Welcome to the Fibre Arts Take Two, August 2021 Newsletter.
It's hard to believe that August has nearly come and gone.
Despite continued lockdowns and uncertainty around the world, Spring is in the air in Australia and with it comes a sense of possibility and new beginnings. No matter where you are in the world I hope that this email sparks some inspiration within you and reassures you that with creativity, you're never alone!
Take care and keep in touch, Ang x
It has been a pleasure bringing you such a diverse range of interviews so far this season from all over the world.
The wonderful Roberta Wagner asked us to "come walk with me" where she discussed the journey travelled over many years to produce her first Book ‘exploring why art matters".
Roberta takes you on a journey in and out of life and art, expressing her thoughts and realisations about the importance of asking the right questions, finding the right mentors and learning to embrace the discipline the frustrations that come with being an artist and remembering to come back to play!
This morning I had the absolute pleasure of talking live with Xanadu Gallery owner Jason Horejs from Scottsdale, Arizona.
Jason offered practical and sound advice for anyone looking to sell their artwork and form a relationship with a gallery. We talked about promoting your work, branding, websites, pricing and even commissions!
If you missed it and you're a professional artist or want to take your art practice to a professional level, then it's a must see!
Watch the replay here on YouTube.
A big thank you to our community member Melanie H for recommending Jason.
Don't forget to tell us who you would like to see during the next Friday Feature Artist season?
 Tune in live each Friday and keep informed of upcoming artists, you can even watch the replays anytime through the Fibre Arts Take Two Facebook Page and YouTube channel.
Lately, we have been promoting our newest online course, Making Connections - Mark, Layer and Stitch, with Cas Holmes. While we were producing this exclusive course, we caught up with Cas about what inspires her as an artist and how she has managed to cope during the year that was and continues to be.
"My creativity is informed and inspired by the exchanges I have with people and places.
I am fascinated by the things that we can discuss and exchange with each other. It's actually those small things that inspire me about people, whether it's about their family or the everyday things that are important to them.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see some amazing landscapes and meet some incredible people who have their own stories. But it's the common places that perhaps inspire my work more than anything else. Because these are things we all share.
Over the last twelve months, I found that if I hadn’t been able to find a connection with those small things, I don’t know how I would have got through each day.
 I like to inspect the world around me closely. I think about a quote from TS Eliot, that says, "We shall not cease from our exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know that place for the first time."
Due to overwhelming popularity, enrolments will be closing this weekend for Cas's online course.
 July saw the release of a beautiful documentary telling the story of love and kindness toward a community devastated by bush fire. The events of January 2020 were hard on the community of Mallocoota and acclaimed Pambula based Contemporary Textile Artist Mirjam Aigner knew she wanted to do something.
We hope you are as humbled as we were to hear their story, view the beautiful artwork and witness the healing powers of art.
If you are looking to join an online community of like-minded international contemporary fibre and mixed media artists, look no further than the Fibre Arts Take Two Facebook Community.
This month we are delighted to highlight one of our community members who has a passion for nature and like our friends in Mallocoota was deeply moved by the fires in 2019-2020.
Julie-Anne Rogers lives near Gosford north of Sydney Australia and once the fires had passed wanted to understand the effects and how the land was reacting.
She writes " I was amazed to see new shoots, even only a few weeks after the fire had left the area. I ended up going back every couple of weeks and taking photos to show the amazing recovery. Mother nature is awesome but it is so much harder for the animals to recover"
As part of the healing process Julie-Anne has used her Artwork to reflect the environment and its recovery. The piece you can see here is eco-dyed, heat distressed, sketched and rusted fabric along with hand stitching.
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