August Artsy News from Elaine Luther’s Studio

Thinking about Archives

I’ve been thinking about archives, which is weird, right?  I recently attended the Chicago Artists and Archives Fest, held by the not for profit Sixty Inches from the Center.  The event kicked off with storytelling from professional storyteller Emily Hooper Lansana, who was powerful.  What a way to get everyone in the room to be present and open hearted.

Before this conference, my involvement with archives included being in the archives of the Chicago Artists File at the Harold Washington Library, and participating in a residency with the Kolaj Institute and the Henry Sheldon Museum and Library in Vermont.  For that (virtual) residency, each artist got to meet with the archivists and request an image or piece of ephemera to use in a collage that was then in a show at the Sheldon.

Here’s my piece from that residency.

Collage about Lydia Pinkham and women’s condition at the time. Copyright Elaine Luther 2022.

Two artists in that residency group made pieces about who was missing from that archive – Black people and Jewish people.  Their works were powerful and beautiful.  I had that background as I went into the Chicago Artists and Archives event, and learned even more about the power of institutions in what they collect, what they don’t, whose stories they tell, and why the excluded groups have started their own archives, to record their stories and document their lives.

The Gerber/Hart Library and Archives in Chicago is one such archive and was represented at the conference; it’s the largest archive of LGBTQ+ history in the country.  

As I was in this mode of thinking about archives, I came across this rather dull looking book, from the cover, but then I opened it up and boom!  Full color!  Unexpected for its age, published in 1978.  It’s the catalog of the 1978 Kansas Quilt Symposium.  Think of the effort that went into producing this catalog, pre-desktop publishing!  This was a print-shop job, possibly with actual, physical cutting and pasting.  And the expense of full color printing!  The committee meetings…

Interior and exterior views of the book about the 1978 Kansas Quilt Symposium.

It’s also an amazing record of the state of the quilting movement, at least in Kansas, in the U.S., at that time.  It’s not a how-to book, it’s a document that’s showing us what new work was being made, what older works were being shown, who was giving speeches, about what.

Ric Kasini Kador, who founded the Kolaj Institute, says that books are better than exhibitions, because they last longer and can go further.  This catalog of the Kansas quilt symposium has done that, ending up in the Chicago suburbs in 2024.

All this is making me think about spending just a little bit more time organizing and labeling my artist record, making sure I send my show postcards to the Chicago Artist File, and maybe making books or catalogs.

Studio News and Travel

Much of an artist’s work is about the future – the work I’m most excited about right now doesn’t exist yet, except as a mock up that I submitted in a grant application and in a show proposal, or in my sketchbook, or for things I’ll for which I’ll use that fabric I just ordered, or tools coming from Japan.

All summer, I’ve taught 5-6 classes per week, mostly sewing.  I’ve helped people to not be afraid of the sewing machine and to sew tote bags, scrunchies, dresses, pants, jackets and even soup cozies!

Photos from a workshop at Ox-Bow in Michigan. August 2024.

My favorite thing to teach is shibori dyeing and in the world’s shortest getaway vacation, I just took a one day class in shibori with natural indigo at Ox Box in Michigan.  Ox Bow is an arts and crafts camp for grown ups, it’s owned by the School of the Art Institute Chicago.  If you take a week or two week class, you can stay on campus and even get college credit.

I took an “Art on the Meadow” class, a one day workshop with Sue Cortese, who is a terrific teacher.  I learned one completely new shibori fold and how to do another one in a better way.  All the students were super nice, and the campus was beautiful.  It made me want to go back for a whole week.

Here are some of my own student’s dyes from a recent class I taught in natural dye, indigo and shibori.  The yellow fabric you see was dyed with pomegranate peel powder, and then some of it was overdyed with indigo to get a teal.

Student work in shibori and natural dyeing. From classes taught by Elaine Luther.

Student work in shibori and natural dyeing. From classes taught by Elaine Luther.

My Art on Exhibit

My very miniature art – 1” x 1.5” in sardine tins – is currently on display at the Oak Park Art League in the Angelica Kauffman Gallery in the architectural niche there.  It is super difficult to photograph those reflective sardine tins, so check those out in person if you’re local!

I have one piece in the show at Power Frauen at DANK Haus in Chicago, the one with the cyanotypes that’s about Lotte Reiniger.

Later this fall I’ll have a solo show in someone else’s micro gallery!

P.S.

A version of this post was previously published as the August newsletter on substack.  I was looking at my recent blog posts and thought, “Wait, why didn’t a do a blog post on that?  or that?”  Because I had put it in the newsletter.

There’s this whole challenge about – what do I put where?  I do like to share certain things first with newsletter subscribers.  I post some things on social media and then never get around to putting them on the blog.

Probably, these days, more people read the newsletter than this blog.  But I consider the blog the place of record, my own sort of archive.  And darn, those newsletters are good!  So I’m putting this one here on the blog.  Will I do this every month?  I don’t know, I’m still figuring out how to balance things, now that the newsletter is on substack, which has a public/published area that comes with it.

The newsletter version of this included more photos and my monthly recommendations.  Every month, I share fascinating reads or listens, and sometimes a tool or a recipe.  The artist newsletters I enjoy most do that, so I decided to do that too.