Last Wednesday I attended an “Art Lunch” at the Plymouth Community Arts Council. The speaker was Marilyn Prucka, a Michigan fiber artist from Monroe. She had some interesting and large pieces displayed. I was probably the only one peeking around back of the pieces to see how they hung. I liked all the surface treatment she incorporated into her pieces. I learned that potato dextrin cracks when it dries and makes a cool resist on fabric. Also learned about ‘fabric etching’ for the first time.
The one piece I found the most interesting had these frayed out strips of fabric removed from the piece, exposing the dyed batting behind. She did that with Fiber Etch. Currently I’m only finding it at Dharma Trading. I’ll be ordering some up soon. I already have a piece forming in my head.
I’m pretty sure I was the youngest one in attendance. One of the women commented that this type of work was ‘revolutionary’ and that there should be some other name for it rather than quilt. And that nothing like it has been done before. I really wanted to stand up and point out that there was a thriving community of mixed media fiber artists right here! But Marilyn was quick to point out that this was not ‘revolutionary’ and there are many artists around creating art quilts. She also said one could easily curl up and go to sleep under one of her quilts as easily as one could under a traditional quilt.
It was a good talk and a yummy lunch. Marilyn reminded me of my own mom in respect that she went back to school several times to explore something she loved to do, as my mother has done several times as well. I’m never worried that’s to late to learn something. It may be more or less challenging at different times, but never to late.
