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.

February was a busy month. I was away for almost half of it and the rest was spent in the studio. Spring is arriving in Hillsborough and garden time is arriving too. We’ve been clearing, cleaning, trimming, and mulching. Little green, pink and white leaves are poking out of the soil. I just love this time of year when it all awakens!!

Quilters Newsletter had a small article talking about the exhibit at Duke University in their April issue. Also don’t forget to check out the March/April issue of Quilters Home Magazine which has an article about my exhibit “Imagine Hope”. Both of these magazines are on the news stands now or you can subscribe at http://www.qnm.com and www.quiltershomemag.com .

The website for the “Imagine Hope” exhibit is www.imagine-hope.com which is now up and running. This exhibit will be traveling the country, being shown at universities, art centers and museums. If you know of a venue that might be interested in hosting it, please click here.

David Taylor, who is a very talented quilter and graphic designer from Colorado, created the website. Check out David’s website www.davidtaylorquilts.com . Thank you David!

Newsletters are a great way for you to learn more about quilters and artists on a regular basis. If you don’t know Ami Simms, I would highly recommend signing up for her newsletter. When I grow up, I want to be like Ami. She is not only a great writer and quilter, she is also hilariously funny. In addition, she devotes much of her time to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative she created to donate money to Alzheimer’s research. To sign up for Ami’s newsletter, click here.

My “white piece” about Darfur now has a name. It is called “Exodus” and will be finished this month. The image is difficult to see without the quilting because the painting is so light. We had to enhance it a bit to be able to see it clearly in these images.
Click here to see the piece in progress, and here for a detail.

In my dream, part of the image was disappearing…as have many of the villages in the Darfur region of Sudan. It was surprising to dream in white and I tried to understand what the dream meant when I woke up. As time has passed, I’ve come to realize that not only does white represent death in many cultures, but this piece is about the genocide of a people. It will be part of the exhibit shown at Duke University in April.

We are in the final countdown for my exhibit "Hope For Our World". It will open at Duke University’s beautiful chapel on March 30. The official opening will be on April 5^th at 1:00. The chapel will be hosting a “day of activism” with a dialogue led by the dean of the chapel, Sam Wells. Organizations working with Fair Trade, the issues in Sudan and other concerns will also be there.

We will have new note cards for sale featuring four pieces that will be in the show, “Precious Water”, “Hope For Our World”, “The Gift” and “Exodus”. Fifty percent of the proceeds will be donated to the humanitarian organization Oxfam America .

The show will be exhibited from March 30^th - April 14^th, 2008. The hours for the chapel are 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM, Monday - Friday. For the weekends, it would be wise to call ahead

(919) 681-9414

to make sure there are no weddings planned as the chapel is closed to the public during weddings.

Ten pieces promoting social awareness will be shown in the exhibit. Each piece is monochromatic and most are from my dreams. To see some of the pieces that will be there, click here. Click here to access the website for the chapel at Duke.

This exhibit will eventually travel throughout the country and will be called “Imagine Hope”. Check out our new website www.imagine-hope.com

An exhibit called “Creative Force: Masters”, which was curated by Martha Sielman, will be shown at the International Quilt Show in October 2008. The works of forty artists from the book "Masters: Art Quilts" will be shown in this exhibit. I will be represented by “Blue Men” (thank you Sally Davey for lending it).

The book called "Masters: Art Quilts" will be available for sale May 6, 2008. Forty artists were selected worldwide and are presented in an 8 page mini-retrospective, showing approximately 10 artworks from each person.
The book is already posted and available for pre-orders on the SAQA website and on Amazon.com

In February I traveled to San Antonio to teach two classes of Drawing II. We all had a great time and the students were motivated and really drawing!!

In 2009, we will move on to a Portraiture class. If you are interested in joining this class, we will be drawing from live models and photographs. If you have taken my Drawing I or Drawing II classes elsewhere and would like to join this class, you are welcome. The dates for the two Portraiture classes are September 18^th, 19^th, 20^th, 2009 and September 21^st, 22^nd, 23^rd, 2009. We have just a few spots left, so contact Charlotte or Leslie soon!!

I will also be going back to San Antonio in February 2009 for two “The Art of Color” workshops. The dates for these workshops are February 9^th-13^th, 2009 and February 14^th-18^th, 2009 and they will be held at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels, TX ( between San Antonio and Austin). This is a workshop that is taught in a retreat type of situation because it is a challenging class with 6-8 hours of homework each night. It is a great class where you really learn about color. To sign up for this workshop, there is a pre-requisite of at least five days of classes with me. We only have 5-6 places left in both workshops. If you are interested, contact Carrie or Leslie soon!!

In April I will be teaching two Drawing I workshops in Durham, NC (just 15 minutes from my studio). We will be going to the exhibit “Hope For Our World” at Duke and visiting my studio since we are in the vicinity.

April seems to be a month of visitors. Piedmont Quilter’s Guild is jumping into a bus and taking a road trip to . . . my studio!!! I guess I had better clean things up a bit….

April 28^th- May 2^nd will take me to Paducah, KY to teach a 5-day dye-painting/quilting workshop at the Museum of the American Quilter. For more information click here.

In June I have been invited to speak at the Northwest Quilter’s annual quilt show in Portland, OR. June 7^th I will be presenting my lecture “Influences of Africa” and showing some of my larger quilts along with the works from my exhibit “From Antiques to Abstracts”. For more information contact Janice Jones.

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