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Colors and Rhythms Around Us
As we fly past spring and jump into summer, it is a real joy to step back and appreciate the joy that art and making brings to our lives. To notice the colors and rhythms around us. As we all come to grips with the concerns and constraints of the quarantine, we turn to the vibrance of the Hong Kong Ballet dancing through everyday setting in chartreuse tights and turquoise dance costumes or the exuberance of Juilliard students performing to Ravel’s Bolero (check these out on the internet if, you haven’t seen them). Innovative interludes of art are powerful and add so much to our lives.
At the Coop, we are also innovating to bring you more art. One way to do this is our first ever GoFundMe campaign to raise money to stay alive as an arts organization after the virus is controlled. Many of you have already generously given and we are happily watching the fund grow nearer to our goal. If you haven’t heard about the campaign, please consider supporting the coop at gofundme.com/f/support-the-shelburne-arts-coop. Although we cannot promise bright green tights and turquoise tutus, we promise a bounty of beauty and creativity.
Artistic Insights This Month
This month’s articles focus on the art of feltmaking. Two wildly talented local artists share what inspires their art and specific pieces. Each of these women share a peek behind the curtain into their creative processes.
Florence Rosenstock: Sculptural Feltmaking
I turned to fiber arts, and primarily feltmaking, about 15 years ago, after having spent my first artistic “life” as a potter. For a while my felted pieces were wearables—scarves and shawls—essentially flat pieces but with lots of color and pattern. About seven years ago I began to become interested in making more dimensional pieces—I think I missed working with aspects of volume and form, as I had in clay. I took a series of workshops in sculptural feltmaking, which introduced me to some new techniques and started me on the path I’ve been following since.
My visual inspirations come from the varied shapes of mushrooms and fungi, long another interest. They appeared to me in different places. The first was a large white fungus which grew on a tree in Shelburne Falls. I would pass it every few weeks as I drove to the Co-op—it seemed to get bigger each time I saw it. I know I wanted to try to re-create something like it in felt.
 
And one day at the Farmer’s Market I purchased a clump of oyster mushrooms, thinking I would eat them. But instead, they too became inspiration for a felted sculpture.
Dimensional feltmaking begins in the same way as flat feltmaking—laying out wool fiber, adding water and soap, and rubbing and rolling until the fibers form a coherent fabric. The sculptural forms and textures are then achieved by sewing and sometimes by including resists—pieces of plastic or other materials inserted between layers of felt to help them keep their distinctive shapes rather than felting together—and lots of experimentation
As I See It: Lynn Perry
This past spring, my neighbor in Heath, Art Schwenger, took a magnificent photo of a grey fox bringing food to her kits. The fox family lived right between our two properties, in a den near an old barn. The photo inspired me to make a needle felted grey fox of which I am very proud.
My life-long love of animals, especially our fellow mammals, is manifested in my wool felting process. As I build up layers and shapes by needling on variably textured and colored wools, the uniquely individual animal emerges. From a painstaking attention to detail of head, torso, legs, tail, ears, and eyes suddenly (magically!) emerges a creature (in this case a fox) with its own being and immediate presence. And then we begin to talk.
Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/shelburneartscooperative) or our website ( http://www.shelburneartscoop.com/sac-joinus.html) to see frequent updates on our art and new initiatives.
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