“The Art of Cloth” opens in Lincolnton

Five fiber artists I know celebrated the opening of their group exhibition, “The Art of Cloth,” in Lincolnton, N.C., tonight. The show includes work by Jean H. Funderburk, K. Grace Howes, DeLane Rosenau, Christine Scholtz and Judy Whitehead, who all live in the Lake Norman area north of Charlotte. Together, they call themselves the FABs. The gallery at the Lincoln Cultural Center is very nice (especially for a small town), beautifully lit and was a great setting for this exhibition.


Grace Howes was colorfully attired and in high spirits. That’s some of her work behind her.


“Summer Daze” by K. Grace Howes


The show included two-dimensional work hung on the gallery walls, as well as three-dimenstional notebooks, wearables, fabric boxes and dolls, such as this piece, “Water Fairy,” by K. Grace Howes.


A beautiful beaded button embellishes a felted wool clutch handbag by DeLane Rosenau.


“Self Portrait” by DeLane Rosenau


“Birds of a Feather” jacket by DeLane Rosenau. DeLane received the bird-themed panels made by all the members of the FABs in a challenge. She was challenged, since all of them had fairly different color schemes. Instead of putting them into a two-dimensional piece, she incorporated the pieces into this jacket, using other fabrics to integrate them into this fabulous wearable.


DeLane Rosenau with “Cold Foot Contest”


The FABs started this large piece by hand dyeing 40 yards of fabric, splitting it up between them, and creating separate panels that were then arranged and stitched together. It is a lot of fun to look at this piece and try to figure out who did what, if you know the signature styles of each of the FAB artists. There are a ton of techniques in this piece.


Judy Whitehead is a fiber artist and a fabulous machine quilter.


“Sunflower” by Judy Whitehead has very intricate textural machine quilting.


Jean H. Funderburk in front of “Seahorse Tank”


“Octagon Soap” by Jean H. Funderburk


“Wild Flower Path” by Jean H. Funderburk


“Floise” includes images of Jean’s grandmother at Myrtle Beach, decades ago. Jean said she thinks her grandmother would be none too pleased to see this piece if she were alive today … but then probably not too many of us want to be remembered in our bathing suits!


Christine Scholtz is another wonderful machine quilter and quilt artist.


“Weasel on My Mind” celebrates Christine Scholtz’s “very special cat.”


“Above the Ocean and Below” (detail) by Christine Scholtz

The Art of Cloth
runs through July 4 at the Lincoln Cultural Center
403 E. Main Street, Lincolnton, NC

Artists:
Jean H. Funderburk, Lincolnton, NC
K. Grace Howes, Huntersville NC
DeLane Rosenau, Denver, NC
Christine Scholz, Stanley, NC
Judy Whitehead, Cleveland, NC