SFA to open exhibition of 'sewn drawings'

"Monument to Desire," a 2008 machine appliqué and embroidery of fabric artwork by China Marks, is one of the pieces included in "Everything Old Is New Again: The Sewn Drawings of China Marks" that will open at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, in SFA's The Art Center @ The Old Opera House.

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Art will open "Everything Old Is New Again: The Sewn Drawings of China Marks" with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, in The Art Center @ The Old Opera House, 329 E. Main St. in downtown Nacogdoches.

The exhibition, which will run through Sunday, March 15, features Marks' large-scale "sewn drawings" created intuitively as she fuses patterned scraps of fabric to large cloth backgrounds and then uses an industrial sewing machine to "draw" and meld the variously patterned parts into a compelling narrative.

The artist's Web site includes her own explanation of her process: "Because I begin each drawing with a new assortment of commercially printed cloth fragments and another patterned fabric as a ground, my drawings can look very different, one from another. Over days and weeks, as I stitch into the scraps of fabric and the patterned ground, doing and re-doing, drawings take shape under my hands-but not entirely under my control-depicting people in circumstances I could never have imagined, but recognizably of this world."

"The exhibition will appeal to a wide audience, from those who are interested in drawing and painting, to viewers who enjoy collages, quilts and other textile arts," said Christian Cutler, SFA director of galleries.

The show is a part of the 2008-2009 University Series and is sponsored in part by the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts and Nacogdoches Junior Forum. Regular gallery hours are 12:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For more information, please call (936) 468-1131.