SHADOW BOX EXHIBITION - Opening, Artists Reception

He who works with his hands is a laborer.

He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.

He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.

                                            St. Francis of Assisi

 

SHADOW BOX EXHIBITION

Untitled 2011

            On February 23, the Textile Museum of Canada is opening its 15th Annual Shadow Box exhibition and Silent Auction. This important fund-raising event has proven to be very popular with the artistic community and art lovers and supporters of the Textile Museum in Toronto. Every year the Shadow Box Auction alone raises over $30 000 for the museum, and the overall event is quite successful, reflecting the incredible talents of the contributing artists and the enthusiasm of the buying audience.

Write me a Letter 2008                     The Tree in My Dream 2009

            Every year 150 artists are invited to participate in the show. They are given an empty 8” x 8” shadow box frame and encouraged to create art by their own choosing. The works presented there are from a wide range of media. Since the event benefits the Textile Museum many of the artists use Fiber as their main medium, but there are also many who use mixed media, painting, photography, ceramics, glass and jewelry to create an incredible array of whimsical statements.

Junction 2006                          The Maze: What Now? 2007

            I’ve been participating in the Shadow Box show for ten years already, but still await each one of them with anticipation.

            Every year there are many pleasant surprises, unique ideas, delightful little jewels of art. Each following year the artists embrace the challenge with renewed energy creating better, more original and visually stimulating works of art.

Herbarium 2004                            Tales From the Past 2005

            I love the whole concept of the Shadow Box Event. It’s beneficial for everyone involved in it on so many levels – the Museum gets some much needed funding for a small institution, the artists have the opportunities to exercise their talent in enriching, friendly competition and the benefactors end up taking home wonderful, authentic pieces of art. I only hope to still get my invitation to participate in the Shadow Box for many more years to come.

Broken Images 2002                        Up in the Mountain 2003

            In this post I can present only few of my own works that have been exhibited in the Shadow Box through the years. If anyone is interested to see more of the art from other artists too, please use the links bellow.

            This year Shadow Box Exhibition opens with an Artists’ Reception on Wednesday February 23, from 7:00 – 8:30 pm at the Textile Museum of Canada.

Shadow Box 2011 - http://tmcshadowbox.com/artists-a-g/

Shadow Box 2009 - http://www.textilemuseum.ca/microsites/shadowbox2009/gallery.html

Shadow Box 2008 - http://www.textilemuseum.ca/microsites/shadowbox2008/artist_index.html#A

Lessons from a Tailor

                           

              A portrait of a holocaust survivor who learned the art of tailoring while imprisoned in a concentration camp. After being liberated and emigrated to America, Martin Greenfield rose from floor boy, to manager, to owner of a garment factory producing custom men's suits in Brooklyn, NY. Along the way he made suits for celebrities, power brokers, and heads of state, including presidents Bill Clinton and Dwight Eisenhower. His sense of style brought him success and allowed him to give back to the city that took him in as a young man. He now provides jobs for hundreds of working class people, most of them immigrants, and produces top quality clothing the old-fashioned way. This film tells his story, and offers a glimpse inside one of the few remaining hand-made suit factories in the world. His infectious passion and hopeful perspective bring his community and his employees more than just jobs.

     More about Lessons from a Tailor from filmmaker Galen Summer.

            “The inspiration for this film came directly from the man himself. When I first met Martin Greenfield at his factory, with the intention of interviewing him for a lifetime achievement award he was receiving for his efforts as an employer and business owner in Bushwick, Brooklyn, it became clear that there was more to his story than mere success in business.
            Here was a man who had pulled himself up from tragedy and hardship, who had survived one of the most horrific events of the 20th century, the Nazi holocaust, and yet still possessed a lightness of spirit. Here was a man who had mastered the art of the perfectly tailored, hand-made suit, and now that art was slowly being forgotten by the rest of the world. Here was a man who at 80 years of age still seemed to be at the height of his powers, who possessed the confidence to dictate the style and fashions of the power elite, just as he had been doing for the past half a century.
            It struck me as a unique opportunity to create a portrait of a person who had overcome great challenges in life, who had accumulated wisdom about clothes and about people, and who had become a humanitarian in the process”.