July 2009: Catherine Imo, c. a. imo
Every year in March, as the Market season is about to begin, we see a flurry of Market folks who bring in the new stuff they've been working on all winter. We get to share the excitement of new products and the anticipation. Will people like it? Will they buy it? And how am I going to display it anyway? I remember a very excited Catherine Imo in our office this past March, unveiling her fabric collage/watercolor paintings. In them, sprightly, ethereal figures move through fantastical landscapes, walking, chatting, having a great time in a colorful world. She had been creating these beings for thirty years, and now it was time for them to come out into the world! Her unique beings have found lots of fans so far this season. People love them, and even have lots of suggestions about the kinds of places they'd like to see them in.
Catherine started as a Market member last season, with very unique jewelry. She uses rolled fabric to create beads, rolling it up just like I used to do with magazines back in grade school. Her beads are much more lovely than my crafty attempts, tough. She combines these unusual beads with other glass and stone beads to make necklaces and bracelets.
She also makes fabric origami boxes and bookmarks. It was the leftovers from all of these fabric items that sparked those fabric/paintings. It's so hard to throw away even a scrap of beautiful material!
You can see that Catherine has arranged her booth to nicley accomodate this variety of items. There are lots of things to display, and yet it looks far from chaotic. It's orderly and inviting. The fact that she uses similar fabrics in all her items really helps to tie the booth together and keep it from dissolving into visual confusion. Surprisingly, she told me that until a few years ago, she only worked in black and white, and was afraid of color. I am so glad she overcame her fears, she's quite adept at getting all those vibrant tones to play so nicely together.
As always, I encourage you to have a look for yourself, photos can never do justice to artworks under glass, or any other art work! You can find Catherine's booth in space 41, on the West Park Block, west of the fountain at the top of the stairs.
