creative textile "landscape": multiple techniques used in this Blue Ribbon winner 

among the Ugly Lamp contest entries... 

beautiful rendering..... 

Drawing entry 

Transparent Watercolor 

Blue Ribbon winners 2007 

Kentucky Tradition in Louisville

Purchase Award 2006 KSF
and first place Abstract 

bamboo morning sun 

spider wort

June blooms on Flag Day 

"Ties That Bind" 2006 commission 

detail 

postcard snapshot, American Dream

...two wonderful people lived as a couple, united in love, here in this home during the second half of the twentieth century... it can be Anywhere, USA... that place that is now gone, as Grant Wood, too, is gone ... but not the art...

...down the street a state highway marker makes note of this woman who created much and contributed more to others and who will ever remind us of another, her husband, the town druggist, who was a weaver of beautiful rugs and colorful stories having lived in small town America... that place we dream of... or try to revisit... do we ever get there? ... or arrive?

like their art, evident of hard work and silent focus, this strong couple left a mark on their culture and community passing invisibly through the fluff and hype that often happens in places where people attempt to sing the national anthem yet are clueless to the second stanza which this artist stitched into her portrait of the America she knew and many now have forgotten...

the textile portrait, a form she invented, from what the rag man once bound or the Goodwill Store takes, is a living reminder of not only the artist but the people who were the society of the Kentucky landscape, town and farmlands surrounding this rural town... Anytown, USA 

spring time is for planting

the tall blue spruce on the front lawn has the names of the dead heroes in this planet's latest war hanging from the limbs since November 2005... eggs are hatching in nests and rebirth is in the air of Nature... Nature always restores hope when politics cannot, Spring reveals peace when nations reject it and Earth teaches us to Love regardless of what the artisans, who live on her fragile surface, struggle to produce... often taking nothing and making SOMETHING profound out of it... as the Universe itself was born...

2,350+ points of light have gone beyond our realm...

BANG

I choose peace, contemplation and creativity... for art is a way and not a THING 

home

March blooms within the home 

Catskills, NY

a warm sunset glows within the buds of winter trees on a day before yet another heavy snowfall near Windham, New York on the eve of March 2006... far from the Lake George region but ever reminding me of O'Keeffe's hills... 

resume updated

magnusonart:
ART EXHIBITIONS

2007

Lynn's Paradise Cafe

Post-Derby Sunday performing arts event

basket weaving, "under water" demo day

May 6

Mother's Day

Lynn's Paradise Cafe

Basket making Demonstration Day

"spheres into basketBOWL forms"

May 13

Morrison Gallery, Elizabethtown, KY

recent textiles, watercolors & canvas paintings from 76-06

January 2-30

6th Biennial Craft Guild Exhibition

West Virginia Craft Guild touring exhibition

throught April 21, 07.

Award, "empty nest" basket form, willow, rattan, honeysuckle

DinnerWorks 2007

The Louisville Visual Art Association annual exhibition

13 Moons Over Somalia

rattan sculpture installation with Pat Sturtzel: Bantu Women textiles

@The Water Tower off Zone and River Road, Louisville, KY

2006

Louisville Collegiate School

Basket making workshop, Lower School

October

2005
Morrison Gallery, Elizabethtown, KY
Woven works in rattan: spheres and basketBOWL forms
Jan-Feb 3 Elizabethtown Community and Technical College
Dustin Kaufman, director

2004
Annual Art Auction BAUM SCHOOL of ART, Allentown, PA

2003
BAUM SCHOOL of ART: Holiday Craft Exhibition Allentown, PA

Nazareth Arts Gallery, Bardstown, KY
BASKETbowl exhibition July

2002
BAUM SCHOOL of ART: Holiday Craft Exhibition Allentown, PA

CERLAN GALLERY
MANHATTAN rising: textile sculpture
522 West Short Street Lexington, KY

2001
HOOPLA: Kentuckiana Basketball
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft

2000
BASKET FORM SCULPTURE: Workshop at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, Nov. 11 & 18, 2000

FIBER ART: present and future March 15-May 17
an exhibition of Kentucky contemporary fiber art
MetroLex Gallery, Lexington, KY

1999
BLACKACRE NATURE PRESERVE ART WEEK: Basket Making Workshop Kentucky Museum of Arts + Design, Louisville, KY
Shayne Hull, education director; June 21-25, 1999

1998
Holidazzle: The Kentucky Museum of Arts + Design Gallery
November – December curated by Brion Clinkingbeard
KMA+D director

1998
Basketmaking Workshop: Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest
Julie Schweitzer director of education
Clermont, Kentucky

1997
DinnerWorks 97: Louisville Visual Art Association
fiber works for the dinner table
curated by Gayle Cerlan/ARTstudio January 18 - February 10

1996
Contemporary Basket Forms: The Kentucky Art and Craft Gallery with Lestel & Ollie Childress and Paula Gron
curated by Brion Clinkingbeard, KACF director

1994
Christmas Pageant of Peace: The Kentucky Tree in Washington DC
textile ornament design competition
Louisville Visual Art Association and The State Capital, Frankfort

1993
Year of American Craft: A Celebration of Works of the Hand
The White House, Washington DC
textile forms in the permanent collection, Smithsonian Institution

1988
Showcase 88: Louisville Visual Art Association
juried by Don Anderson, Toni Birckhead
The Water Tower, Louisville, Kentucky
sponsored by Brown-Forman Corporation


East Meets West: International Design Competition
New York, 1989 Tokyo and Brussels, textile form selected for publication



brief Archive

The Courier-Journal KENTUCKIANA STYLE Winter 1998, November 1; Boffo Baskets: Catherine Murrell, photo by Pam Spaulding, Basket Resources H4: Features

FIBER FOCUS Kentucky catalog: Philis Alvic, editor Copyright 2000, The Fiber Guild of Lexington, Inc. Lexington, KY March-April 2000 basketform photographs


The Courier-Journal, September 16, 2001 Kentuckiana Style Section, Sunday DREAM WEAVINGS: Catherine Murrell, color photo by Pam Spaulding

The Courier-Journal, June 29, 2003 ARTS: Get a handle on weaving baskets at show VIEWPOINTS by Diane Heilenman

The Courier-Journal, NEIGHBORHOODS, July 23, 2003: WEAVING MEMORIES Artist credits mentor, by Missy Baxter; photos Bill Luster, Courier-Journal





Teaching:
Art Workshops: The Art Spirit, Clinton, NJ
Louisville Visual Art Association, KY
Girlscouts of America, Louisville, KY
Kentucky School for the Blind w/ARTstudio
Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest
Kentucky Museum of Arts + Design
Greater Clark County Elementary Schools, IN
Kentucky Ford Truck; Family Learning Center, KY
Spalding University; Bullitt Co. Hign School LVAA, CFAC Program

EDUCATION
M. Ed. University of Louisville 1980
B. A. Morehead State University 1971

TEXTILE STUDY
Brookfield Craft Center: HISAKO SEKIJIMA:basketry
University of Louisville: ALMA LESCH:textiles
J.B. Speed Museum: MICHAEL DAVIS:basketry
Mid-Atlantic Fiber Conference: Barbara Goldberg:shibori
Fashion Institute of Technology: LESLIE TILLETT:textile printing
University of Louisville: MARY REMEY REVOR:surface design
MAHBOOB SHAHZAMAN:oriental rugmaking
ED LAMBERT:ikat dye


Updated Mar. 2006

Created from the generous gift of a lifetime collection of men's neckties (a nephew of Ted Lesch, husband of AWL) this reversable textile commission pays homage to Kentucky textile innovator Alma Wallace Lesch through the use of her buttons which 'button tucked' the woven ties given to me from Ted Lesch's nephew... called "Ties That Bind", this 2006 work by magnusonart (blogger) now hangs in Kirkland, Washington, USA.

  

snow day