Watt & Shand #1 Acceptance into Structures in Cloth

I'm delighted to announce that Watt & Shand #1 has been into accepted into the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibit Structures in Cloth.  The exhibit will debut in June at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada CO; then travel to The Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, Pueblo CO; and then to The Fort Collins Museum of Art, Fort Collins, CO, finishing in April 2012.  The jurors for the exhibit are Sandra Sider and Bebe Alexander.

Watt & Shand #1 was the first (obviously) in a series of 10 works I made chronicling the transformation of the former Watt & Shand department store in Lancaster, PA into a hotel and convention center.  The facade of the original building was preserved with an elaborate scaffolding and integrated into the new construction.  I was fascinated with the whole process and took hundreds of photos that were edited down for inclusion in the works.  You can see all ten on my website, and/or track them back as works in progress by clicking on Watt & Shand under Labels in the right sidebar.

The images in #1 are from June 2008, when workers were disassembling the scaffolding.  I got very lucky in shooting this image of a welder taking apart a join--I love all the angles in the composition, and the way the camera captured the sparks flying:

This shot below didn't make it into the finished work, but it's worthy of sharing--again, great angles and lots of sparks, all in front of the beautiful Beaux Arts architecture.  I got the know the curves and the details of the building very well while doing all the intensive stitching the work required.