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.

It has been a long time since I’ve written a newsletter and many many things have happened in my life!

The last time I wrote was when our puppy Sasha died. Well, I’m happy to announce that we have a new addition to our family. Scroll down to “Fun Stuff” to learn more.

Our big news is that the exhibit “Imagine Hope” is going to have a booth at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this year!!! This booth is to promote the exhibit and find sponsors and donations to support it. We will have t-shirts, magnets, bookmarks, lapel pins and note cards to sell and ALL of the proceeds will go back into making the exhibit happen. Please stop by booth #814 to say hello, we would love to see you!!

At this time, we are also looking for volunteers to help in the booth. If you are going to the quilt show in Houston this year and would like to volunteer to help us publicize and sponsor Imagine Hope, please email nadia.imaginehope@gmail.com to be put on the schedule. We would LOVE to have your help and are looking for positive people who believe that art can make a difference and bring about change in our world.

Imagine Hope now has a team of sixteen volunteers offering their services in many areas. This is a unique exhibit and since last March, we have all been working hard to build momentum for it. David Taylor is our webmaster, and Nancy Murty is our designer. Together they have spent many hours working on our website, logo and presentation brochure. They have created a new look that we hope can help spread the message of the exhibit. Even though our volunteers have been working hard, this is an on-going process and new things are being added regularly.

I have just finished “Displaced”. This red piece is about global warming. Polar bears on icebergs drifting onto a tropical beach. The camels have smirks on their faces, almost like they are making fun of the mess we have gotten ourselves into!! “Displaced” measures 60” x 78”.

Here is an image of my World Quilt Federation Smackdown quilt that will be auctioned off for Alzheimer’s research. It is called “Fading” and measures 16” x 16”. For more information about the Smackdown between Becky Goldsmith, John Flynn, Sue Nickels and myself, please look at the August 2009 newsletter. We are all trying to make the quilt that will bring in the most any quilt has ever brought in for Ami Simms’ Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. The bidding will take place in November on this website http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html . So please bid on my quilt, bid on the others too if you would like, but bid the highest for mine!!

In order to bring attention to the Imagine Hope exhibit, I have again applied to the International Quilt Festival judged show in Houston, TX this year. Both Protection and Exodus were accepted into the judged show. So there will be five of my quilts exhibited at the show. Hope for Our World, "Displaced" and another new quilt will be shown in the Imagine Hope booth.

The Imagine Hope exhibit will be shown at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY April 9^th – May 25^th, 2010. We are very excited!! I will also be teaching a five day dye-painting/quilting workshop at the museum while it is hanging. How fun is that!?! For more information, click here.

The exhibit “Creative Force: Masters”, curated by Martha Sielman, is on display right now at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky until Nov. 10, 2009. Blue Men is in this show. From there, the show will travel to the "New EnglandQuilt Museum" in Lowell, Massachusetts and will be shown from Nov. 19, 2009 - Feb. 14, 2010. I will be represented by World of Tuaregs when the show goes to Lowell. Forty artists from the book "Masters: Art Quilts" will have quilts in this exhibit.

September 18-20 I will be traveling to San Antonio for workshop #4 of my ten-year course. We will be studying Portraiture for three days. Portraiture is always such an amazing class. Students think they can’t draw faces and are taken aback when they realize they really can! For more information, contact Charlotte charlotte@beecreek.net

In October I travel to Berkeley, CA for my eighth year!! I can’t believe I have had the privilege of working with these amazing women for eight years!! We will be working on design and quilting for five days. Yay!!

And then…the International Quilt Festival in Houston is upon us. This show is so wonderful. I’ll be presenting my 3-hour Marketing seminar on Monday, October 12^th, then teaching 2 quilting design classes Tuesday and Wednesday and 2 dye-painting classes Friday and Saturday. Since I have cut my teaching back to prepare for the Imagine Hope exhibit, this is one of the only places I teach these one day classes now. If you haven’t signed up yet, click here! I will also be lecturing on Friday evening about the relationship between drawing and quilting. I’m looking forward to a great show and seeing many friends!

Phoebe joined us in June. She is a black lab, coon hound puppy from a rescue center that was found wandering on the streets when she was about six weeks old. We are in love all over again!! Click here to see a photo of her.

Please check out my website www.imagine-hope.org. It has a new look!! We will be continuing to add more details about my exhibit “Imagine Hope”. This exhibit will have quilts speaking about worldwide issues and black & white photographs from prominent photographers dealing with the same subjects.

We have giclee prints of “Hope For Our World”, "The Gift", “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 click here . 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.

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.