Detail of Colleen's quilt featuring Ugandan animals

Colleen Lindsey has been hard at work on a quilt to be raffled off at the Columbia City Gallery on Sunday, May 23rd from 6:30-8:30 pm  to benefit the Volunteer Artists Program (VAP). The event will raise funds to send artists to Uganda to work with the Batwa Pygmies to find a way to sustain themselves. Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large recently wrote a nice profile of Marsha Conn and her work with the Batwa.

The event is free and the raffle tickets for a chance at Colleen’s amazing quilt are only $5!

More from Colleen after the jump. » keep reading »

This is the first of SPArts new monthly artist-to-artist series, where South Park artists reveal a little about themselves and their work in this little corner of Seattle. Colleen Lindsey, “the chick who sews on Sullivan”, a fabric artist, and a long time South Park Arts member, met recently with new South Parker, artist and activist Jeanette Wallis.

Jeanette Wallis and her black lab, Sherpa, courtesy of WalkForDemocracy.org

I sat down with a new neighbor, Jeanette Wallis, not knowing what to expect. She came bearing freshly made tea made from nettles, dandelion flowers and mint, which was exceedingly delicious. She has a sense of whimsy about her and her smile is infectious. I discovered that she is also a sewer so, naturally, I liked her immediately. She was in awe over my fabric stash and told me she wants to be a creator of beautiful things. She also has a talent for telling stories of some of the incredible moments of her life, spinning the tales as effortlessly as the tea spills into my mug. Here is some of what I learned about her in that evening meeting, the first of the many to come, I am sure.

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