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Alice Hall

Artist's Statement
Like many people, I have a slightly confused relationship with Art, the word, the product, doing the work, and writing about it. Nonetheless, arts and crafts are essential elements to a good life and a good society. We need beautiful, well made things and we need to take time to art demands in contemplation. But sometimes the journey is not as simple as it should be.

When I was very young, I began my art habit by collecting embroidery floss – all those colors! Unfortunately, the beauty of the floss always seemed to exceed that of my own work. Still, holding those colors made me happy. But in school, art was something altogether different – painful and depressing. Eventually, following a bad experience as a  result of drawing a multi-colored house, I was excused from art classes and allowed to completely avoid them until I entered college. In college, I began by studying art history, which required studio art courses. When I took my first studio art class, I was caught. Doing some kind of creative endeavor on a regular basis became a core element of my life. I think I came to focus on fiber rather than ceramics because the raw material  fibers – paper, fabric, string – are integral elements of our daily lives. I settled on quilting because it is quiet, because of its tradition as an undervalued functional art form, because it allows an exploration of both color and texture, and because of the geometric patterns that resemble those I see in the world around me. For now I am enjoying the constraints of working with the medium in a fairly traditional way. As I follow the paths quilting presents, that, of course, may change.

Artist's Statement for 'The Journey is the Destination,' August 2011
These quilts have been completed in the last year and a half. It has been a year and a half  following a period of many life changes. These quilts are, if not exactly a celebration of the diverging and converging paths and patterns that make up a life, an exploration of such patterns. The act of piecing and quilting raises questions and suggests new, sometimes related and sometimes unrelated paths to investigate, very much the way that living does. The individual quilts vary greatly in color and intensity and yet they are connected by the form itself, by the repetition of patterns and the diverging and converging paths.

Education:

• Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Oregon – 1995. Primary focus in ceramics, with secondary focus on fibers and photography
• Master of Arts, Oregon State University – 2008. History of Science; focus of study: early modern plague epidemics in London

Exhibits:

2009

• Small Quilts: First Alternative Coop, July
• Quilt at Gateway Gallery, Philomath, August

1994

• Artmarks: Invitational exhibit, OSU Memorial Union May

1993

• Floral Open: Corvallis Arts Center April

1993

• Winterlight: Invitational exhibit, Corvallis Arts Center Nov.- Dec.
• Artmarks: Invitational exhibit, OSU Memorial Union May

1992

• Winterlight: Invitational exhibit, Corvallis Arts Center Nov. - Dec.
• Artmarks: Invitational exhibit, OSU Memorial Union
• Floral Open: Corvallis Arts Center April
• Community Open: Corvallis Art Center February

1991

• Winterlight: Invitational exhibit, Corvallis Arts Center Nov.- Dec.

1990

• Fiber Invitational, Linn-Benton Community College, January 1990
• Artmarks Invitational exhibit, OSU Memorial Union May
• Winterlight: Invitational exhibit, Corvallis Arts Center Nov.-Dec.
• Wearable Fibers: Invitational, Linn-Benton Community College, January

1989

• Winterlight: Invitational exhibit, Corvallis Arts Center, Nov.-Dec.
• Artmarks: Invitational exhibit, OSU Memorial Union May
• Fine Craft: Curators work, OSU Memorial Union Concourse, April.

1988

• Winterlight: Invitational exhibit, Corvallis Arts Center, Nov.-Dec.
• Artmarks: Invitational exhibit, OSU Memorial Union Concourse, May
• Clay: Invitational alumni exhibit, U of O Art Museum  March-April
• Community Juried Exhibit: Corvallis Arts Center, Feb.

1987

• Artmarks: Invitational exhibit, OSU Memorial Union Concourse, May
• Ceramics: Juried two-person exhibit OSU Memorial Union Concourse, March-April
• A Past Presence: International Juried exhibit, Corvallis Arts Center March

1985

• Ceramics: Group exhibit, Gallery 141, University of Oregon, May

1984

• Paper-Making: Group exhibit, Gallery 141, University of Oregon, July

Curator:

• 1989 Fine Craft: Curated a fine craft exhibit including the work of over 20 Northwest artists, OSU Memorial Union Concourse, April 1989
• 1985 Ceramics: Hung work in OSU Memorial Union April