Recent R.I.T. MFA graduate Emily Bellinger breaks the boundaries of quilting at Gallery 4 – 8 in the Anderson Arts Building

Recent R.I.T. MFA graduate Emily Bellinger breaks the boundaries of quilting at Gallery 4 – 8 in the Anderson Arts Building
emily sewing

Emily Bellinger. All photos provided by Emily.

with Krit

with Krit Upra from “A Kicking First Friday at the Anderson Arts Building”

In the April First Friday at the Anderson Arts Building, Richard Margolis (of Restore Rochester Airport Art) welcomed Rochester emerging artist Krit Upra’s photography exhibition in the new Gallery 4 – 8.

This June First Friday, from 5pm – 9pm, Emily Bellinger will display her installation, S h a t t e r e d.  So come to the Anderson Arts Building, enjoy the show, and meet Emily.

Emily just graduated with an MFA from RIT. S h a t t e r e d will be her first solo exhibition. The exhibition features two different works:  a series of found book page block-out poems and a fiber art installation.

emily gallery 2

Gallery 4 – 8 in in the Anderson Arts Building

“The work in this exhibit deals with personal memories and the emotions associated with my past relationships. Utilizing fabric, installation, and poetry, I use vibrant colors and repetitive linear marks as a method of abstract storytelling. Process and materials are integral components of my work. Fabric is a medium that I have always found interesting. I started making quilts in 2008. The fabric represents my own personal memories and piecing it together into a quilt is a metaphor for connections. When sewn together, the individual pieces of cloth represent segments of life combined into a non-linear time line. I approach my quilts as abstract paintings created out of fabric and assemble them intuitively. Quilting provides me with a medium that

emily's showis tactile, easily manipulated, and rich with personal memory. In addition to quilting, I extend my media exploration into installation and block-out poetry. In these works, I strive to create a space and a sense of place in which new memories are sparked.

The poems were created using text from a selection of found books. I took pages from the books and used oil pastels to block out everything but a few selected words. This is a practice that I have been utilizing since my undergraduate study. The poetry has become means of brainstorming. Manipulating the written text to depict extremely personal and ambiguous narratives has been necessary for my process in developing the conceptual ideas I display in my artwork. I carefully selected words on a page to give the viewer a small amount of information about my pieces. These poetic segments of text help further clue the viewer into my emotions and allow them to experience a deeper individualized connection to the work.

The quilted fiber installation, titled S h a t t e r e d, conveys the feeling of complete brokenness after the sudden ending of my most serious relationship. The graphic and jagged edges of each individual piece replicate a broken mirror. This emily gallery 1metaphor is representational of my reflection looking back at the unsettling memories. I used striped fabric to depict a strong visual narrative. The use of perpendicular lines generates a sense of anxiety and causes the viewer to strain their eyes. The difficulty of viewing the piece represents the complexity of emotions associated with the memory of the break up. This piece expands the boundary of fiber in the contemporary art world. S h a t t e r e d not only breaks the traditional, rectangular shape of a quilt, but also uses installation in an unexpected way.”emily sewing 2

 

IMG_2909

Our good luck, Emily wants to write more for the magazine. At the First Friday opening. (l-r) Good Luck charm, Emily, myself [Photo: Jia, also a recent R.I.T. MFA grad]

OTHER ARTISTS AND ART FROM THE ANDERSON ARTS BUILDING

A kicking First Friday at Anderson Arts Building

“Futility of Knowing One’s Self” by Anna Overmoyer from the Anderson Arts Building

Antidote for the Doldrums. Join us for another visual conversation with artist Judy Stewart Gohringer from the Anderson Arts Building

War (literally) made into art at the Military History Society of Rochester

Passover as a universal symbol of liberation with Lynne Feldman

A collage homage to the Public Market with Lynne Feldman

About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

Donate

Like what you see on our site? We’d appreciate your support. Please donate today.

Featured Posts

Loading