ixchel-tapestryweaver: World of Threads Festival 2012

World of Threads Festival 2012 is here!

I am happy to announce that 4 of my pieces got into this wonderful International show.

Not only I am thrilled to participate together with all of these fabulous artists listed below, but also I am glad to know that my art, in spite of many transformations that have lately been going through, it is still on the eye and interest of viewers. I appreciate this support for it has not been easy keep up the work having health issues due to strong tendinitis in my right arm.

In a way, things I believe happen for a reason. The fact that I had to be more controlled in the times dedicated to my art, detonated interest into working with other materials than the ones I am used to.

For the past 28 years I have been in the process of exploring different techniques both in weaving structures and in surface design. From Batik, reserve techniques and natural dyes, into different weaving structures, from flat weave into 3-D weaving. All were still very organic.

Memories of a Birch Tree
Tapestry Haute Lisse
4.00 M H X 1.80 m W

Today while working for my big show next year at the BAC, I started analyzing not only different materials such as paper, metallic ribbons and metal scrap, but also integrating light into them! How cool is that.

I don't want to go all the way to ONLY installation, because i am a weaver at heart, but it has been really interesting to work with all of these materials and exploring yet other structures.

I will be attending Convergence 2012 in Long Beach. There I have signed up for interesting workshops integrating optic fibres into weaving structures.

I really don't know where all of this will lead me to. After this trip I will be having an arm operation, and I am sure, since everything we experience reflects into another situation, my work will have another strange yet interesting detour.

For now i can tell you that everything I am doing I am having lots of fun and cant wait to do even more!
This idea of integrating semi rigid materials and then adding weaving is so fun to do. I am finding more things to weave. Of course, the idea of processing my own images of nature and the studies of fractals in Nature has been a theme that has been calling my attention for the past years. Today i am studying more and more about textures, repetitions and how they relate both in weaving structures as in nature around us. The repetition of a scar in a tree relates directly on how the tree reproduces around he forest. This in a Macro lens. But if you go deep into the MICRO worlds we see the same patterns repeating until we reach our smallest expression (cells) and we see the same repeated pattern...Isn't it fascinating!

This last image is from own of my pieces: Fractals of Nature:
The idea came precisely while analyzing a patterned structure. It caught my attention and reading more the research led into the repeated patterns of a hurricane and how, as unpredictable that might be, it can be written in a mathematical equation.

Like cancer cells that they tend to, for some reason, reproduce abnormally, the hurricanes also present a repeated pattern that eventually will break the rhythm and present itself into a huge storm. These patterns follow a structured equation, same as the branches of a tee.

Still need to study more, but for now, all the images I have prepared for interpreting to be fibre-produced, are all related to the same theme. Very organic and yet, free spirited.

Momento mori

Common Thread International Exhibition

The Gallery at Sheridan Institute, Oakville, Ontario

Curator: Gareth Bate, Toronto

Artists:

Canada: Ontario: Barrie: Lisa Brunetta, Cambridge: Nancy Yule, Niagara-on-the-lake:Wendyth Anderson Breedveld, Stratford: Wendy O'Brien, Toronto: Carrie Chisholm, Nicole Collins, David Cumming, Robert Davidovitz, Camilla Geary-Martin, Susan Lukachko, Mary McKenzie, Lilly Otasevic, Rochelle Rubinstein, Oakville: Ixchel Suarez, Saskatchewan: Moose Jaw: Anna Hergert, USA: North Carolina: Raleigh:Megan Bostic.

De rerum natura (On The Nature of Things)

Common Thread International Exhibition

Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre, Oakville, Ontario

Curator: Gareth Bate, Toronto

Artists:

Canada: British Columbia: Vancouver: Bettina Matzkuhn, Carlyn Yandle, Manitoba:Winnipeg: Heather Komus, Ingrid Lincoln, New Brunswick: Saint John: Sandra Betts,Ontario: Alliston: Amy Bagshaw, Kingston: Phillida Hargreaves, Robin Laws Field, Sylvia Naylor, Kitchener: Joanne Young, Mississauga: Pat Hertzberg, Toronto: Lizz Aston, karen darricades, Libby Hague, Jillian MacLachlan, Liz Menard, Leanne Shea Rhem, Sheila Thompson, Tweed: Marta Mouka, Oakville: Sybil Rampen, Ixchel Suarez, Ottawa: Sayward Johnson, Rockwood: Susan Strachan Johnson, Quebec:Montreal: Soufïa Bensaïd, Emily Jan, Valérie d. Walker, St-Sauveur: Marjolein Dallinga, Saskatchewan: Meacham: June Jacobs, Denmark: Copenhagen: Birgitta Hallberg, United Kingdom: Liverpool: Sarah Martin, USA: California: San Francisco:Chris Motley, Georgia: Atlanta: Leisa Rich, Massachusetts: Somerville: Jodi Colella,Oregon: Philomath: Laura G. Berman, Virginia: Charlottesville: Lotta Helleberg.