Art Quilts with Attitude

Pamela Allen
http://pamelart.homestead.com/titlepage.html

November 11 – 17, 2007

Medium: Fiber
Level: All Levels
Studio Class  

The main focus of this workshop is to venture outside the conventional methods of quilt making and into an open ended approach to art making with fabric. Many of the techniques you'll use are familiar to art quilters . . . piecing, applique, and embellishment. However, the actual techniques used will be the servant of the imagery and concept, rather the tyrant dictating what is or is not acceptable. No measuring, no matching points, no bias binding, and no squaring up until the very end!

Pamela shows you how to develop a fabric collage by freehand scissor cutting, layering of different fabrics, mixing unlikely combinations of fabric, exploring three dimensional effect by means of rolled or stuffed fabric.

Pamela leads discussion and critiquing of the nature of art history and how it can benefit you by broadening your visual vocabulary. She also talks about the dilemma faced by viewing and admiring the work of other artists, and how one can appreciate, absorb and make use of our visual knowledge without appropriating other artist's vision and imagery. Pamela helps you to translate a work of art into your own original and personal vision.

Pamela Allen has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1982) from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.   Since graduating, she has been lucky to maintain a studio and a full time vocation making art.  She began as a painter and has evolved over the years to explore many other media all with the intention of exploring the theme of the child in all of us.  Trips to Europe , the desert southwest , and Mexico have all nurtured her penchant for bright colour and "folky" imagery.  Another great influence has been her contact with school children and their aesthetic as she participates almost yearly in an Artist in the Schools program funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

Pamela has also taught painting and drawing at Queens University both in the Fine Art department and for  the Aboriginal Teachers Education program at MacArthur College.  The latter have taken her through some amazing adventures on remote First Nations Reserves in the far North.