I recently attended the national conference of SAQA, Studio Art Quilt Associates. I’ve been a member for several years, but only recently have decided to get more active. It is an important national organization of artists who work in the same media as I do: Studio Art Quilts.
I belong to a number of art organizations. Most include artists of many different artistic media. For most issues of composition and design, that works well. But sometimes it really does help to get in touch with the latest trends in my media. Workshops included “Critiquing Contemporary Quilt Art,” a local artists panel (the conference was held in Alexandria, VA), “Navigating the Gallery Scene: Clues to Help Find Your Niche,” “What is an Artistic Voice and Why do I Need One?” “Textile Futures: Four Overlapping Directions.”
This was the 25th Anniversary of SAQA, and the founding president, Yvonne Porcella gave a talk, “SAQA Retrospective: The Way We Were.” There was also a panel of past presidents who addressed such questions as “What was your greatest challenge?” and “Where would you like to see SAQA 25 years from now?”
I was thrilled by the opportunity to meet my heroes like Yvonne Porcella, plus Katie Pasquini Masopust, Terrie Hancock Mangat and Judith Content.
A special event was an auction of donated works by SAQA members. They were to be small – just 8 x 10. All were matted. One of Yvonne Porcella’s sold for $1000! And the overall total generated for SAQA was over $10,000. I was thrilled when my “Metadata” sold for $100 to Terrie Mangat! (Metadata is pictured).
I’m already looking forward to the 2015 conference in Portland, Oregon!
Martha Ressler 