Archives for February 2021

Diana Goulston Robinson – BEE SAFE Wearable Mask

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $100
Materials: woven and printed cottons, tulle and sheer iridescent fabric, metallic thread.
Techniques: hand and machine applique, hand embroidery.

Statement: The Status Quo: in the current pandemic humans risk illness and death from viral disease. Bees have been decimated by virus too. We need to protect each other and all life forms. Wear a mask, wash hands, social distance. Pay attention to our environment, the earth, climate and those pollinators.

Randy Frost – Halloween PP

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $75

Statement: Traditional mask-wearing opportunities (or necessities) suggest occasions like Mardi Gras, masked balls, bank hold-ups, Halloween, and now, Covid-19. My mask is not functional. It is a memory of many Halloween nights, carving pumpkins, trick or treating in home-made costumes with matching masks, and having fun incognito. All Hallow’s Eve comes from the Celtic festival of Samhain, which observed the end of the harvest and the onset of winter, suggesting death and the presence of ghosts which people confronted with bonfires and wearing masks. The next day, All Souls day, commemorated the lives of martyrs in early Christianity. Today, we remember all who have died. In 2020, we honor an extraordinary number of lives lost to Covid-19.

Teresa Barkley – Personal Protection

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $100
Materials: Cotton, including the flag fabric used in my quilt
Techniques: Machine pieced

Statement: A thimble protects your finger. A suit of armor protects your body. A mask protects the rest of the country.

Ruth Marchese – Fancy Mask #1 – Gold Dragon

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $50
Materials: Silk, polyester organza, beads
Techniques: bojagi technique

Statement: Although in these times, masks have a purely practical purpose, there is no reason why some should not be just beautiful!

Ruth Marchese – Fancy Mask #2 – Gold

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $50
Materials: Embroidered silk organza, beads,
Techniques: bojagi technique

Statement: Although in these times, masks have a purely practical purpose, there is no reason why some should not be just beautiful!

Ruth Marchese – Fancy Mask #3 – White

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $50
Materials: Polyester organza, netting, beads
Techniques: bojagi technique

Statement: Although in these times, masks have a purely practical purpose, there is no reason why some should not be just beautiful!

Ruth Marchese – Fancy Mask #4 – Reds/Black

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $50
Materials: Polyester organza, netting, beads
Techniques: bojagi technique

Statement:  Although in these times, masks have a purely practical purpose, there is no reason why some should not be just beautiful!

Paula Nadelstern – KALEIDOSCOPIC XL: Her Self/A Radiation Mask

Year: 2016
Ins. Value: $500
Materials: Cotton kaleidoscopic fabrics designed by the artist; beads, sequins. The foundation is the intact hard plastic radiation mask (including the original attached clips) worn by the artist during treatments.
Techniques: Hand stitched, hand beaded, glue, fused

Statement: Shaped to fit each individual, a radiation mask bolts the patient’s head and shoulders to the table to ensure correct positioning, guide beams of radiation and prohibit movement during radiation treatments to the head or neck. This deeply personal work is a radical departure for me, an attempt to transform something associated with a deeply frightening and unsettling experience into an object of art and beauty using the familiar gentleness of hand beading to embellish kaleidoscopic fabrics designed by me.

Victoria Findlay Wolfe – Wrapped in Nature

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $300
Materials: cotton, embroidery floss, felt
Techniques: machine stitched, embroidery

Statement: Keeping with the theme of my quilt, “Look to the Trees,” I feel it maybe was foreshadowing of the times ahead. A move from NYC to Long Island, I’m surrounded by trees, my garden, and all my plants. I’ve found comfort enjoying nature during quarantine.

Benedicte Caneill – Swirling Around

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $75
Materials: Cotton fabric, cotton thread
Techniques: Cotton fabric monoprinted with a plexiglas plate using fabric printing ink. Mask assembled by machine.

Statement: When the time came to sew a mask at the beginning of the pandemic, I felt I wanted to use my own printed fabric to make a mask close to my face reminding me that art is a way to protect oneself in order to ride the wild wave of the pandemic and to show people looking at it that beauty still exists even in hard times.

Paula Swett – Hugs & Kisses (reversible)

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $100
Materials: cotton
Techniques: machine stitched

Statement: My inspiration for this mask came from the song What the World needs now is “love sweet love”. So many are without hugs and missing friend and family connections. Wishing many hugs and kisses come your way.

Paula Swett – New York Strong

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $100
Materials: cotton
Techniques: machine stitched

Statement: I found this fabric that I saved for many, many years. Obviously, it was printed before 9/11 but after all these years and now living and dying with Covid we are New York strong.

Rachael Dorr – Gold

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $150
Materials: cotton, polyester thread, glass beads
Techniques: free motion quilting

Statement: I made this mask when we had all started to wear masks full time when outside of the home and I wanted to make something luxurious and impractical versus the clinical and plain masks we were used to seeing.

Rachael Dorr – 100 billion

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $75
Materials: cotton, medical gauze, paper, glue, safety pins
Techniques: machine stitched

Statement: This mask was made due to my concern over our constant and over use of hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer kills both the bad and good bacteria on our skin and while there are times when it is certainly useful – proper hand washing practices are far better for us. Our bodies hold trillions of bacterial cells which are vital to maintain our health. The text says four things ‘the human microbiome includes around 100 trillion bacterial cells’; ‘microorganisms outnumber human cells by 10 to 1’; ‘an adult body contains approximately 2 to 6 pounds of bacteria’; ‘the majority of the microbes are harmless and actually help to maintain our health’.

Beth Carney – All dressed up, but nowhere to go!

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $300
Materials: Hand-dyed cotton by the artist, beads, beads and beads
Techniques: Machine quilted and hand embellishment

Statement: As masks became an important part of our lives this past year, I realized we needed masks to match our outfits… One can always dream there will be a day when we can gather for a gala event. I will be mask ready!!

Katherine Knauer – Do What You Can. Use What You Have

Year: 2020
Ins. Value: $150
Materials: Commercially printed fabric mask, Silk-screen cotton bandana
Techniques: machine stitched, silk-screen printing

Statement: In March and April when we were all instructed to stay home as much as possible, I decided to use only materials I already had on hand. The screenprinted bandanas and eye-theme fabrics were left over from previous projects.