12 Jan January Program | Cindy Rinne
“Solitude – Where Ideas Begin,” w/ Artist & Poet Cindy Rinne
Tuesday, January 28th at 7:00 PM
Cindy Rinne will present a trunk show of her art quilts and discuss how to awaken creativity through solitary retreats and adventures. She will also read a selection of her short poems, which she often integrates into her art work. This lecture is about discovering creativity in the quiet places and strategies that fill the creative soul of the artist. Time away in different locations brings discovery. Join Cindy as she recounts her journey into solitude in such places as Lake Arrowhead and Oak Glen. Take a risk, go beyond the boundaries, and dare to be different.
“Life is either a great adventure or nothing.”– Helen Keller
About Cindy Rinne: Weaving text with texture, Cindy Rinne creates quilts that meld her passion for words and materials.
“My quilts are really a different form of collage that I do with fabric,” Cindy says. She was originally a watercolorist who was introduced to quilting through the local Citrus Belt Quilters organization.
Fabrics from Japan, China, Guatemala and other areas of the world form part of her stock of raw materials. She paints, draws with thread, stamps, burns or bleaches the fabric. Although she stitches by machine, she uses a free-form style that simulates drawing with a sewing machine. “I don’t draw my patterns first. I just quilt, and often I don’t know what I will end up with,” she says. She often adds embroidery and beads by hand, using repurposed vintage fabrics, laces and buttons as textures.
Cindy gives each piece a title, some from poetry, others from snatches of conversation she hears when out and about. Combining text with her quilting is a natural evolution of her secondary hobby of writing poetry. “I have liked poetry since I found out you could write in free verse,” she says. Having lived in Taiwan for a year, she feels that her poetry as well as her art work reflect Asian influences.
Nature is also a big influence on Cindy’s work. She gathers bits and pieces of the natural world that she finds around her home and in the nearby mountains. She also gathers snippets of conversations to weave into her art work through text and poetry.
Cindy’s work has been a part of many distinguished exhibits, including: INTERCAMBIOS PARALELOS, CEARTE Arts Center in Ensenada, Mexico, in 2013; “Connecting Threads” in Terminal One at LAX in 2012; “Material Girls” at the Riverside Art Museum; TAQS exhibit in Taiwan; the WCA national exhibition, “Like Water on Rock” (a traveling show), in Los Angeles and San Diego in 2009; a solo show at the Wignall Museum/Gallery at Chaffey College and a two-person show at San Bernardino Valley College. Her work has been featured in the LA Times, as well as many Inland Empire newspapers.