A lovely profile of Sandy Ducharme and her studio in Cabot.

This week’s Only in The Islands by You features the work of Champlain Islands Fiber Bee Lynn Soule of North Hero who hooked this incredible portrait of RBG in a mere three months from a painting by Florida artist Alicia Betancourt. Thank you Lynn for sharing with us all.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg
March 15, 1933 – Sept. 18, 2020

NORTH HERO – Champlain Islands Fiber Bee Lynn Soule hooked this remarkable portrait of RBG from a painting by Alicia Betancourt. Soule saw the painting at an art festival in Florida and immediately asked the artist for permission to recreate as hooked rug.

Granted permission, Soule began hooking the portrait in January of 2019. She told The Islander, “it took about three months to complete, which was quick because I was so into it.”

“It really took on a life of its own. The jewels in the crown are part of my aunt Lilyth Coates jewelry collection, sister of Joyce Chamberlain. The collar is from Jane Straiton’s grandmother and the earrings are actually lapel pins representing the Scales of Justice and Gender Equality.”

The piece will be featured in the November/December issue of Rug Hooking Magazine.

When asked what her plans are for the piece, Soule said “It is hanging in my dining room and will stay there.”

Sharon was one of four artists interviewed on the radio for a show called The Upside VT Art Hop.

Here’s the link to the radio show.  Sharon’s segment is right at the top of the show at about  3:42

See our president, Gina Steen’s Television Interview: https://bit.ly/2LNHwiv

Seven Days Vermont posted this video after the show in 2011:

The 15th annual Hooked in the Mountains was held at the Shelburne Museum in the round barn and included about 480 rugs, each made one loop at a time by members of the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild. While the subject matter, colors and styles varied wildly, all hookers share an appreciation of this historic art form.

Music: Joshua Panda, “Rosie”

We are sorry to let you know that a former GMRHG member, Shirley Chaiken, has died. Her daughter, Alison, contacted the guild with this news and sent along the obituary below. GMRHG and hooking were important to Shirley and I’m sure many of you knew her. I’ve sent our condolences to her daughter.

Obituary:

Shirley Choate Chaiken died recently in Concord, NH at the age of 80. She was born in Philadelphia to Ernest A. Choate and Mary Craig Choate. She grew up in Jenkintown, PA, where her father was high-school principal. Her father instilled in Shirley a love of birdwatching, a pastime which she enjoyed throughout her life. Continue Reading

Linda Rae Coughlin is one of twenty women artists featured in an hour long video created for a presentation at the United Nations CSW 59, 2014-2015 titled Women Artists Consider Our World produced by video director Maureen Burns-Bowie. Topics covered in the video include; poverty, education, empowerment of women, health, environment, violence against women contributions of women, ageing, political freedoms, transparency, and dreams for a better future.

 

 

 

Linda Rae Coughlin’s feminist textile piece “No Watch Your Back” 2010, hooked/stitched, hand dyed recycled clothing, was selected for the 2015 New Jersey Arts Annual: Crafts “Accessorize the Person and the Place” a juried exhibition at the Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey open to the public. Juror: Ronald T. Labaco, Curator, Museum of Arts and Design, New York City. Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, New Jersey 07960, 973-971-3700 www.morrismuseum.org A digital catalog is available.

 

Emmy Robertson, Cambridge MA has been awarded the Surface Design Award of Excellence by The Newtown Hooked Rugs Shows, Pushing the Limits: New Expressions in Hooked Art 2012.  The rug is entitled:  Peace on Earth

 

 

 

 

Gail LaPierre, Shelburne, VT was featured in the September/October 2010 Rug Hooking Magazine. Her rug, “Tessellated Frogs” was hooked in 2007 and is featured in the Studies in Geometry and Whimsy article in the magazine. Notable are Gail’s patterns, which marry geometry with an agricultural sensibility, as demonstrated in the tessellated designs titled Everything’s Sheepshape and Tessellated Frogs.

Stephanie Ashworth Krauss, Montpelier, VT was honored as the recipient of the 2010 Governor’s Heritage Award. The award established by the Vermont Folk Life Center and Vermont Life Magazine annually goes to a traditional artist who must have the craft handed down through the generations. Stephanie learned how to hook at age 5 taught to herby her mother Anne Ashworth.

Stephanie learned of the award on April 28, the day we in Vermont awoke to no electricity and up to two feet of snow. She was expecting to spend the day hooking and dyeing on her gas stove when her one phone that worked rang. She says that she was surprised, pleased and certainly speechless. Stephanie was unable to attend her own ceremony due to her daughter’s college graduation, but on her behalf family members accepted the award presented by Governor Douglass on May 13.

In reference to the fact that she could not be there to accept the award Stephanie says, “The good news is that my sister, and possibly my dad, will attend the ceremony at the State House and accept the award for me. And perhaps that’s really ok anyway, as one major criteria of this award is to recognize artists with a long family history of involvement and support in their craft or medium. My family meets that criteria well – from my great grandmother to my mom and dad to me and now to my daughters.”