Handwerk Textiles: Current Exhibitions

Personal Landscapes: A Visual Travelogue
Bonnie M. Bucknam
January 18 - April 5, 2020
Visions Art Museum
2825 Dewey Road, Suite 100
San Diego, California 92106
619.546.4872
Hours : Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 4pm
Sunday Noon - 4pm

Bonnie will be having a solo exhibit at the Visions Art Museum in San Diego. The opening and artist reception is January 18 between 5 and 8pm (exact opening time not known at the time of this post). The exhibit closes April 5, 2020. Catalogs are available at the Museum Gift Shop.

Bonnie writes:

The anthropologist in me is fascinated by other cultures. And as someone who has always been interested in geology and the history of the earth, I love seeing the variations in terrain and the spectacular shows created by natural earth processes. I create landscape and abstract works inspired by the places I have lived and the exotic countries I have visited. I try to convey my response to the character and essence of these places, the people I have visited, and the creations of cultures that have come before. My works are created from my hand-dyed fabrics. I usually compose my pieces using an improvisational style and design on the wall. Some of the piecing is quite difficult and time consuming. I have a longarm sewing machine, which makes the close machine quilting feasible and the quilting process enjoyable.

I consider myself a beginner at painting. I have experimented with acrylics and with oil and cold wax. My first few paintings for this series I undertook as color studies for the quilts I wanted to make. Over the course of working on this concept, some of the paintings have developed to be works in their own right. Recently I have been working more with oil and cold wax. I feel it suits my style and hope to develop my expertise in the medium.

In my Personal Landscapes works I have been exploring the effect of the medium on the outcome of the work. I have started with a photograph, mostly taken on my travels, and then created a painting and also a quilt inspired by the photo. I find my interpretations to be quite different in mood, size, format, and degree of abstraction, depending on the medium. The Personal Landscapes series began, unbeknownst to me, with my Reflection quilt in 2008. I have explored this idea of interpreting personal landscapes in the years since. The experiment is ongoing.

1000 Palms Oasis

c 2016 Bonnie M. Bucknam

Photo by Mark Frey

Paper Reed

c 2019 Bonnie M. Bucknam

Photo by Hoddick Photography

Holding Back the Sahara

c 2019 Bonnie M. Bucknam

Photo by Hoddick Photography

Shifting Tides: Convergence in Cloth

Shifting Tides
This exhibit focuses on the current state of the Pacific Ocean ecosystem, its marvelous
natural diversity, and the human activities that both sustain and threaten oceanic life.
Venues:
Works/San José
San Jose, California April 19 - May 5, 2019
Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum
La Conner, Washington June 26 - September 29, 2019
Chehalem Cultural Center
Newberg, Oregon March 3 - April 25, 2020
CityScape Community Art Space
Vancouver, BC, Canada May 15 - June 13, 2020
Wailoa Center
Hilo, Hawaii July 10 - 30, 2020
International Gallery of Contemporary Art
Anchorage, Alaska September 4 - 30, 2020
Pratt Museum
Homer, Alaska October - November 2020
Visions Art Museum
San Diego, California January 16 - April 4, 2021
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History
Pacific Grove, California July16- September 12, 2021
Prior to attending it is always best to
check the exact exhibition dates with the venue.

Contemporary Art Quilts: U.S. and Brazil

U.S. Quilts by Members of the Contemporary QuiltArt Association, Washington

I have three quilts in this exhibit of contemporary quilts from the Contemporary QuiltArt Association in Washington and Brazil: Bridge Controversy, Tumble, and Sea Cave. Two of the three have shown at any one venue. The show was selected by Zeca Madeiros and organized and managed by Cathy Erickson.
Watch the YouTube video from the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky.