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| Ophelia Ascendant |
Each day that I get to work on this project, I come home exhausted after only a few hours of work. So much looking!
In the fall of 2011, I will reduce the exhibition programming of the gallery to one or 2 shows per year. The windows and the yard will be available for installations. I will make a tremendous mess in the main gallery space, as it will become my studio and I am a tremendously messy artist. 
and the curiosity seekers.
Installing My Father's Religion, is not difficult, but it is slow and painstaking.
It involves wire, tools, plumbing pipe, picture wire, monofiliment, a level...and forming, re-forming, frogging and knitting.
The day was made much easier by the participation of Mark Carlson.My Father's Religion is showing in conjunction with :
Opening Soon:
My Father's Religion
June 4- July 12
Opening Reception: June 17, 7-9pm
When did yo learn to knit?
My mom taught me the basics of knitting when I was 8. I don't remember knitting particulars, other than a sweater of sorts for the cat, who preferred not to wear it. As a girl, I was expected to learn the domestic arts, and I did and wanted to learn them all, although I was always pretty imperfect in my skills. In JH home ec, I was told I knit wrong, and relearned knitting. Being left handed, I apparently developed a left handed way to knit (which is now handy to use) but I ripped out the whole sweater that I was working on for the school assignment, so I could re-knit it "correctly".
I saw someone spinning for the first time when I was 17, and I thought it was sheer magic. I was smitten with the idea of making thread from a scrap of fluff. But I didn't see anyone spin again until I learned to spin around 1978, and began using my hand spun for knitting and weaving. (I learned to weave around the same time, in the Portland Parks and Recreation Dept---they offered weaving!) Around 1988, I made a teddy bear of my hand spun for a pregnant friend, and got interested in dimensional knitting. So I started doing other animals, especially fueled by my son, who would tell me, "Now make a cow." I made a few different animals and dolls of hand spun and started to sell them at craft shows, like St Cate's. I should mention that when I moved back to Mpls in December of 1981, I immediately joined the Weaver's Guild of Minnesota, and have been forever grateful for the welcoming community and many classes and opportunities that grounded my early artistic attempts. Through the Weaver's Guild of Minnesota, and then the Textile Center, I learned much about dying, surface design, spinning, felting, paper making.
Opening Soon:
My Father's Religion
June 4- July 12
Opening Reception: June 17, 7-9pm
Carolyn Halliday has done several self portraits in knitted wire. It should come as no surprise that they are non-standard. She translated her body measurements into these forms.
They are not yet installed and not all can be seen here, but ... as we began installing on Tuesday May 3, Anonymous Under Shelter appeared,
as did Tools of the Trade.
Out of the chaos of boxes come wonders. This red dress awaits our ministrations. It is a show stopper!
How have women balanced all the cares and necessities of their lives? 
When Libbie Soffer works with the detritus of our daily lives, she not only sheds light on embedded stories, but she uses light to sculpt and define.
