SAQA
Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc.
art quilt collector
Issue No. 5
Art with a message Art with a message has been part of the human consciousness for several centuries, at least since the proliferation of illustrated books and prints. Early in the 20th century, the world of advertising popularized the phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Artists who struggle for social and political change utilize the power of images to touch a common chord within the human psyche. Iconic images that immediately spring to mind include Depressionera photographs by Walker Evans, Rosie the Riveter, the black power fist, and the gay pride rainbow. Cloth can be a subversive medium for taking issue with complacency and apathetic attitudes in the face of difficult social and political problems. Its nurturing aspects create a buffer between form and aggressive content, acting as a more subtle catalyst than propagandistic art, yet with a tension that contradicts any mundane associations with “quilt.” This issue of Art Quilt Collector features the work of artists who tackle challenging issues with alacrity, humor, and a belief in the possibility of change. — Dr. Sandra Sider, Acting Editor
Contents Collector Frank Klein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Art quilts solve design challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Displaying art quilts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Artists to watch Susan Else. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Susan Mathews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Sharon McCartney. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Pixeladies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Gallery: Raising Consciousness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Marvin Fletcher: Growing an art quilt collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 SAQA exhibition: My Corner of the World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Collector’s bookshelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. (SAQA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development, documentation, and publications. ©2016 Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. SAQA Art Quilt Collector is published quarterly by Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc., a nonprofit educational organization. Publications Office: P.O. Box 141, Hebron, CT 06248. ISSN 2379-9439 (print) ISSN 2379-9455 (online) Managing Editor: Martha Sielman Designer: Deidre Adams Subscription is $29.95 for four issues. Outside USA: add $12.00 Subscribe online: SAQA.com>Store Cover: Language of Color 10: Drawing Humanity Pixeladies see story p. 24
The excitement of beginning an art quilt collection by Sandra Sider
Can you recall the excitement of purchasing your first art quilt — and then the additional excitement of realizing that you had found your focus for collecting? Texas rancher, photographer, and conservationist Frank Klein spoke with me at the Texas Quilt Museum in February about his discovery of quilts as contemporary art and his commitment to build a significant collection. (Five minutes after our interview, he purchased a quilt by Kate Themel from SAQA’s Wild Fabrications exhibition on view.)
Could you tell us about your Monarch Ranch? That sounds very interesting, and I’m assuming that you’re in or near the Monarch butterfly migration path. Yes. I own approximately six miles of river frontage along the Devil’s River in Val Verde (“green valley”) County, in one of the major migration routes when the monarchs are heading southward to winter in Mexico. This past year in October-November they were very plentiful and I was able to photograph draperies of monarch butterflies hanging in the trees. I believe you purchased several quilts from the current touring show Butterfly Whirl: Contemporary Quilt Art presented by the Texas Quilt Museum. Do any of the quilts depict monarchs? Yes, they certainly do! What is your personal background with quilting? My grandmother, mother, and sisters all quilt. I don’t quilt myself. My sisters advise me on potential purchases, sharing their insights and technical evaluation of the quality of work. So far, I have bought a dozen art quilts at Texas venues made by artists across the country. How long have you been collecting art quilts? I’ve been collecting for two years but have been interested in quilts since attending the 2003 International Quilt Festival in Houston. I was utterly photo by Frank Klein
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amazed by the craft, talent, and time it takes to make a quilt. Obviously, I’m particularly interested in art quilts. Any special focus, such as the natural world? Yes, my special interest is nature but I can appreciate any subject matter if done well. For example, Angel of Silver by Wendi Bucey appeals to me because I have photographed numerous angels in cemeteries. As a conservationist, I believe in following nature — for example, I raise Beefmaster cattle that are grass fed. You can’t go wrong with nature. Do you also collect traditional quilts? Not so far. Perhaps in the future. What appeals to you about quilts as contemporary art? I like the whimsical aspects of art quilts, and I love the sheer beauty of them and the feelings they evoke. They speak to creation itself, something out of nothing. If that isn’t art, what is? How or where do you usually buy your pieces?
Wendi Bucey Angel of Silver 70 x 38 inches, 2014 collection of Frank Klein
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Mostly at the Houston International Quilt Festival, especially from Studio Art Quilt Associates. SAQA quilts debut every year at the Festival in Houston. Therefore, I get the first shot to preview and possibly buy them. So far I have bought four of my dozen quilts from them this year. I also subscribe to SAQA’s Art Quilt Collector magazine and receive the SAQA Journal.
Can you tell us a little bit about that experience at Houston?
How do you think that art quilts fit into your overall collecting strategy?
Very exciting. First come, first served! I am thrilled that “my” art quilts are being displayed all over the U.S. and internationally.
I don’t have a strategy. I buy what I love. You can’t really sell art — art sells itself. Either it stops you in your tracks or you just walk by it.
Do you collect other art mediums (if so, what are they)?
How do you see your quilt collection ten years from now?
Yes. Paintings, photography, sculptures, and first edition illustrated books.
I do intend to acquire and collect art quilts. If requested, I would eventually love to loan my collection to institutions and galleries for public display and education of the arts. Most people have never seen anything like these quilts!
If so, do you display them along with quilts? Yes, I will when my quilts return from their tours.
Frank Klein credits his grandmother, mother, and sisters for his interest in collecting art quilts. below: Lucile Klein
Stars Crossing
Mary Ann Vaca-Lambert Rustic Sphinx Moth 46 x 41 inches, 2013 collection of Frank Klein
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Adrienne Yorinks and Liz Couluris in front of commission photos by Charlie Fernandes
Design challenges met with artful solutions by Adrienne Yorinks
Repurposing unique design feature I first met Liz and John Couluris through another client who was familiar with my art quilts and books. She told me that her friend Liz had just bought a home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, previously owned by record producers. The most imposing wall, 13½ feet wide by 9½ feet high, had an installation of ninety-six empty wooden frames designed to hold vinyl LP albums. These frames, immediately seen when one enters the front door, create the focal point of the entire home. They are also visible from the living room and kitchen. Liz wanted to incorporate them into something special. She had been thinking of a commission in fiber, so she phoned me. I love working with challenging commissions, so this project was tailor-made for me. My original thought when I first saw the space was to create a monumental quilt that I could fasten with Velcro to the top and sides of the entire wall unit, hiding the frames. But Liz wanted to recycle and repurpose some of the existing designs in her home, while clearly making them her own. I realized that my initial concept did not integrate well with the existing installation. My next thought was to create ninety-six different pieces of fiber art that could somehow sit inside each frame. Liz and I discussed her vision for the wall and her preferences for colors. Luckily for me, she was pretty open and flexible about color. I worked on a few 12½-inch blocks using photo transfers, and we talked about making a family collage the overall theme. Most of my major commissions have involved portraits of various types, and I felt comfortable with this proposal. When I adhered the blocks to the frames, however, I discovered two major problems.
The first was mechanical. The quilted fabric would not sit well inside the wooden frames because of their depth and lack of rigidity. I had to rethink the mechanics of the commission. The second problem was the photo transfers, which did not work well aesthetically in the setting. In addition, they did not read clearly as photographs from a distance. I needed a new approach. It seemed natural to use some Florida local color, incorporating a seascape into the composition. Liz and I settled on a sunset with a moon looming over the ocean as the final design. Working this way with a fragmented image is not foreign to me. For the past twenty years, I have been working in a series titled Tartan, visually “weaving” images into large-scale tartan patterns. I was able to take a spare wooden frame to my studio to experiment with various ideas. My breakthrough in the mechanics problem came when I figured out that the only way the piece would work was to design each 12½-inch square with the same depth, weight, and rigidity as a LP album. I tried several types of cardboard to find the ideal depth and weight, and then cut enough squares to fit each frame. In the final step, I created different pieces of textile art stitched to batting and then stitched to the cardboard. These ninety-six small quilts fit perfectly into each slot, with the final result being a spectacular moonscape. When I do a commission, I encourage input from my clients. I want them to be thoroughly happy with the art, wanting it to have a major impact in their home. I went through different color choices for the sunset with both Liz and John until they were happy. These clients were delightful to work with, and John, being an actual rocket scientist, worked with me to
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tweak the shape and surface of the moon to his specifications.
Headboard gets textile update After I installed the moonscape, Liz showed me the guest bedroom. The previous owners had left a gigantic headboard with ten dark horizontal frames that contained a gold vinyl cushion inserted in each frame. These cushions did not match the color scheme Liz had in mind, but she liked the shape of the headboard, and again, wanted to repurpose the existing piece into something unique. For this project we looked at several of my existing pieces. Liz liked a double-sided piece I did several years ago that had a snowball effect on a monochromatic background of dark blues. She also liked a piece titled Cherry Blossoms—flowers dancing on a silk pieced background—and a third work that I had created
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using raw-edged piecing in various colors, with the surface resembling chenille. I tried several versions of these very different ideas and came up with a pieced dark-blue monochromatic background with floating and playful raw-edge spherical shapes. I wanted the piece to have a whimsical aspect to counteract the austere dark rectangles. I was able to combine all three very different design ideas into a single successful concept that pleased my clients and satisfied my own design sensibilities. Adrienne Yorinks is an artist who works in a variety of mediums. Her textile art and personal memory quilts have been exhibited throughout the world and are included in several museum collections. She also uses fabric to illustrate numerous books, most recently Hummingbirds: Facts and Folklore from the Americas. Her website is adrienneyorinks.com.
Displaying art quilts The versatility of the medium means you have many choices by Cynthia Wenslow
S
ince its inception in 1989, SAQA has been instrumental in moving art quilts into the mainstream art conversation and bringing art quilts to contemporary galleries and museums around the world. Exciting exhibitions like Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora — created by SAQA in collaboration with The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum — are now being envisioned specifically with these venues in mind. With this increasing acceptance and the structural diversity of art quilts, the question of ultimate presentation of the artwork has become more complex. Artists are examining their practices to meet expanding opportunities. SAQA members creating two- dimensional work employ a wide array of finishing and presentation methods. Options include unfinished edges, overstitched edges, facings, traditional quilt bindings, hanging from a fabric sleeve, stretching the work on stretcher bars like paintings, mounting on canvas, matting like a photograph, framing with glass or without, and many combinations of the above. In making these presentation decisions, the artist must consider several factors. These can be broadly divided into aesthetics or purpose. By understanding the choices artists make, collectors can make more informed acquisition decisions as their collections grow. In a recent online discussion,
SAQA members provided some insight into their current thinking about mounting and framing art quilts.
Aesthetics When it comes to the aesthetics of mounting or framing art quilts, artists generally possess one of three mindsets: yes; no; it depends. Susie Monday, a Texas SAQA member, prefers to present her work stretched on wooden frames or, in the case of small works, matted. “I think of my work first as art and second as quilt,” Monday said. “I like the tautness
of the surface and the preciseness of the shape, and that the work stands out from the wall when the textile is stretched. “Although the quilt loses some portability, framing or matting adds formality to the presentation. My work thus can be seen as comparable to a painting on canvas on stretcher bars. Collectors see my work in that way and are willing to consider paying more, too,” Monday concluded. SAQA juried artist Jean M. Judd differs in her outlook. “I have never framed or mounted any of my artwork,”
Susie Monday left: Escape Velocity, 26 x 19 x 3 inches, 2012 right: Pomegranates, 16 x 12 x 1.5 inches, 2015 showing work stretched on wooden frame
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Jean M. Judd left to right:
Purple Angel, 36 x 36 inches, 2004 Last Angel, 39 x 26 inches, 2010 Blue Angel, 36 x 36 inches, 2009 Health clinic waiting room in Denver, Colorado
Reverse side of Last Angel showing hanging slat inserted into the hanging system on the back.
Judd said. “After talking to many gallery and museum directors, who have all told me that they prefer the organic feel of textile work hung as it was intended to hang, like a tapestry, I haven’t explored the option,” continued Judd. “I’ve never received feedback from exhibitions saying my work would have been better mounted or framed.” For SAQA juried artist Rosemary Claus-Gray, who often creates with sheer silk organza, the presentation is
dictated by the artwork. “To me, the way one presents the work is an entire composition, so the method of presentation needs to add to or be in the background of the art, not to distract or dominate.” “I consider each piece separately, and I have multiple approaches to my art presentation,” Claus-Gray continued. “When I use a neutral, archival mat board, I attach the sheer work in a minimal way, stitching the piece to the
mat board with invisible monofilament thread. I attach it in as few places as possible, to allow the work to seem to float over the mat board and to interact with air currents and change with the light. I use a minimal metal frame in either a gold or silver finish, around the edges. It’s barely there.”
Purpose Many artists make presentation decisions based on practical considerations.
Rosemary Claus-Gray Portals III 36 x 25 inches (framed), 2012
Portals VIII 54 x 40 inches, 2012 This piece is hung by an acrylic slat sewn directly to the piece with monofilament thread. This avoids a line across the piece and minimizes show-through. The piece moves with air currents.
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Elena Stokes Horizon IV 6.5 x 8.5 inches, 2016 full view and side view showing mounting
Deb Cashatt is one half of the SAQA juried artist member duo Pixeladies, creating art with collaborator and friend Kris Sazaki. (see article, page 24) Cashatt said that on occasion, the Pixeladies have stretched pieces. Why? “I think potential buyers have an easier time envisioning framed work in their home or office,” Cashatt said. “We have one patroness who purchased a large quilt and had it framed and put under glass. The quilt looks very nice and fits with the other fabric pieces she has mounted in this manner.” SAQA juried artist member Elena Stokes has begun mounting her smaller work. “Psychologically, it feels more like ‘Art’ to buyers, and it’s ready to hang. I’m now mounting my small pieces on cradled panel boards. These give the professional presentation of framed and mounted work, as well as ease of hanging, but they still feel organic.” While mounting or framing an art quilt can make it more accessible for some collectors or add presence to smaller works, it isn’t always an option. Depending on the requirements of a particular exhibition, having the artwork mounted can mean a piece is ineligible for inclusion. Many art quilt exhibitions need to be able to roll the art quilts to reduce shipping and storage costs. Canadian SAQA member Kit Lang ordinarily prefers to mount or frame her work. “The exception is if I’m entering the piece in a show that requires them to be unmounted. Because I’ll be mounting them later, I make sure I build in an extra 4 inches of border that I hand stitch to the back before I put on the sleeve.”
Protection of the artwork is often a consideration for quilts intended for display in high-traffic public areas. These works might benefit from being mounted and separated from the viewer by glass or acrylic sheeting. However, doing this can add considerable cost and hanging weight if the piece is large. Finally, the artist may choose presentation methods that produce a cohesive look for a particular series or body of work. This approach has the practical advantage of making an exhibition or grouping easier to hang while providing immediate context for the viewer. Cynthia Wenslow is an artist, writer and curator based near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Contact her at cynthia@ cynthiawenslow.com.
Ask the artist With the wide range of layered and stitched artwork being created today, the presentation question will remain vital to the conversation. When considering an acquisition, here are some questions to start a dialogue with the artist. • What is the hanging or display method? • Why did you choose this method? • How is the hanging or display device attached to the artwork? Is it removable? • Is there anything special I need to know to care for an art quilt presented this way?
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artists to watch
Susan Else Santra Cruz, California
Working in three-dimensional forms gives Susan Else’s work the appearance of something cuddly and cute. Look more closely though, and her political commentary comes through loud and clear. Her quilted figures have a message that viewers will appreciate along with the humor she injects into each piece.
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Stealth art The marvelous thing about working in cloth is that it often seduces the viewer into thinking the work will be “safe” and “comfortable.” I use this quality to create what I call “stealth art,” which pulls viewers in and then makes them grapple with uncomfortable issues. My work often has a political overtone, but I try not to be too didactic or to point too many fingers. I figure we’re all responsible for what’s wrong in the world. You can look at the piece When Ponies Dream as a comment on power relationships, for example, but it’s also a celebration of color, mechanics, and the flexibility of cloth as a medium. The ponies are having a wonderful time, even if the humans are a little downtrodden. The shopping figure in Consumer Confidence may be covered with little transparent skulls, but the useless items in her shopping bags are very seductive, and her latte is a complex piece of fiber engineering.
How I became a sculptor In the late nineties, I was making abstract flat quilts, but even with those I was interested in conveying depth. Honestly, I think I just got bored with the flat surface, so I started adding abstract, cloth-covered, three-dimensional shapes to the quilts. At the same time, Mike McNamara, a member of my quilt group, was creating a series of sculptures that he called the “It Dolls.� Half bird, half human, with long attenuated limbs, beaks, and crests, they were dressed and posed for a variety of circumstances: acting Shakespeare, singing opera, doing yoga, etc. They were marvelous, and I wanted to make some of my own. When my early cloth figures joined a framelike abstract shape on my design wall, I suddenly had figures on a stage. I had never planned to be an artist, let alone a sculptor. I grew up in a family of artists, but I was the family rebel, determined to apply my textile skills and visual eye only in practical ways. Though I had already moved away from this rigid stance when I made my first figures, my sculptor mother was immediately ready to help me place my work in a fine-art context.
above: When Ponies Dream
31 x 31 x 40 inches, 2013 with detail left: Consumer Confidence
24 x 17 x 13 inches, 2006 private collection
All photos by Marty McGillivray
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Hard Times 15 x 35 x 20 inches, 2011
“Mom, I made some people!” “Oh, you mean you made some sculpture?” Not incidentally, she had also given me a lifetime of exposure to the process of creating figurative work.
Challenges of extra dimensions The first challenge, of course, is figuring out how to make flat cloth stand up in the world, and how to create the myriad volumetric shapes the universe encompasses. But the technical challenges are part of what pull me through to completing the work. “How would you make a ______? Well, let’s try this. Or maybe I should talk to someone who knows about that.” I have arthritis in my hands, and it showed up soon after I started doing the sculptural work. A couple of
Underwater 21 x 26 x 26 inches, 2010 with detail
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things have helped: I save my hands for working on sculpture, and I have modified all my tools. I use only spring-loaded scissors, the handles of my cutters and stuffers are all padded to keep my grip open, and I do my hand sewing with very thin curved needles that minimize the amount of gripping and pushing. I’ve extended the useful life of my hands longer than I ever expected. My energy and grip will run out before the ideas do.
Collaboration Sometimes my work requires carpentry, a machine shop, or engineering skills I don’t have time to learn. Creating When Ponies Dream was a complicated process involving several people. I had enrolled in a two-
week class at my local community college on how to make art for the Burning Man Festival — not because I attend the festival, but because I needed to know what was possible in terms of adding mechanics, audio, and lighting to sculpture. As a project for the class, I wanted to make a mechanical carousel to complement an animated Ferris wheel I’d already created. The instructor, artist Patrick Stafford, was very kind in helping me figure out both the mechanics of how the piece might work and how to use the necessary power tools in the college’s machine shop to create it. During the several months I spent covering it with a quilted surface and making each human steed and pony rider, my husband, Marty McGillivray, refined the mechanics so they would actually work. He also found the carousel music. I can’t talk about fabricators without mentioning my collaborator Iman Lizarazu, who is both a professional clown and a juggling-equipment fabricator. She has the skills for welding both metal and plastic, and she has helped me with several armatures that are outside my skill set — for example, the plastic frame for the circus tent and the mechanical elements of my Ferris wheel.
Family Life 38 x 20 x 20 inches, 2014 collection of San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
Circus series I have embarked on a series of ten pieces having to do with the circus and the sideshow. The old-fashioned circus is a great place to explore the boundary between the splendid and the macabre, between the celebration of human prowess and a fascination with human mutation and peculiarity. I expect that this series will take two years of hard work, and I won’t be able to create much else in the meantime. I love the “ah ha!” moment when I figure out how to make something work. I’d been working on a circus tent in which shadows of the old fashioned “freaks” move among more benign images of acrobats, jugglers, and trick riders. I was having difficulty getting the interior light and silhouettes to cast distinct shadows on the tent surface. It was wonderful when I realized that I simply needed to move the light source from the top of the tent to the bottom!
Advocate for my format Fairly early in my SAQA membership, I wrote a letter to the executive director and the president of the
board. Why, I asked, doesn’t SAQA allow three-dimensional works to be exhibited in its shows? I received immediate, thoughtful replies about how this was a venue-driven and shipping-cost related problem. Soon thereafter, I was asked to serve on a committee to address how SAQA could work toward inclusion, and now I’m on the board. Along the way, I’ve met up with a host of supportive SAQA members. I’ve always felt that my work was given a place at the table, and that my “squeaky wheel” approach resulted in action and inclusion by the organization. Being an advocate for my format in a supportive environment has helped me to define who I am as an artist. susanelse.com
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artists to watch
Susan Mathews Ocean Grove, Victoria, Australia
A celebration of the complexity of forms found in Australian plants characterizes the work of Susan Mathews. Her work uses a variety of printing techniques highlighted by dense stitching. The importance of protecting our environment is subtly stressed as each portrait of natural beauty is lovingly created.
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Environmental awareness Protecting the environment matters. It matters to me as an individual living in this place and this time; it matters to society that we preserve the environment for future generations. To create work reflective of the environment and to exhibit it says to the world: This matters. In Australia, we are lucky to have so much natural beauty, and it is with a sense of unease that I see what was once farmland being covered by housing estates at a relentless pace, with all the various stresses on resources that this development brings. It’s frustrating to see the lack of real commitment by government to exploring innovation in alternative power generation to control climate change. Nearly all my work focuses on the natural environment. I’ve always been drawn to Australian native plants. Many of them have interesting textures and forms in their flowers, leaves, and seedpods. Banksias are my absolute favorites. There are many different varieties, and they appeal to me in all their stages of life. Since we moved from the inland to the coast 4½ years ago, even though we only have a small garden, I’ve been thrilled to be able to grow some banksias and kangaroo paws. It is wondrous how a tiny seed can become an amazing plant with all its complexity and its built-in time clock of growth.
Ode to Banksias 6 16 x 16 inches, 2016
Anigozanthos 3 16 x 16 inches, 2014
Studio work I love being in my studio and just “doing.” I most enjoy the processes of creating my work. Part of that pleasure is watching something evolve under my hands. Creating with white fabric as a starting point is a little like watching a plant grow from seed, blossom, and mature. I enjoy drawing for the insights it gives, the personal interpretations it leads to, and simply for the satisfaction of doing it. Being able to use my drawings as a basis for my textile work is great research, which informs the imagery in my work. Drawing is really thinking on paper. While sitting and drawing, interleft: Coastal Life 2
42 x 59 inches, 2013 Collection Central Goldfields Regional Gallery, Maryborough, Victoria, Australia
esting ideas often pop into my head, and I can end up going somewhere I could not have predicted.
Printmaking I have loved printmaking for many years and have worked with a number of processes that all come together in my current work. For some years when I was living in Yarrawonga and quite isolated, I attended classes at TAFE (Technical and Further Education) colleges in nearby towns just to be with like-minded people and focus on art. I extended my knowledge of linocut printing and silkscreen printing. In the early 1990s, I added stitching to my lino block prints and elements like birds to my banksia images with machine stitching. SAQA Art Quilt Collector | 17
Celebration 41 x 57 inches 2015
My current work includes lino printing to create background and textural prints, which are pieced together and then overlaid with silkscreen images. I generally outline the shapes that I want to stand out, usually stitching around them at least twice to throw them into light relief. I like to stitch the backgrounds quite closely, echoing shapes while building further shapes into the larger areas. This approach gives energy and emphasis to the image by flattening the background while giving it added texture. I ignore whatever patterned fabric may be in the printed backgrounds, which I use for their textural qualities. I often follow the lines or shapes of the printed designs, creating actual texture as well as visual texture.
Celebration This piece evolved directly from work I created for an exhibition with a couple of friends called Changes. I had just moved to the coast, and in preparing to get started on this exhibition, I created many drawings on site and from collected plants, seaweed, and shells of the area. I created a grouping of patterns that I carved into Ezi-Carve blocks. I began printing them onto various 18 | SAQA Art Quilt Collector
hand-dyed fabrics. I then created backgrounds for some of the works by piecing together a number of printed fabrics. I have continued to use this method for a number of subsequent larger works, the latest finished piece being Celebration. In the Changes exhibition, additional images from local sources were carved on a larger scale in lino and printed onto white fabric. These were cut out and raw-edge appliquĂŠd onto the pieced backgrounds. At the same time, I worked with a couple of friends on an exhibition we called DECADEnce for which we focused on specific decades in time. I chose to harken back to my youth and the textiles that pervaded my life from an early age. One of the things I remember was the color gray: curtains my mother had silkscreened in gray and white for our lounge room and the dark gray carpet that matched them. I began to bring gray into the work I did following this exhibition, including white and black as well, and also toning down the normally quite saturated colors that I had previously used. This new lighter palette excites me and is seen in Celebration. When I had finished silkscreening the top of Celebration, I thought maybe it was too chaotic. I decided
Regeneration 39 x 16 inches, 2016
to stitch the top in straight lines — a very different approach for me — to give it more cohesiveness. This work has been exhibited frequently, and people seem to respond very positively to it. It makes me feel happy to look at it.
Connection to a world of artists It’s wonderful to be part of SAQA, an organization of kindred spirits from around the world, and to see what everyone is doing. For 35 years I lived inland, a three-hour drive from our capital city. For most of that time the town I lived in was a bit of a cultural desert, and I took any opportunities that presented themselves to be involved with like-minded people. I was quite happy for most of that time doing my own thing, but I did feel a bit isolated from the textile community. Now, with the growth in digital communication, it’s possible to feel that I’m part of the wider textile world, even if still isolated. I feel connected.
Challenges for the future Technically my challenge to myself is to expand and refine my printing repertoire, to explore new techniques, perhaps using photographic screens and drawing directly onto the screens. This will inevitably change and expand the imagery with which I am working. I’ll continue to explore the colors and natural wonders of the coastal environment as I examine my physical presence in this place and try to showcase the environment as a thing to be treasured. As my work evolves, the challenge is to try to keep freshness and relevance in my response to the environment. It’s always a challenge to articulate the spark and level of excitement and protectiveness towards the environment that I feel. I would like people to look at my work and feel uplifted. I want the work to be able to give viewers something different each time they look, to find interesting details each time they view it. I also want them to share my passion for the wonderful plants and landscapes that are unique to our country and to see the value of textiles as a valid medium for creating artwork. susanmathews.info
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artists to watch
Sharon McCartney Belchertown, Massachusetts A fascination with the minutia of the natural world inspires Sharon McCartney’s work. Actual stones, twigs, leaves, and other objects are combined with a variety of surface design techniques in an attempt to capture the rhythms of the world around her. Using stitch as a meditative practice adds to the peaceful aura her work invokes.
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Minute aspects of the natural world When I was young, I had a daily and vivid connection to the natural world and my surroundings. I was aware of minute changes in growth and season, and was attuned to small details and discoveries. At times it feels as if my work is solely focused on returning to that pure state of attentiveness. The need to collect, to hold, to marvel, and to preserve has always been there for me and continuously informs my work. Our experiences of nature often come in moments. A particular view or vivid detail will capture our attention, enrich us, and perhaps fade from our minds. My attention has long been held by these glimpses and discoveries; they have become my source of sanctuary and personal rhythm. Collecting natural forms and incorporating them into my work reaffirms truths that begin with the self, but are immediately universal.
Stitch I use rusting, gel printing, and sun printing to customize plain and commercially decorated fabrics, and I augment these processes with painting, photo transfer, and other forms of mark making. The stitched surface has had an ever-increasing presence in my work. In practice, stitching has brought a
above, from top:
Welcome Guest 8 x 20 inches, 2015
Follow Home 8 x 20 inches, 2015
Totem Cloth: Under The Blue Moon 47 x 14 inches, 2014
all photos by John Polak Photography
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editative element to my process that I find dynamic m yet peaceful, as instant color choices are combined with repetitive motion, resulting in an accumulation of time and texture. I have always been concerned with building layered surfaces in my work, and stitching indulges my love of pattern while also allowing me to build a unique history for each piece. Because I work in series, my days vary between creating the materials I will use and the actual construction of the pieces. For each series I spend a few weeks making up a palette of new fabrics and working up a set of drawings that will be transferred to cloth panels. I plan several pieces at a time, adapting my ideas and compositions as the series develops. I collect found objects — stones, twigs, and plant material — and spend time outdoors amassing sketches and photographs as inspiration for my work.
Other pathways Studying art history for a master’s degree helped me to develop a critical eye. It also introduced me to a rich variety of approaches and ideas from all kinds of eras and cultures. For example, studying Japanese art made me appreciate asymmetry and the power to be found in the direct presentation of simple, natural subjects. More recently I’ve been looking at the history and practice of amulet and talisman making in many different cultures. These objects speak to traditions of myths and memories, and to the accumulations of stories used to explain and connect us to the inexplicable. In addition to art quilts, I create paintings, collages, artist books, and small mixed-media sculptures. I often take an idea for a series and work on it in several disciplines at once, using some of the same drawings, found objects, and embellishments on different pieces. Stitching unites all of my work. I employ it in my collages, books, and fiber sculptures, and it is, of course, featured in my quilt pieces. With this language of stitches, marks, and patterns on hand-printed textiles, I connect to eras when people lived by the cadences of the earth, times when both subjects and symbolism had spiritual bonds with nature.
Quilt as Art exhibition SAQA has provided me with a wealth of exhibition and publishing opportunities. This past year, I participated in the Quilt as Art exhibition at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. SAQA publi22 | SAQA Art Quilt Collector
Almost Persuaded 48 x 21 inches, 2014
cations and email updates are an invaluable source of ideas, inspiration, and information about the art quilt community. . I’m currently preparing work for a solo exhibition scheduled for May 2017 at Borelli Edwards Gallery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In that show I will combine art quilts with objects inspired by the traditions of amulet and talisman making. I want to utilize the forms of totems, talismans, and amulets to encourage dialogues between representation and ornamentation,
between two and three dimensions. This exhibition will involve suites of pieces that relate to one another, communicating a sense of place from multiple perspectives.
Process Last summer, I began a series of small quilts during an annual visit to Split Rock Cove in Rockland, Maine. Welcome Guest and Follow Home are two pieces from this series. I began work on the pieces by printing fabrics specifically for them, utilizing sun print and gel print techniques on linen and cotton, and using local plants as motifs. After two weeks of printing layers of images, one over the next, I began to combine these fabrics with other materials that I had collected for the project. Using a simple photo transfer method, I transferred some black and white drawings I had made onto linen, then I collected some small stones and beach glass. To these I added ceramic pieces that I had made earlier in the year as embellishments. Construction of the pieces began with a measured pattern in cotton organdy, the stabilizer I use to give
structure to each piece and to support my embroidery. The cotton and linen panels were pieced together by hand before I turned my attention to embellishment. I purposely kept the compositions simple so that I could focus on developing the surfaces. Extensive hand embroidery followed, and then I attached grids of pebbles and a few strategically placed ceramic details to enliven the surface and add movement. The pieces were then finished with layers of stiff interfacing and a backing fabric and quilted by hand.
Always finding something new My favorite reaction to my work is when people tell me they can return to it again and again and find something new, something that they hadn’t noticed or considered before. For me, the personal is political. I don’t focus on trying to expose ways in
which we are all harming the environment—we know that we’re doing it, and there are activists who are better than I am at tackling those issues. I hope my work inspires people to look with wonder at elements of the natural world and to consider the value of appreciating both the major events and the tiny, significant moments. One of my all-time favorite quotes from environmentalist Rachel Carson is, “One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, ‘What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?’” I hope to inspire appreciation for daily encounters with the natural world, for discovering smaller, personal ways we can interact with nature, absorb its lessons, and make individual efforts to protect it. sharonmccartneyart.com
below: Healing Wounded Souls:
Earth, Water, Air 20 x 70 inches (20 x 22 each) 2015 with detail, right Courtesy of Borelli Edwards Galleries
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artists to watch
Pixeladies Cameron Park, California A love of language and word forms combine with a strong sense of social justice to drive the Pixeladies (Kris Sazaki and Deb Cashatt) to make art out of headlines. Their dramatic imagery is formed from collages painstakingly cut and composed from the headlines featured in a wide array of publications. The Pixeladies then scan the collages into the computer and print the final version onto fabric using fiber reactive dyes in their printer. The resulting whole-cloth quilt is densely quilted by machine. Each political statement is laced with humor, making the experience of Pixeladies’ artwork unforgettable.
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Politics Kris is a political animal and has drawn Deb into the fray. We’ve been friends for so long that we talk about everything. Kris has a 45-minute commute to our shared studio and she listens to the news on the way, so she always wants to talk about what she’s just learned. While we have similar views, we don’t agree on everything. People always think we get along famously. Well, in the end we do, but we do argue …or rather discuss, a lot during the initial phases of a composition. What theme? What object? Once we settle on a theme, we brainstorm the object that we want to use as our focus. Deb tends to have a vision of what the piece should look like, while Kris tends to have a vision of what it should say.
Collaboration Why do we collaborate? We have complementary skill sets. Deb could be perfectly content creating in a studio all day long, not talking to a soul. Kris, on the other hand, would go stark raving mad without human contact. So without Kris, Deb would have some art, but perhaps no one would know about it. Kris comes up with brilliant but very specific topics, and Deb reminds her that we need lots of text to create each image. Alone, Kris would be making very small, in-your-face political pieces. Ours is a true collaboration in that we don’t have specific tasks. We both do all the work: brainstorming, computer design, collage, printing, and quilting. For us, the theme comes first. Then we spend a lot of time figuring out how to realize that on paper. We’ve been concentrating on everyday objects to help us express controversial ideas. Our favorite part of this process is the collaging. Another advantage of collaborating is that we have a built-in critique group. To have a successful critique, you need to have a lot of trust in the other person. Because we’ve been friends since 1978, we’ve had time to develop that trust. When something isn’t working, we can talk out the issues and come up with a mutually agreeable solution. top right: Eddie’s Chevy
30 x 20 inches, 2016 (with detail, left) right: Language of Color 10: Drawing Humanity
30 x 30 inches, 2016
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left: F is for Flag
Text from headlines
right: V is for Volkswagen
We find our text in magazines and newspapers. Our dentists and hairdressers, among others, have made many generous magazine donations. You simply can’t make this stuff up. Really, who would ever have thought to write “The Red Underpants: An Oral History”? We keep a file of odd phrases that we hope we’ll be able to use someday. “Nobody changed the world with novelty socks” is one that comes to mind. We like the serendipity of finding random phrases and then putting them together to create new meaning. We try to inject some humor because many of our topics are so serious, and we hope it keeps the viewer coming back for more. We still crack up at some of the combinations we created in our piece, American
6.5 x 4.5 inches each, 2014 both, collection of Nysha Nelson
The Picture is Only Half the Story 28 x 41 inches, 2014
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Still Life: The Weight of the Nation. Stuff like “Hold on to your spatulas” and “Guess who’s paying for dinner” and “The end of the brownie as we know it.” Kris loves the interplay among the art, the artists, and the media. And let’s face it. We’re dealing with a dying concept, the actual printed word, and somehow we want to capture its essence before it completely goes away. Deb thinks fonts are simply beautiful apart from the meaning they may impart. Kris likes that words have meaning as well as beauty. We’ve been drawn to text from the beginning of our collaboration.
Studio work We live about 45 minutes apart, so we try to keep our time together for the creative things. Office work and online teaching usually get done when we’re apart because we’re just a phone call away. We also love technology. With Google Docs, for example, we can be miles away from each other working on the answers to these interview questions. We also tend to store many of our works-in-progress in the cloud, so we can work on the computer from wherever we may be. A couple of years ago, we made a small matted quilt for the Spotlight Auction at the SAQA conference in Washington, D.C. It was an apple with an A embroi-
American Still Life: The Weight of the Nation 60 x 60 inches, 2012
dered on it. The theme? The health care debate. Nysha Nelson, who bought the piece, asked us to make the other 25 letters of the alphabet. This was challenging because each piece is pretty small (about 5 x 7 inches), and we have to use tweezers to work that small. However, we really wanted to do the project because we were given complete control over the topic and object each letter would represent. Many of the objects people associate with alphabets were not workable for us thematically or as a simplified collage. Once we realized we could wander away from the expected, we ended up with some great letters: L is for Legos, O is for Oxfords, or Z is for Ziggurat. We knew we’d hit upon something special when Kris’s son saw F is for Flag (a gay pride flag) and thought it was one of the best pieces we had ever done. Doing 26 separate themes has given us fodder for even more pieces on those subjects. Take Y is for Yin Yang, for example. We’re pretty sure we’re going to tackle the subject of religion again, especially if we keep finding phrases like “When Presbyterians attack.” If it weren’t for SAQA, we would not have received this commission (as well as others), been invited to exhibit our work, or been given the opportunity to showcase what we teach. By donating work to SAQA’s benefit auctions, we’ve also sold other work, and it’s made our work better. But in the end, it’s the friends we’ve made that keep us bound to SAQA.
Talking about the taboo We want viewers to come back and keep looking at each piece, discovering new perspectives. We want them to keep thinking about the issues that are introduced. We hope they’ll be able use our pieces to talk about subjects that are often deemed taboo in conversation. We hope our work allows people to approach these subjects with greater openness and willingness to discuss them. pixeladies.com
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gallery raising
consciousness
Paula Kovarik Stream of Consequences 72 x 71 inches, 2014 www.paulakovarik.com
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Melani Kane Brewer Wings of Fire 52 x 20 x 1 inches, 2014 www.melanibrewer.com
gallery | raising consciousness
Lorie McCown Requiem 40 x 25 inches, 2014 www.loriemccown.com
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gallery | raising consciousness Patty Hawkins Enigma of Forest Fires 72 x 72 inches, 2013 www.pattyhawkins.com
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photo by Bill Bachhuber
55 x 60 inches, 2014 www.annjohnston.net
Bonnie J. Smith Suffragettes 20 x 30 inches, 2013 www.bonniejofiberarts.com
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gallery | raising consciousness
Ann Johnston Dry Lake
gallery | raising consciousness
Clairan Ferrono Katrina: Signs 16 x 16 inches, 2013 www.fabric8tions.net
Sue King Promise Kept 17 x 26 inches, 2015 www.suekingarts.com
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gallery | raising consciousness
Deborah Fell Remembering Munchner Platz 1 45 x 34 inches, 2013 www.deborahfell.com
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Marvin Fletcher on growing an art quilt collection by Dana Jones
W
hen Marvin Fletcher bought his wife, Hilary Morrow Fletcher, an art quilt as a 20th wedding anniversary gift in 1985, little did he realize it was just the first of many art quilts the Athens, Ohio, couple would purchase. “We didn’t have a vision of collecting as an ongoing thing, but once we bought one quilt, we knew it was possible to buy more,” Marvin said. “Neither of us said we wanted to collect quilts; our collecting really started as an accident. I’m not sure when we realized we had a collection, but at some point it struck us that we did. It wasn’t a conscious decision to collect, but it was something we enjoyed doing together.” When Marvin bought that first quilt, Hilary had just become project director
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of Quilt National, the biennial art quilt exhibition sponsored by the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio. The quilt was Flowerseed Farm by Holley Junker, which was co-recipient of the Award for the Most Innovative Use of Medium at Quilt National 1985. In 2006, as Hilary was preparing for Quilt National 2007, doctors discovered she had cancer of the liver, her second bout with cancer in seven years. She died August 11, 2006. By then, collecting art quilts — most from Quilt National exhibitions or from quilts entered in Quilt National but not juried into the exhibition — had become so much a part of life for Marvin and Hilary that Marvin continued collecting.
Marvin said that since Hilary’s death, he may have chosen a few quilts she would not have selected, but his process for picking quilts to purchase remains close to the process they developed together. “When Hilary went through entry slides of pieces submitted for consideration for Quilt National exhibitions, she would pick out ones she thought I’d like,” Marvin said. “I like color and design, with less focus on technique. Since Hilary died, people at the Dairy Barn have helped me make selections.” Marvin’s starting point remains identifying pieces he is drawn to. Then other criteria kick in. “I have size limitations; pieces have to fit on the walls of my home,” he said. “And there’s a price above which I don’t go. My collection doesn’t have a theme, and generally, I don’t buy a piece by an artist I already have. There are a few artists from whom I have more than one quilt. For example, I have three pieces from Noriko Endo.” Marvin said he usually buys two to four pieces from each Quilt National. He and Hilary commissioned two quilts for their collection, and they sometimes bought quilts from shows they attended. Marvin has gone to a few shows on his own in recent years. The Fletchers named the collection the Marbaum Quilt Collection, combining their fathers’ original surnames, Marowitz and Feigenbaum. As the collection grew, the Fletchers knew they needed more space so they could have a larger selection hanging at a time. “In the 1980s, after we’d started
buying quilts, we decided we needed to expand our house,” Marvin said. “We worked with a local architect to design a new living room and a second floor — the living room to showcase quilts and the second floor for storage of those not on display. In the living room, we used neutral colors, installed special lighting, built high ceilings, and included hanging strips. The room has windows, but I never open the blinds so I don’t expose the quilts to the sun. “Hilary taught me to rotate the quilts so we’d see new things and also to give the quilts a break from the stress of hanging. I have quilts all over the house. Hilary created a database of our collection that I keep up and use to rotate quilts a least once a year.” Marvin is considering where he will donate the quilts some day, as his children, while interested in having a piece or two from the collection, are not interested in maintaining and housing all the pieces, which numbered more than 90 before Quilt National 2015. His goal is to find a place that will take care of the quilts and share them with the public. In the meantime, he’s willing to loan the quilts for exhibitions. For example, a portion of the collection was
displayed at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in San Jose, California and another portion at the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange. “I buy the quilts for enjoyment, not as an investment,” Marvin said. Marvin continued collecting during Quilt National 2015. As in the past, he reviewed all the entries, a process that has become much quicker since the introduction of digital photography. “I make initial choices without any clue as to their size or price,” he said. “I narrow my list some, then I consult with the people at the Dairy Barn. Once I know the sizes and prices, that knocks some pieces out. When I get down to the last six or seven pieces, I usually go with the pieces the jurors have selected for Quilt National. “In the end, I put down 10 percent for the right of first refusal on one or several quilts. These pieces, which are part of the Quilt National tour for two to three years, remain listed for sale while touring. If someone else wants to buy them, then I must decide if I want them. If so, I purchase them at that time.” If no one else wants to purchase them during the tour, Marvin can purchase them at the end of the tour.
Marvin said he will continue collecting as long as he enjoys doing so. “I see no reason to stop collecting,” he said. “I really like the art form, and I like living with the quilts.” Marvin, now retired from full-time work as a history professor at Ohio University in Athens, serves on SAQA’s board as treasurer and stays connected to Quilt National by volunteering to assist with the exhibition’s website. He also established an award named for Hilary. “She always kept track of who entered Quilt National,” Marvin said. “She was excited when someone who had tried a number of times finally got in, so we named the award the Hilary Morrow Fletcher ‘Persistence Pays’ Award. It goes to the person who gets into the show after trying the most times.” opposite page: Jane Sassaman Heaven and Earth
64 x 64 inches, 1992 above left: Eileen Lauterborn
Graffiti 46 x 42 inches, 2009 above right: Barbara Hartman Falling Leaves
41 x 41 inches, 2009
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SAQA Exhibition
My Corner of the World My Corner of the World invited artists to examine a world, real or imagined, that represents what’s important in life. It might be where the artist resides, works, or grew up. It might be a favorite place from any point in life or a special internal place. My Corner of the World looks at the big picture: including, but not limited to, a homeland, ancestry, or culture.
Georgia Heller Life On The Trail: Brown’s Ranch 38 X 34 inches photo by William Bohnhoff
Bethany Garner Turning Point 31 X 35 inches photo by Bob House
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Alison Schwabe Purnululu #7
39 X 39 inches
photo by Eduardo Baldizan
Joan Reive Lake Vistas #2 32 X 40 inches photo by Bob House
Karen Schulz SPP 12 69 x 28 inches photo by Mark Gulezian
Millie Cumming Grand Artefacts 28 X 37 inches
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t h e co l l e ctor ’s b o o k s h e lf reviewed by Martha Sielman
a great addition to your library are the essays that chronicle the varied approaches of the ten people invited to comment on the quilts. Ranging from Ulysses Grant Dietz, curator of decorative arts at the Newark Museum, to Sherry Ann Byrd, a sixth-generation quilt-maker and storyteller, the differing viewpoints expand and extend the reader’s interaction with the quilts. Kaffe Fassett revels in the no-holdsbarred color sense of these quilt makers. Denyse Schmidt celebrates their fearless design sense. Elissa Auther provides a “Brief History of Quilts in
Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000 by Roderick Kiracofe Stewart, Tabori and Chang, an Abrams imprint; 2014; 978-1617691232
While these quilts are not what springs to mind when you mention art quilts, the scrap quilts showcased here are visually compelling and dramatic. This is a beautifully produced coffee table book with large, full-color photographs of each glorious creation. However, though it’s a wonderful quilt collection, what makes this book
Inc. Associates,
22
Portfolio
Quilt Studio Art
The art quilt
sourcebook
Be inspired. Be motivated. Be prepared to be captivated. This beautiful full-color volume is available now. Go to saqa.com to order Portfolio 22, the art quilt sourcebook. 192
Portfolio 22 | Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc.
Mary Ruth Smith
Granite Series: Moonlit Waters
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figurative
photo by Sondra Brady
Waco, Texas, USA 254-296-9495 | mary_ruth_smith@baylor.edu | www.maryruthsmith.com
photo by Kerby C. Smith
Coarsegold, California, USA 559-683-3060 | lura@lura-art.com | www.lura-art.com
44 x 40 inches (112 x 102 cm) | 2014
193
Portfolio 22 | Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc.
Lura Schwarz Smith
conceptual
Portrait Series: Hamburger 15 x 11 inches (38 x 28 cm) | 2015
Contemporary Art.” All of these make for fascinating reading. One of the essays that I particularly enjoyed was “Quilts Are Quilts” by Allison Smith, a really interesting exploration of whether quilts should be considered as art and compared with paintings or whether they are a separate type of object worthy of their own category. Her emphasis on quilts’ objecthood, that quilts have a front AND a back, provided a novel theoretical framework for consideration. And I loved hearing about Rod Kiracofe’s life with quilts and how his collection developed — these were the quilts that wouldn’t leave him alone, that called to him — certainly one of the great descriptions of how a collector comes to be and the demands on the collector that a collection creates.
PLUS, don’t miss your chance to get a copy of SAQA’s Stories of Migration: Contemporary Artists Interpret Diaspora catalog from the SAQA Store (saqa.com/store). This blockbuster exhibition at The George Washington
University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, DC, has been getting rave reviews. NPR did a video report interviewing the curators. See it at bit.ly/NPR-StoriesOfMigration. Stories of Migration won’t travel, so if you’re not able to visit before Sept. 4, the catalog is your only chance to view the exhibition and see what the excitement is about. Besides full-page and detail photographs of the 44 works (with artist statements), the catalog includes an introductory essay by John Wetenhall, the Museums’ Director, and an introduction to the scholarly study of diaspora by GWU professors Jennifer Brinkerhoff and Liesl Riddle. ISBN 978-0-996663816; $20
Fabrics, threads, and sewing machines have always been a big part of my life. I started with garment construction, then moved to traditional quilting. Finally, I combined artistic skills and quilting fabrics and have found my home in art quilting! SAQA has been a big part of this journey. I have enjoyed the conferences, the amazing online information, and encouragement of like-minded folks. Most of all, I cherish the connections and lifelong friendships that have come through SAQA. I want to see SAQA continue long into the future, inspiring the next generation of art quilters. That’s why I’ve chosen to donate to SAQA and have left instructions in my will. I hope many others choose to do the same. —Beth Schillig
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Photo Finish
Melanie Marr Beautiful Morning 60 x 40 inches, 2013 collection of Frank Klein
