First Friday Opening Reception: Bonnie Bucknam’s “Unscripted: Fiber Improvisations”

@ UNSCRIPTED: Fiber Improvosations ~ An Exhibition by Bonnie Bucknam On display at The Sherbino and Weehwaken’s 610 Arts Collective Gallery from September 1 – 23, 2026 Artist Reception Join us during Ridgway’s First Friday on Friday, September 4, from 5–7 pm. Stop by the 610 Arts Collective, explore the exhibition, and meet artist Bonnie Bucknam. In Unscripted: Fiber Improvisations, Bucknam embraces intuition, experimentation, and the unexpected. Rather than beginning with a predetermined design, she places a pieced or solid fabric shape on her pin wall and responds to it—adding another shape, observing the result, and allowing each composition to evolve organically. “These pieces go with the flow,” Bucknam explains. Free from rigid plans, rulers, and straight edges, the work celebrates irregularity and the expressive possibilities of imperfection. Bucknam primarily works with her own hand-dyed fabrics, created using Procion MX fiber-reactive dyes, while also incorporating select commercial textiles and fabrics made by fellow artists and friends. Each piece is cut freehand, giving the compositions a lively, spontaneous quality. The quilting is completed on a longarm machine using free-motion techniques, without rulers or programmed patterns. For Bucknam, the process is as important as the finished work: an opportunity to sew intuitively, remain open to discovery, and embrace the outcome. About the Artist Bonnie Bucknam earned degrees in anthropology and geology from California State University, Long Beach. Shortly after graduating, she moved to Alaska, where she lived for 31 years. Her varied career included work as an archaeologist and warehouseman during construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, followed by many years as a legal assistant with the Alaska Attorney General’s Office in Anchorage. After retiring from legal work in 2006, Bucknam moved to Vancouver, Washington, and relocated to Montrose, Colorado, in 2022. Her fiber artwork has received national and international recognition. Her piece Crater received Best of Show at Quilt National 2011 and is now held in the Quilt National Permanent Collection at the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her work has appeared in exhibitions throughout the United States and in Germany, Italy, England, Ireland, France, Japan, Brazil, and the Netherlands. Bucknam has presented solo exhibitions at Portland International Airport and the Visions Museum of Textile Art in San Diego. Her work is also represented in permanent collections including the Tuch + Technik Textilmuseum in Neumünster, Germany; the Patchwork Design Contemporâneo Collection in Rio de Janeiro; and the State of Alaska Art Bank. Add to calendar Google Calendar iCalendar Outlook 365 Outlook Live