Ellen Noël Art Museum

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 2 to 5 p.m.

Admission is free

About the Ellen Noël Art Museum
For 25 years, the Ellen Noël Art Museum has provided residents of the Permian Basin with access to art of enduring quality for the culturally diverse audience of our more than 100,000 square mile region, through changing exhibitions with a cross-cultural focus, the growth of a Permanent Collection of American Art since 1860, collaboration with regional schools, colleges, and Universities, and by providing art classes, workshops, lectures and family activities.

Exhibitions:

A Visual Feast: Narrative Stitching by Cindy Hickok
March 23 through June 10, 2012.

Internationally renowned artist Cindy Hickok creates art using free-motion machine embroidery, using a palette of thread this is essentially “painting” with her sewing machine. She precisely machine embroiders layers upon layers of stitches, creating designs with color and shape, revealing detailed scenes. Most of the work in the exhibition is framed. However, there are 3-dimensional pieces which incorporate stitched fabric surrounding an actual object. A dial up telephone in A Conversation Piece is covered completely with embroidery of art historical figures speaking on the phone. The surprise of seeing the recognizable characters deep in conversation brings up thoughts of the minutes spent “on hold.”

Hickok’s sense of humor is present in each work she creates. She illustrates everyday situations. In She Said, He Said the viewer quickly recognizes the contrasting views in male and female expectations and dreams. He dreams of a vacation fishing, she of a cruise. He thinks of a racy red convertible while she thinks of a practical blue sedan. A cultural event on TV provides entertainment for her, while he prefers a heated sports event. Hickok says “One must be able to laugh at oneself. Frustrations can be fodder for a later enjoyment, when we have the ability to laugh at our personal situations.”

It’s a Balancing Act playfully but aptly portrays the apprehension many career women feel as they juggle multiple roles in today’s world. This piece is embroidered and later attached to a cream colored background. It features a well-dressed woman barely balancing on one foot on a foundation of books, papers, cell phone, and a computer. Teetering overhead are an ironing board and iron, cooking utensils, gardening tools, a laundry basket and other accouterments of daily life. As Hickok says “I can wallow in a situation and let it overcome me, or I can rise above it and share my feelings. That is, of course, through art.”

Many works in the exhibition are parodies on famous paintings. In Breakfast at the National Gallery, characters from various works of art hanging in the National Gallery are enjoying breakfast together. In High Tea at the Met, Hickok incorporates characters from beloved paintings at the New York Metropolitan Museum having tea and conversation. This unlikely group of people brought together at a large banquet table feel as if this must be what happens when the doors of the museum are locked for the night.

The Artist states, “I have a special bond with my sewing machine. It is like an extension of my arm. Each day I stitch, mix threads, create, play. My wall of brilliantly colored thread is beside me, beckoning to try new combinations. My needle is my paintbrush, the thread my paint. I create narrative art.”

Hickok’s work has been shown in museums throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. It is in the permanent collection of numerous museums in the United States and abroad. Her work has also appeared in numerous art books. Recently she has had 2 major solo exhibitions, “Texas Master: Cindy Hickok” at the Houston Museum for Contemporary Art and “Art of the Stitch” showing in London, England, Dublin, Ireland, Paris, France, and Horst, The Netherlands. She currently lives and works in Houston, Texas.

Cindy Hickok will present a Gallery Talk and Artist Demonstration to the public Friday, March 23 at Noon. All are welcome and the event is free.