Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester RAFA Opening Reception

Well, last night was a highly successful opening of our RAFA show for 2009! Thirty-three artists were represented this year showing quilt art, doll art and even felting and a hooked rug! When I left at 8 (an hour before closing), 211 people had visited. This was truly amazing in view of the fact that the temps and wind chills were in the single digits and below!

Pat Pauly (in black and white with her back to you in the above picture) did a wonderful job of directing the hanging of this show as we over-achieved on how many pieces were hung!

Here Jeanne Beck and Janet Root are talking with a visitor about their quilts. You can see my pelican watching over everyone in the background!



This is a doll created by doll artist Debra Pope who is a fairly new group member and a wonderful artist.

These were pieces by Pat Pauly and Ren Vasiliev respectively. Ren's academic specialty in geography is evident in her works. She travels extensively, keeps up a blog as well as a full time college teaching job and makes this wonderful art!

This is the back wall where my pelican is hanging in excellent company! The piece below is by Barb Magin, next to me is Jeanne Beck and then the whimsical giant frogs are by Julie Brandon who is also an accomplished doll artist!
This is a closeup of the piece that Jeanne Beck did. Double click to see all the detail that really draws you in. Her background as a writer is becoming more and more evident in her pieces!

This was the largest piece in the exhibit by Linda Bachman who is basking in the Florida sunshine while we freeze!

This was the wall in the other room which has Bev's piece on top made from her own shibori dyed fabrics, Pat Berardi's African inspired piece and Barb Seil's piece also containing many of her own hand-dyed pieces.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of many of the toy sewing machines which decorated our food table. They were there courtesy of our own Janet Root.