Quilts Art

Breaking down boundaries between art and craft

By Kim Malakowsky

Defining Form

Terminology once associated with the fine arts has become the language of quilt makers across the world as expressive art quilts have emerged in recent decades. Exploring sophisticated art principals like balance, contrasting elements, texture, focal points and creation of movement has become an intricate part of the art form.

The art quilt is based on imagery and ideas rather than traditional patterns, often expressing political, social and environmental statements. Art quilts tend to break the rules of traditional quilting offering a new experience for the viewer.

Transition

A handful of artists and craftspeople began experimenting with modern designs and non-traditional techniques in the 1950s and 1960s, with the 1970s and 1980s bringing the most important advances in the field.

Jean Ray Laury (1928-2011) widely recognized as the mother of the art quilt by contemporary artists once stated “There are no rules in stitchery―no single ‘right’ way of working.” These words helped pave the way for quilt artists to stretch the boundaries of traditional methods.

Contemporary quilt artists employ new, innovative techniques including painting, dyeing, stamping, piecing, collage, printing, appliqué and other complex processes.

Explore, Learn, Experience

Quilt National, a long standing juried exhibition of non-traditional quilts produced and circulated by The Dairy Barn Arts Center of Athens, Ohio, will be hosted by the Historical & Cultural Society of Clay County at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, MN. Dates are set for August 16-September 28, 2014. Quilt National ’13 (a biennial show) is comprised of 85 quilts divided into three collections for touring. The Hjemkomst will exhibit the 26 quilts of Collection B.

Visitors to this collection of Quilt National ’13 can expect to see fine art crafted with respect to the heritage quilting techniques of piecing, appliqué, embroidery and stitching layers together. In addition to use of found objects and commercial fabrics, these fiber artists create their own dyed, printed, painted and inked fabrics using innovative takes on processes of discharge dyeing, shibori, wax resist, screen printing, monoprinting, digital printing, pastels, acrylics, paint sticks, textile crayons, markers and ink. Materials range from plastic bags to fine silk with everything in-between.

In addition, the Indian Summer Quilt Show and Conference (ISQSC) takes place September 18-September 21,

2014 at the Fargo Civic Center. The ISQSC intersperses traditional quilts with contemporary and modern quilts representing the full scope of the beauty and vibrancy of quilt making today.

Popular ISQSC instructor and Quilt National artist Katie Pasquini Masopust of Santa Fe, New Mexico will represent Quilt National and be available for questions at the Hjemkomst public reception on September 18th from 3:00-5:00. Katie will also teach sought-after classes on color value and composition and present a lecture on art quilts as part of the Indian Sumer Quilt Show and Conference.

Prestigious museums across the country and around the world are curating quilt shows giving a nod to the artistic vision of today’s quilt makers and acknowledging the merging of craft and art. [AWM]

For more information

regarding shows, learning opportunities, and receptions visit hcssonline.org, ndquilts.com, and dairybarn.org.

If you go...

QUILT NATIONAL ’13 OPENING RECEPTION

Saturday August 16, 2014

3:00-5:00 p.m.

202 1st Ave N

Hjemkomst Center, Moorhead

QUILT NATIONAL ’13 PUBLIC RECEPTION

Thursday September 18, 2014

3:00-5:00 p.m.

202 1st Ave N

Hjemkomst Center, Moorhead

QUILT NATIONAL ’13

August 16-September 28

202 1st Ave N

Hjemkomst Center, Moorhead

INDIAN SUMMER QUILT SHOW AND CONFERENCE

September 18-September 21

207 4th St N

Fargo Civic Center, Fargo