By Mackenzie Klahr
Art in Town Hall is a regular event held at the Town Hall in Fishers that serves the community through public art and visual celebration. The latest exhibit, the Flights of Spirit, displays a new kind of medium gracing its walls.
Created by local textile artist Judy Ireland, the exhibit will be on display until June 27 and is put on by the Fishers Parks Department along with the Town of Fishers. It is formally titled “Flight of Spirit: Journeys Real and Imagined Textile and Quilted Art Exhibit” and marks one full year that the two groups have collaborated in the public art event.
Dan Domsic, the community Engagement and Volunteer Coordinator for the parks department says he did not know much about textile and quilted art before the pieces were installed.
“I wasn’t familiar with her particular medium of art,” Domsic said. “It will be great for kids to see that you can create many things in different ways and creativity comes in many forms.”
Ireland recently took a trip to Greece and much of her work on display reflects her trip, such as her piece entitled the “Philippian Leaf.”
The tactic Ireland employs is change; she layers various mediums on the fabric by hand in the effort to make something new and unique.
Fiber art is a common form of art in parts of the country, although Ireland has not seen much of it in Fishers. Two quilting stores she especially likes are Quilt Expressions at the corner of 37th and 126th Street and Always in Stitches in Noblesville.
“Plain quilting is a billion dollar business in this country and this is kind of a subset of that,” Ireland said.
A fan of color, Ireland learns towards energy and brightness in her work. Domsic believes the art really pops, “I would call it an explosion of vibrant color; it is absolutely bright and brings a lot of character to the walls.”
Lisa Vielee, who has been the original manager of the Art in Town Hall since it began in 2012, says the exhibits work to highlight local artists that live in Fishers. All but two have had connections to the city.
The next event hosted by the parks department and town will be entitled “Flava Fresh!” and will possibly be a compilation of various groups working with different types of mediums.
