Hollis Chatelain - Textile Artist

Many people ask me what I am working on, where my work is being exhibited and how I am spending my time. This is a new addition to the website that will be updated monthly with the latest things that are happening in my life.

June has been hot in North Carolina. But the rain keeps coming and we are hoping that there won’t be a drought like last year. Our garden is full of flowers and we are enjoying it.

This wasn’t a month where I can talk about all that I have accomplished. We got a puppy (check Fun Stuff below) and that about took care of the month!!

I was able to get a little bit done in my studio. The last two parts of the Baobab Forest triptych are now painted and I am starting to quilt them. Click here to see the rainforest part and the desert part, and here to see the whole triptych with Baobab Forest in the middle.

The rainforest part measures 8’ W x 2’H. Baobab Forest measures approximately 9’W x 2’ H and the desert part measures 5’W x 2’H. This triptych will be included in my exhibit “Imagine Hope” www.imagine-hope.com .

“Figuratively Speaking” will open August 9^thand run through October 5^th, 2008 at the Visions Art Quilt Gallery in San Diego, California. Exodus will be in this exhibit. Click here for more information .

The exhibit “Creative Force: Masters”, which was curated by Martha Sielman, will be shown at the International Quilt Show in October 2008, then will travel to Chicago and California. The works of forty artists from the book "Masters: Art Quilts" will be shown in this exhibit. I will be represented by “Blue Men” .

The book "Masters: Art Quilts" is now available. Forty artists were selected worldwide and each one is featured in an 8 page mini-retrospective, showing approximately 10 artworks from each person.
The book is available on the SAQA website and on Amazon.com

Last month I lectured in Portland at the Northwest Quilters 34th Annual "A Festival of Quilts". I took a number of pieces with me, spoke to an enthusiastic crowd and really enjoyed it!!

I will not be teaching again until September when I teach at Durham Orange Quilters right here in my area. Click here for more information.

In the meantime I am going into my studio to work on the pieces that will go into my exhibit “Imagine Hope” that will be complete in January 2010.

We found out in May that our Golden Retriever has bone cancer and won’t be with us much longer. This is a sad event for all of us, but especially for our other dog who is extremely attached to her. Since we know how much our other dog needs a companion, we decided to get a puppy now instead of waiting, click here. Introducing a puppy into a household is a big event and I admit I had forgotten how much work it requires. Our new puppy is half Bloodhound and half Plott Hound. She is 5 months old and weighs 44 pounds. In case you have never heard of a Plott Hound, it is North Carolina’s state dog and the only breed that was created and bred in NC. Click here to learn more about it.

Our garden has suffered just a bit because the puppy races through all the plants in her enthusiasm to play. She is very goofy and keeps us laughing. Even though our Golden is not feeling well, she seems to enjoy watching the other two chase each other around.

As per your requests, I am including a few more photos of our garden. We love birds and have tried to turn our garden into a special place for the birds to inhabit. We have planted hedgerows and flowers to attract them in addition to placing houses, baths and feeders throughout. We somehow feel it is our doing when bluebirds build a nest every year in the house we have provided. This year they had five little ones and we were able to watch them grow from bare bodied little chicks to beautiful bluebirds that are now flying about in our yard. This month I am including some pics of bird objects. This soapstone bird bath came from French Connections which is a great little shop that sells African and French art and fabrics in Pittsboro, NC. This bird house came from an artist in Creston, Canada. I bought it when I taught there in 2005. A little wren has raised many babies in it. It has a doorknob and spoons on the front of it. This is a pottery birdhouse from Tinka Jordy.

Please check out my new website www.imagine-hope.com . Within the next couple of months we will be adding much more detail about my exhibit “Imagine Hope”. This exhibit will have textile pieces speaking about worldwide issues and black & white photographs from prominent photographers dealing with the same subjects.

We have giclee prints of “Exodus”, “Hope For Our World” and "The Gift", the two winning quilts in Houston in 2007. There are also prints available of “The Grandfather”, “Sahel”, “Ecuadorian Girls”, “Captured”, “Precious Water”, “Fatima’s Son”, “School: It’s Never Too Late to Learn”, “Nature’s Gift”, “Blue Men”, “Burkinabe Mother” and “Untold Secrets", and they are all beautiful. Click here to check out all the prints and to learn more about giclee prints.

All of the threads that I designed for Superior Threads are for sale on the website. Living Colors and Nature Colors are sold in packs of 25 because I have found that quilters use threads in a more unique and exciting way when they have the opportunity to “audition” a number of different colors (just like we do with fabrics) before making their final choices. Click here

We have a secure system where you can order thread, fabric, prints and my artwork directly on line and pay by credit card or Pay Pal.