonderful walk into spring 2021 everyone - Happy Easter weekend...
