13 Blackbirds

The Fiber Artists Coalition is made up of Professional Artist Members of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) from the upper Midwest. FAC curates traveling exhibits of its members' works.  Members employ a variety of innovative materials and techniques in the creation of fiber art with a contemporary edge. Some members have published books about their artistic processes and are in demand as teachers and presenters. Many exhibit their work in juried group and solo exhibitions within and beyond the U.S. The eleven members whose works are included in this show are Frieda Anderson, Astrid Hilger Bennett, Kathie Briggs, Shelley Brucar, Clairan Ferrono, Peg Keeney, Pat Kroth, Casey Puetz, Joan Potter Thomas, Laura Wasilowski, and Trish Williams.

As an example, Clairan Ferrono’s Eye of the Blackbird interprets the opening stanza:

Among twenty snowy mountains,

The only moving thing

Was the eye of the blackbird.

In The Beauty of Innuendo, local artist Astrid Hilger Bennett chose to interpret Stanza V:

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

List of Blackbirds participating artists plus state of residence:

Astrid Hilger Bennett, Iowa City, IA

Kathie Briggs, Charlevoix, MI

Shelley Brucar, Buffalo Grove, IL

Cheryl Dineen Ferrin, Mattawan, MI

Clairan Ferrono, Chicago, IL

Peg Keeney, Harbor Springs, MI

Pat Kroth, Verona, WI

Casey Puetz, Waukesha, WI

Joan Potter Thomas, Northville, MI

Laura Wasilowski, Elgin, IL

Trish Williams, Chicago, IL

Source Material:

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, by Wallace Stevens

Among twenty snowy mountains,

The only moving thing

Was the eye of the blackbird.

II

I was of three minds,

Like a tree

In which there are three blackbirds.

III

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.

It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV

A man and a woman

Are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird

Are one.

V

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

VI

Icicles filled the long window

With barbaric glass.

The shadow of the blackbird

Crossed it, to and fro.

The mood

Traced in the shadow

An indecipherable cause.

VII

O thin men of Haddam,

Why do you imagine golden birds?

Do you not see how the blackbird

Walks around the feet

Of the women about you?

VIII

I know noble accents

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;

But I know, too,

That the blackbird is involved

In what I know.

IX

When the blackbird flew out of sight,

It marked the edge

Of one of many circles.

X

At the sight of blackbirds

Flying in a green light,

Even the bawds of euphony

Would cry out sharply.

XI

He rode over Connecticut

In a glass coach.

Once, a fear pierced him,

In that he mistook

The shadow of his equipage

For blackbirds.

XII

The river is moving.

The blackbird must be flying.

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.

It was snowing

And it was going to snow.

The blackbird sat

In the cedar-limbs.