September 2014

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August 2014

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July 2014

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American Craft Exhibition

American Craft Exhibition at ARTLINK

June 6 -  July 9, 2014

ARTLINK: Contemporary Art Gallery

300 East Main Street

Fort Wayne, IN 46802

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February 2014

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Fall 2013

Handmade Indiana

 November 2nd

Indiana State Museum

 

Bloomington Spinners & Weavers Guild 28th Annual Fiber Arts Show & Sale 

November 8 & 9
Bloomington, Indiana

Deja Vu Fine Art and Craft Show

November 16th

 Columbus, Indiana

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August 2013

A few new pieces completed this summer.

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ARTLINK Member Exhibit

ARTLINK Member's Show

 July 19 - August 27

Ft. Wayne, IN 46802

New Paper Art Quilts - June 2013

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Juried Exhibition - The Honeywell Center

Two Paper Art Quilts were selected for a themed art competition at the Honeywell Center in Wabash, Indiana. The 2013 theme is "Quilts"

June 5 to July 10, 2013

The Clark Gallery at The Honeywell Center

275 W. Market St. 

Wabash, IN 46992

June 2013 By Hand Gallery and Gallery Walk

Walk the Walk: Art Lives 

Paper Art Quilts: 2013  

By Hand Gallery

Exhibit dates May 23 - July 18, 2013

 101 WEST KIRKWOOD #109
FOUNTAIN SQUARE MALL - DOWNTOWN BLOOMINGTON

In honor of the 10^th Anniversary of the Bloomington Downtown Gallery Walk, we can celebrate the indomitable spirit of the Arts in our community. From the small seed of an idea, shared and nurtured by a committee of persistent individuals, The Downtown Gallery Walk was born and has evolved into the community institution that it is today. As part of the June 2013 Gallery Walk we celebrate those artists who create and present their work and those patrons who, on first Fridays, “walk the Gallery Walk” and partake in the rich diversity of the visual arts in our downtown gallery spaces, proving that “Art Lives” in Bloomington.

Mary Hambly, a founding member of that committee of persistent individuals in January 2003, is honored to present a selection of “Paper Art Quilts: 2013” at the By Hand Gallery as a contribution to this celebration.

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Hope to see you on June 7th at the Gallery Walk Reception 5 - 8 pm

The Paper Art Quilt is a joining of contemporary art and traditional craft, a blending of individual elements in such a way that the joining allows for a richer and more meaningful whole. In the creative process stenciled, marbled, printed, and over dyed papers are cut, pieced, and then stitched using a zig zag sewing machine. The resulting “quilt blocks” are then laid out in a composition, sometimes born out of the repeating pattern concept of traditional quilting, sometimes not. The “quilt” is then completed with a border, also of paper, and the result is a one of a kind image. 

The rich and exotic papers which form the foundation of each Paper Art Quilt provide the opportunity to forge complex and unique combinations of design elements: dark & light, pattern & variation, harmony & discord, hard & soft, cool & warm, symmetry & asymmetry, flat & dimensional. Each element of color, texture and pattern retains its unique individual character yet is enlivened by the union of the whole. The result is a modern art form grounded in a rich textile tradition of process and design.

Arts in Harmony

Come out and enjoy the Spring in Southern Indiana.

"ARTS IN HARMONY"

Saturday, May 4, 2013 from 9 am to 5 pm

Sunday, May 5, 2013 from 12 - 4 pm. 

Next Up! Bloomington Open Studio Tour

Saturday April 27th and Sunday April 28th 

BLOOMINGTON OPEN STUDIO TOUR

I will present my Paper Art Quilts at the I Fell Building (corner of 4th and Rogers) 

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Visit with area artists, see their work and support the visual local arts community. 

Bloomington Local Artists Showcase - February 24, 2013

Bloom Magazine and Ivy Tech Community College present..

The 2013 Local Artists Showcase

Sunday, February 24
  Bloomington Convention Center 

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September 2012

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Summer Exhibit at By Hand Gallery

Engaging a Paradox: Artist Statement 2012

Mary Hambly

Delicate Paper, Machine Stitching, and Traditional Quilting: A paradoxical idea when thinking of combining these elements in a Paper Art Quilt. Yes?

A paradox can express the tension between ideas that are contradictory, and yet both/all  are true. Integrating a Paradox is not blending these opposites into some neutral compromise, but joining them in a way that each element retains its unique character - yet somehow working better together than apart.

The Paper Art Quilt is itself a paradoxical medium: papers cut and fractured in pieces & stitched into a whole; contemporary art & traditional craft. . .

• Art often expresses a conceptual paradox: order & chaos, beauty & ugliness, love & hate, hope & grief, pain & joy, insanity & sanity, turmoil & peace . . .

• Life is filled with contradictions: control & risk, community & solitude, independence & dependence, strength & weakness, integrity & falsehood, denial & reality, pain & joy, work & play, internal drive & external motivation…

• Design elements can embody paradox: dark & light, pattern & variation, harmony & discord, hard & soft, cool & warm, symmetry & asymmetry, flat & dimensional  . . .

My work is a process of engaging the paradox:  stenciled, marbled, printed, and over dyed papers are cut, pieced, and then stitched into blocks, using a zig zag sewing machine. Blocks are then laid out in a composition, sometimes born out of the repeating pattern concept of traditional quilting, sometimes not. The “quilt” is then completed with a border, also of paper, and the result is a one of a kind image.  The rich and exotic papers which form the foundation of each Paper Art Quilt provide me the opportunity to forge complex and unique combinations of color, texture and pattern.

You are invited to view my new work at the By Hand Gallery. Hope to see you on August 3 from 5:00 - 8:00 pm...or any time between August 2 - September 2, 2012.

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June 2012 New Paper Art Quilts

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May 6, 2012 - Recent Work

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Artist Background

My Journey to the Paper Art Quilt

I was born and grew up in Seattle, Washington with my parents, a brother and two sisters. After high school I pursued a degree in Social Work and Community Organization and earned a degree from the University of Washington in 1972. I got my first 35mm camera while still in high school and was only partially aware of my aesthetic and creative interests. I did not entertain the idea of taking them seriously until I was in my early 30’s. I began school again as an undergraduate art major at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. In 1988 I arrived in Bloomington, Indiana to begin graduate school. And was awarded an MFA degree with a studio concentration in Textiles by Indiana University in 1991. Along the way I experimented in printmaking, photography and painting, as well as work with handmade paper and hand dyed felt while in graduate school.

Now we fast forward to the summer of 2008. I found myself longing for a new avenue of creative discovery. The time had come to lay aside the photo collage work that had engaged me for a number of years. This passage from one artistic endeavor to another is not new for me. When the time comes to search for new materials, process and form, it is always clear there is no going back. So goodbyes are said and the seeking begins.

The creative yearning was answered by the discovery of a new art form, the paper art quilt. The journey began with an opportunity to study with Anna Velez at the Indianapolis Art Center. Since 1994 she has refined a variety of techniques for the construction of paper art quilts and in particular her repeating block design system. She generously shares this information with students.

I came away with the answer I was looking for. I am attracted to formats and materials that are process oriented and physically engaging. Within the construction of the paper art quilt there is the opportunity to surrender to the unpredictable. While working, I enjoy being patiently absorbed in the work of transforming the raw into the refined, the pieces into the composition. In these moments I most readily yield to and cooperate with the creative impulse. Process becomes ritual in service to the created object. The ritual of creating a paper art quilt is about the whole being the sum of its parts and about each part being viable and intriguing.

Since completing my MFA degree at Indiana University I have integrated art in my life in ways that I might not have predicted in 1991.  My current professional “day job” is totally unrelated to art. And I have been freed to be the “practicing artist” I planned to be. Today the time I spend in my studio is time that I live most fully in the present moment, relieved of the past and unconcerned about the future. I am grateful for the opportunity to continually pursue the impulse of creative discovery. I find that in my present life it is restorative, meditative and deeply fulfilling. It brings some degree of balance to my life and a great deal of pleasure and sense of purpose. The saying among textile artists is “Process, Process, Process!”  You have to accept “process” or it’s not for you. I say “bring it on”. The process is ritual and inside the ritual is peace.

"Screen" format-September 2011

From the Beginning

The journey began with a "paper art quilt" workshop at the Indianapolis Art Center in the summer of 2008. Below are several pieces made that summer.

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