In-Person Workshop May 20, at EVFAC/NMFAC!
If you live in central or northern New Mexico or will be visiting later in May, and you’ve wanted to learn to rug hooking, now is your chance! I’ll be running a class up in Española at the Fiber Arts Center on May 20, 1:00-5:00 PM. Registration info can be found HERE. Any questions, please give me a yell at Laura@highonhooking.com.
Hope to see you there. I promise that we’ll have a truly excellent time hooking rugs and saving the environment!
NMFAC to host punch needle workshop
New Mexico peeps! Is stretching creatively one of your New Year’s resolutions? Looking to learn a new technique? Whatever your reasons, the time is now! Or at least on January 21. New Mexico Fiber Arts Center (aka NMFAC/EVFAC) is hosting moi so that YOU can start punch needle rug hooking. The funny thing is that I taught this class for NMFAC/EVFAC just before Covid sent us all home for our extended “vacation.” Who knew it would take soooo long to get back?
Find all pertinent info copied below, but register HERE.
January 21st: 10:30am-1:30pm
Members: $70
Non Members: $80
Students (Ages 14-18): $40
Ages 14+
Limit: 10 participants.
All skill levels welcome!
Materials fee (Paid upon arrival directly to instructor): $20
Students will learn how to use the punch needle to make a small project that can be hung on a wall or used as a “mug rug.” The basic skill set gained will allow students to move on to larger projects like table runners, pillows, and rugs with confidence.
During the class, students will:
• transfer a simple pattern onto a cotton, monk’s cloth backing
• prepare materials
• begin punching a mug rug or wall-hanging.
We’ll also discuss various ways you might want to finish your rug after all the punching is done. No experience is necessary; just come prepared to play with all the colors!
Materials Instructor will provide: Handouts, rug yarn and monk’s cloth. An Oxford punch needle and frame will be provided and can be purchased after class, if desired.
Please bring a pair of scissors!
About Laura Salamy: Laura Salamy is the experienced, albeit “not-so-traditional” fiber artist behind High on Hooking (www.highonhooking.com). She serves as President of the Adobe Wool Arts Guild, New Mexico’s only rug hooking guild. Laura teaches locally and on Zoom. Her work can be seen online, in various books, in Rug Hooking Magazine, and in the Association of Traditional Hooking Artists Magazine.
Class cancellation policy: Students will receive a full refund if cancelling up to 7 days prior to the class. If cancelling within one week of the class, students will receive a 50% refund to be used for NMFAC class credit only.
FYI – If you can’t make this workshop, I’ll be in Los Alamos teaching at Fuller Lodge Art Center in late February and early March. Find info about those classes HERE.
See HoH’s entire calendar of events and classes HERE.
We’re all affected in some way by motherhood…
I know I’m late to the party congratulating Karen Miller of Ontario on the release of her new book The Art of Mothering: Our Lives in Colour and Shadow, but I will NOT be the last, I guarantee you.
Karen’s book, published by Rug Hooking Magazine, came out in October. I think I received my copy in early November. Unfortunately, I’ve been très busy the past month, so I’ve only been able to scan through it thus far, but with the holidays almost here, I’m hoping to sit down soon and pore over it – no interruptions!
It’s a beautiful book, certainly, filled with all kinds of art. It’s vivid and colorful as it shines a light on how female artists have dealt with not just the topic of motherhood, but its actuality.
From the back cover:
Motherhood has been the richest experience of Karen Miller’s life. It has also inescapably changed her life trajectory: her career path, her energy levels, her commitments, her time, her marriage. It has affected everything. Join Karen as she and 21 contributing artists lift the lid on motherhood and peer inside to examine the reality of their lives through textile arts.
The Art of Motherhood: Our Lives in Colour and Shadow illuminates the feelings that so few of us talk about – but so many of us feel – as we navigate the journey that is motherhood.
Karen’s known for a long time that being a mother hasn’t always been the best of experiences for me, so when she asked me to contribute to the book, I jumped at the chance. It’s always stuck up my craw sideways that women rarely feel comfortable being honest about motherhood and what it does to us. Even in a group of just women! How dare we speak up about not feeling quite like the Madonna and her perfect Child. News flash: I’m no Madonna and it took a lot of alcohol to get through my only kid’s high school years. (Those years made the previous 14 look like an f-ing picnic.) But after fertility problems and two miscarriages over two years, no one wanted a kid as much as I did. And I have no regrets. (Most of the time.)
That’s the kind of candid crap you’ll find in this book though in a much more eloquent form, LOL. And LOTS OF FIBER ART, hooked and otherwise. If you’re a mom or know a mom or ever had a mom, get thee online to order this book. It’d make a kick-ass and thoughtful Christmas or other type of gift. I promise. You can order from RHM HERE. If you’re in Canada, contact Karen through her website.
PS- Not all moms are biologic. And mother figures count as moms.
FYI-
Below is a list of the Instagram handles of all the artists who, in some way affected by motherhood, contributed work to Karen’s truly excellent book. Check out their work.
Karen Miller: @karendmillerstudio
Nadine Flagel: @pretextstudio
Meryl Cook: @merylcook
Laura Salamy: @highonhooking
Emily van Lidth de Jeude: @emilyvanartist
Jane Smith: @blogginthebay
April Deconick: @aprildeconickart
Linda Friedman Schmidt: @lindafriedmanschmidt
Rachelle Leblanc: @rachelle_leblanc_art
Trish Johnson: @trshjhnsn
Patti Colen: @woollycronedesigns
Alexandrya Eaton: @alexandryaeaton
Michelle Kingdom: @michelle.kingdom
Carmen Bohn: @carmenbohn_art
Elizabeth Miller: @northatlanticfiberarts
Ellen Skea Marshall: @twocatsanddoghooking
Amy Meissner: @amymeissnerartist
Michele Micarelli: @michelepmicarelli
Linda Rae Coughlin: @lindarae_coughlin
Sayward Johnson: @saywardjohnson
Lori Laberge: @lorilabergeart
Karen Larsen: I don’t believe Karen is on Ig but she is on fb
And to everyone in the US, mother or not,
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
I’m wearing an orange shirt today, but only because I have so many Canadian friends on social media. If I didn’t, I’d be clueless to the fact that September 30 is Orange Shirt Day up north. Its other name is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, but again, it’s only “celebrated” in Canada. My question is why don’t we have that or something similar here in the US?
For those of you who don’t have a plethora of Canadian fiber arts friends, you can read about the day and its origins HERE.
Each year, September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.
-From the website canada.ca
I get that I live somewhere – New Mexico – that allows me the chance to be aware of our indigenous populations pretty much every day. That “s” making “populations” plural is not an error. Not much more than a mile from my house in Albuquerque, across the Rio Grande, is the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC). There visitors can take in the museum, buy jewelry and pottery, watch Native dances, eat really kick-ass food, and do a host of other things that help to educate those of us who grew up without learning much of America’s early history. You know, before the British, French, Spanish, and other European nations came on the scene and decided the land was ripe for the taking and “clearly” not owned by anyone. At least anyone “civilized.”
The IPCC is run and owned by nineteen New Mexico Pueblo communities. Nineteen. And they’re all sovereign nations. And they don’t include the likes of the Apache and Navajo and others who also abide, at least in part, in New Mexico. My point today is that all nineteen came together to create the IPCC on this particular piece of land:
It is located at the heart of nearly 80 acres of land owned by the 19 Pueblos and governed by the 19 Pueblos District (a sovereign government formed by the Tribal Councils of the 19 New Mexico Pueblo Communities) at the former location of the Albuquerque Indian School (1881-1982).
-From the IPPC website
Again, I ask, why aren’t we here in the US wearing orange today in a spirit of solidarity and reconciliation? The same atrocities that happened up in Canda’s schools happened here. And we had more schools!
Last year I wrote about a rug hooking project that was a collaboration between myself, friend and guildmate Ruth Simpson, and Acoma Pueblo artist Patricia Lowden. You can read about it HERE. You can also read about the cushion and our collaboration with Patricia in the current issue of Rug Hooking Magazine (RHM). Unfortunately, I was prompted to write the article after I read another RHM article in which an artist/author indicated that indigenous art is ripe (word used on purpose) for using in rug hooking patterns because: The images of art from indigenous peoples are always ancient, copyright free, and so beautiful. Yes, that is a direct quote, and it went right up my ass sideways. (Pardon my French.)
And people think cultural appropriation isn’t a real thing. How can you if you think all the Natives are dead?
Again, I ask, why aren’t we here in the US wearing orange today along with the Canadians?
The Fabric of New Mexico exhibit opens Friday, July 1 at Fusion in downtown Albuquerque. All are cordially invited to the opening reception, 5:30-8:00 p.m.
This exhibit stretches the limits of fiber art to celebrate the full range of innovative creativity in fabric, including quilting, macramé, embroidery, rug hooking, and work with plastics, paper, metal, and wire. Curated by artist Martin Terry, the show includes work by twenty New Mexico artists including Sara Miller, Larry Schulte, Betty Busby and Judith Roderick.
More information about Fusion can be found HERE. Also, the gallery will be open for the Summer Sundays Markets, Last Fridays (of each month), theater events, and concerts. See EVENTS. If you can’t make it to the gallery any of those days, please contact High on Hooking, and we can have the gallery opened up for a private viewing.
Note: Parking is available just across the street in the city parking lot.
aFabric of New Mexico Opening Reception Invitation