I had the perfect opportunity to work on my series in that last three days whilst participating in SAQA’s virtual conference.  What an experience! Read my earlier post http://SAQA 2020 MoSAiQA Conference (Toronto)

Nature’s Palette Series

I am continuing on my current series Nature’s Palette.  My current work focuses on materiality.   I challenge myself to use the fabric and paper that I use to wrap and protect the scarves and wraps I create in the dyeing and printing processes.

As I was sorting through some of the paper towel  that was used as a barrier for eco printing a scarf,  I came across a piece that spoke to me.  Usually I put them in my recycle pile.  I liked this piece and was going to mount it on canvas.  But then I gave myself permission to play.   Fabric was auditioned that was used to wrap my scarves for steaming and played.   I found a piece of cotton that would interplay with my paper towel piece.  Finally  I found I could place the paper on the fabric so that the lines from one would extend to the other.

So I stitched along the lines.  So as I listened to talks at the conference I kept stitching and voila.  My  finished piece.

The post Stitching at virtual conference appeared first on Rasa Mauragis.

We live in a crazy world this year.  Bushfires, extreme summer, day after day of heavy smoke.  But whilst that was all happening here where I live, on the other side of the world a new virus appeared.  Initially there was no thought of the possible consequences here in my little bit of paradise.  And today it is a  different story. Before you go anywhere consider whether it is essential we are told.  To slow the spread of coronavirus we all have to distance ourselves.  As of midday today all pubs, clubs, indoor sporting venues, churches, restaurants are closed.  As yet we are not confined to our homes .  Right across the world country borders are closing..

SAQA 2020b M0SAiQA Conference, Toronto

An organisation I belong to – SAQA or Studio Art Quilt Association, had planned its first conference outside USA in Toronto.   A couple of weeks before its commencement  the hardest decision was made to cancel the conference as it was not going to be possible for people across the globe to travel to it.  A miracle happened.   In a very short space of time they changed it to a virtual conference to occur at the time the conference was to have taken place.  With a few twigs to the program they had it ready to roll on my Friday morning last week – Thursday evening in Canada.  They opened it up to those that had not registered to go as well.

I decided this was a golden opportunity to experience a SAQA conference as it was too far and too expensive to go to it from Australia for me.  So I enrolled in the SAQA 2020 MoSAiQA Conference (Toronto)

2020 MoSAiQA Virtual Conference

What a wonderful weekend I had despite having to get up at 2:00am to participate.  I attended every session.  It was unbelievable what could be done virtually.  Thanks to the Zoom platform it was a fantastic experience.  We listened to talks using webinar technology.  We reassembled for break out groups by logging into another screen from where we were tossed into meeting rooms for small group interactions by technology.  It was all done in a random way.  Some people you met once, others more often depending in which ‘room’ technology turfed you.  We were even taken on a fabulous tour of the exhibition that was put together especially for the conference to show case Canadian textile artists.  Two full days of interesting program from 2:00am to noon for me.  At the end they even crowned the new president virtually.

We listened, talked, laughed and whilst we may not have made new friends, we definitely have made new acquaintances.

What is more amazing that this was all put together by a group of women.  Thank you SAQA.

The post SAQA Virtual Conference a consequence of coronavirus appeared first on Rasa Mauragis.