February Jury: “Mix It Up”

For the first three blog posts of this month, I’ve been writing about the jury process in our gallery. All of the photos I used as illustrations came from our January 10, 2011 jury day. At the end of the last post, I said, “And guess what? We’ll do it all over again next month!” Sure enough, we did.

Tuesday, February 15, was jury day again in our gallery. The show theme, “Mix It Up,” encouraged gallery members to use two or more different fiber techniques in their work.

After each jurying, the jurors select “Jurors’ Choice” items. We don’t have prizes, but we do put a nice, shiny gold sticker on the wall next to each selected piece.

Here are the Jurors’ Choice awardees for the Mix It Up show:

This fabulous vest (above) is a made in a technique called "freeform crochet." It would look terrific on any model in the Fashion Week shows in New York City this week. The artist is Elida de Souza Moore.

Artist Floris Flam uses monoprinting and stitching to create this softly meditative wall quilt (left), entitled “Blue Hills.” It would be perfect for a nice yoga corner in someone’s home.

Paige Garber is the artist who created this eye-popping wall hanging (right), “Cosmic Confluence,” which incorporates felt-making, stitching, applique, and other techniques. Put it in the entrance hall to your home to give your guests a warm welcome.

In addition to selecting Jurors’ Choice pieces, the jurors for each show write a statement about the show as a whole. Here’s what jurors Ann Liddle and Carol Holmes wrote about “Mix It Up”:

“This was both a difficult and easy theme. Using a variety of fibers and techniques is common among our members. Even so, some lovely examples of mixed techniques and fibers were submitted. We especially liked the color and stitch explosion of Elida's vest, the monoprinting and stitching techniques in Floris' quilt, and the lively but delicately balanced felting and stitching in Paige's wall hanging.”

Jurying vs. Judging

The question has arisen as to what is the difference between jurying and judging. Some artistic disciplines use the terms interchangeably. Others, for example in the world of art quilts, maintain a careful distinction. “Jurying” is the process of deciding whether a piece is admitted to a given show. “Judging” is reserved for deciding which pieces in a given show should be given awards.

To take our gallery’s February show, Mix It Up, as an example: all of the pieces submitted for the show were juried. Most were accepted; a few were rejected. The three pieces pictured above were selected (judged) from all of the theme pieces to be awarded Jurors’ Choice recognition.

Next Post

For my final February post (before I turn the blog over to Larry for March), I’ll be writing about the Travels of a Fiber Lover: how I go about finding fiber shops, what kinds of interesting fiber art I see in other countries, and how the work of other cultures influences what I do.