Coos Art Museum Opening Reception

I recently made a trip to Coos Bay to attend the artist reception for the opening of two High Fiber Diet exhibits at the Coos Art Museum. My piece, Forget Me Not, Collaboration with Grandma, was part of the It Isn’t Easy Being Green show which hung next to the Heat Wave exhibit in the main gallery. Click on image for larger view.

The gallery is very open and warm feeling and the exhibit was professionally hung, as expected.

The opening reception was very well attended. I heard murmurings of 200+ in attendance. The turn out was impressive and it made taking good straight-on photographs rather difficult so I will apologize now for the low quality of my images.

Here are a few of the images that were passable and some of my favorites in the exhibit. This is Toni Smith’s Heart In Motion. She used one of my favorite colors of green. Our pieces were hung side by side and complemented each other.

I chuckle out loud seeing Anita Kaplan’s Retail Therapy, the Pearl. I’ve been in many of those shops myself and have enjoyed their sturdy bags to take my treasures home. I love this nod to everyday life as it is simultaneously turned upscale into art.

Jo Noble (pictured here) and Pat Fifer created this gem, Baksimba, named after a fiery African dance. It rightly was the center of several discussions.

And here is another entry of Jo Noble’s, Memory Shield.

Sherri Culver (hot side) and Mary McLaughlin (cool side) collaborated in creating Hot Flash!

Here is Karen Miller’s Waiting for the Sun Worshipers, created out of a memory of a trip to Italy.

Another exhibit that opened the same evening featured many very small birds, all hand created by local artists. Here are just a couple of those charming birds.  Rufous Hummingbird was created by Victoria Most and Aspen Farer using needle-felted wool, wire and silk.

Jess Bronk created Peregrine Falcon using needle-felted wool, felt sheet, wool suiting and pastel.

I enjoyed my visit to CAM, meeting several of the artists and having an opportunity to chat with several of the museum staff, all of whom were very complimentary regarding the double exhibit of fiber art in the main gallery. The Coos Art Museum is the final venue for It Isn’t Easy Being Green — the exhibit will be up through February 11th, 2018 . My piece has been traveling with this exhibit since September 2016 and I have been very grateful for the opportunity to share my art with the public. I hope you have an opportunity to get to CAM.