New classes and student blogs...

I've been much better at keeping up with my other blogs than with my own... students tend to inspire me to write and reflect. My Gilmore Academy blog was dedicated to my residency experience with middle school students.

Currently, I'm teaching Stitched Narratives at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park . Interested in what my students are up to? Visit the Stitched Narratives blog.

Teaching middle school students...

Since December 2008, I've been 'artist-in-residence' at the Gilmore Academy in Brockton, Massachusetts. Interested in my daily experiences with middle school students? Read my dedicated blog.

Truthfully, I'm having a blast...the students have forced me out of the studio and launched me back into the thick of teaching. Having a week and a half to put something together, I managed to bumble through week one and had them pegged by week two...and I've looked nothing but forward to each class.

And how does an artist get a gig like this?
Contact the Fuller Craft Museum, who runs the Art Aspire program, dedicated to getting artists in the public schools...

Events and teaching schedule

The Fuller Craft Museum hosts two of my classes this year, Dimensional Fabric Sculpture and Thread as Line. Anyone who owns and knows how to use a sewing maching can participate! Details...

Dimensional Fabric Sculpture
How can cloth become three dimensional? Join us in a workshop that will experiment with traditional sewing techniques as gathering, pleating, tucking, and quilting to construct small sculptural works. Using plain cotton muslin, we will create a variety of samples that you can draw upon for inspiration and add to your arsenal of textile skills. Students must bring their own sewing machine.

2 day class, Saturday, October 25 & Sunday, October 26...10am-4pm

Register now! Can't wait to see you....
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Thread as Line
This workshop explores creating landscape-based imagery using hand and machine stitching on fabric stabilizers, interfacings and lightweight fabrics, such as silk organza and cotton batiste. Students will create small studies, and learn how to build up layers of stitching using a variety of threads, thread colors and stitch types. Students must bring their own sewing machine.

2 day class, Saturday, November 15 & Sunday, November 16...10am-4pm

Register now! Have fun and learn something new....

How much?

Interested in buying and collecting my work? Please review my price list. Please note that it is subject to change without notice.

About Laura

My sculptures have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and cultural centers, including the Gallery at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, Massachusetts; the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center in Clayton, New York; the Fiber Art Center in Amherst, Massachusetts; and the Opie Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri. My work is in public and private collections, including the New Bedford Free Library in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

I began my teaching career at the Winsor School in Boston, MA; and have since taught at many instituions, including Gilmore Academy and the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA; the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA, and Roxbury Community College in Roxbury, MA.

I received an MFA at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; an ALM from Harvard University, and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art. My studio is in the Boston Center for the Arts complex, in Boston's fun and ever hopping South End.

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Need more info? Read my teaching resume and/or my artist resume. View and comment about my work...just go to my photostream-gallery at flickr.
<< back to laurasapelly.com.

View my artwork at Flickr...

I've decided to use Flickr, a great photo site, to host images of my artwork. Note the slide show to the right of this post...it's fed from an RSS feed from Flickr...amazing! Visit my online gallery or my website, where you'll find the same link. It's sooo easy to update, and I bypassed a lot of programming.

Thanks to Liz Castro, programmer and author extraordinaire, for helping me post images easily...visit her blog for instructions and inspiration...

The urge to touch....

In my art critique group's blog, Artery Art Group, Earl commented upon the 'touch' aspect of my textile art work. He wanted to touch it, like one touches his ceramics...

Textiles is a part of our daily- and nightly- lives...clothing touches us all of the time, and the urge to touch the art work is overwhelming. As I watched people looking at my work this weekend at South End Open Studios, I saw the same reaction...

But, like a painting or a sculpture, the human hand can damage, stain...just like we damage our own clothing by its constant use.

So, no you can't touch my work, but...

How do I deal with this primal urge?

I think I'm going to set up a 'touch' area next time, so that people can hold a sample, and touch it as much as they want....

What do you think? Is it necessary or unecessary?

What are you doing Sun. March 16 @ 2:30PM?

Join me for the opening of my new work, Pages from a Somerset Memoir, at the Somerset Public Library, 1164 County St., Somerset, MA 02726.

Enjoy free snacks and drinks...and listen to my talk, "The Sewing Machine as Sculpture Tool."

For library hours and directions, visit the library's home page.

See all three works on my website.

Bodies and Souls images on website

Images from my new series of work, Bodies and Souls, can be seen on my website. Using mostly a square format, these pieces explore the 'quilt' and its relationship to- and reflection of- the physical world and emotional life of being human.