Priscilla Read – Art Journey

In Pamela Lanza’s class Voice and Vision at the San Francisco Art Institute, we’ve been exploring ways to incorporate text into our work including using randomness and spontaneity in our processes.  One of our exercises was to clip random words and phrases from magazines, then turn them into poems that we could use in our visual art.  I pasted my nonsensical poem elements onto a piece of paper with the words “the world needs more”.  Since I’m working on a series based on medical imagery, I decided to collage the poem onto a piece of fabric with a linocut print of a female pelvis.  The resulting image looked like an ominous newspaper headline . . . and intrigued me.  Given the current climate where politicians are battling over the future of health care and where we all have concerns as to whether or not we will have coverage when health care issues arise, the idea of creating a quilt – something that literally covers us – appealed to me.  I printed more pelvises onto fabric creating somewhat ghostly images and covered some with organza to make them look even less distinct, then added stitching and more words.  Here’s the resulting art quilt – The World Needs More.

I snapped a photo of it on wall from  the Diego Rivera Gallery while the student exhibit was being hung.  My piece will be there all week along with other work by students in Voice and Vision and other adult continuing education classes from this summer’s session.

Adult Continuing Education
Summer 2012 Exhibition
Diego Rivera Gallery

Exhibition Dates: August 5 – 11, 2012

Exhibition Hours: 9am-5pm daily
Potluck Reception: August 11, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.