Convent of the Sacred Heart is featuring the work of textile artist Miriam Jacobs through December in the Cora E. McLaughlin, rscj Art Gallery.  Ms. Jacobs has been working as an artist-in-residence, teaching the girls in the Lower, Middle and Upper School.  Her ongoing show in our gallery will feature a reception on December 3 that is open to the public.  

The students have learned how to produce artwork that is done by a method of printing on fabric called disperse dye, in which paintings are transferred onto cloth by means of a hot press. Ms. Jacob mixes the special dyes herself and uses polyester fabric on which the students designs are reproduced.  The students enjoyed seeing how their designs, which were first done on paper, were "brought to life" on fabric.  The method is a hybrid of painting, collage and monoprinting; each piece is unique and cannot be repeated. The student artwork will be displayed in each division.  

The public is invited to view Ms. Jacobs' large- and small-scale work, including men’s neckties made with the disperse dye technique, in the School gallery, now through early December.

Ms. Jacobs has been exhibiting her work in juried art shows for several years and two of her disperse dye pieces will be published in a book on textile art, to come out in May 2010.  Her work is in many private collections here in the United States, Israel, Germany, England, India and Australia.  She has a fine arts background and is a graduate of SUNY Purchase, having studied, primarily, the human figure.

Although Ms. Jacobs originally had only a marginal interest in textile arts, she quickly fell in love with disperse dye, being attracted to its vivid colors and ability to create rich, multi-layered textures.  Unlike drawing the human figure, for which there is little technical preparation, disperse dye requires extensive preparation before seeing results.  If all goes well, it is a pleasant surprise at the hot press – not so much happy accident as intentional accident.  In disperse dye, Ms. Jacobs has found a wonderful vehicle for exploring color and its inexhaustible possibilities.

In addition to her solo show, Ms. Jacobs is slated to teach disperse dye to the students of Convent of Sacred Heart during the first week of November.  Along with the art teachers at the school, Ms. Jacobs will guide each student to create a six-inch square fabric print that will be part of several class quilts.  Some of the students’ work in progress will be included in the show.