The One That Got Away by Nicole Dunn in Personality Plus. Courtesy photo

“Hanging by a Thread” by Sharon Eastvold is part of the Telephone Tag exhibit at Step Up Gallery opening Saturday afternoon. Courtesy photo

STEP UP GALLERY NEWS RELEASE
 
The new combined exhibit that’s on its way to Step Up Gallery at Mesa Public Library is loaded with personality and colorful messages. Personality Plus and Telephone Tag are the two latest offerings from the regional group Studio Art Quilt Associates, known as SAQA. Artists from all over New Mexico and beyond are represented by the Albuquerque-based association. Their exhibit runs from Sept. 26 through Nov. 7, 2024. The public is invited to the opening reception on Saturday, Sept. 28 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., with a gallery talk at 2:30. The talk will be videotaped and available for viewing on Step Up Gallery’s YouTube Channel: ://youtube.com/@stepupgallery1702

These vibrant works make use of cloth as their medium, adding dimension and texture to subjects that could be viewed as paintings. One of the portraits in “Personality Plus” that seems to jump off the canvas is Nicole Dunn’s “The One Who Got Away.” The quilt shows a fisherman
proudly holding his catch- or perhaps his dream of the one who got away?

The exhibit “Telephone Tag” contains 140 small quilts – just one foot square- created by 35
fabric artists. The quilts show how even a visual statement can be transformed into a whole new
story as it is passed from one person to another. “Hanging by a Thread” by Sharon Eastvold is
one such creative reading. In the Telephone Tag display, each group of four related quilts are
hung together in order of their creation on a long strip of neutral color fabric visually
demonstrating their relationship to each other.

Studio Art Quilt Associates of New Mexico is a regional group of practicing fiber artists who
reside in or are connected to New Mexico. The group organizes regional exhibitions, provides
educational content for its members, and fosters community support for artists who make art
from fabrics.

Step Up Gallery (https://stepupgallery.org/) is on the top level of Mesa Public Library in Los
Alamos, at 2400 Central Ave. The gallery is open the same hours as the library: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Monday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5
p.m. Sunday.