Denise Labadie

Lafayette, Colorado

Denise Labadie takes us on a journey to ancient Ireland with multilayered images that vibrate a timeless energy in her interpretive contemporary art quilts. Spend a few moments with them and you will be tempted to step back in time. The stone circles, portals, forgotten cemeteries, and the landscapes in which they reside are forged mysteries and discoveries.

Denise brings these elements together through the approachability of cloth. Her careful composition and her process for creating her works make her an artist to watch.

Journey’s first step

Many years ago, I was inspired to recreate these sites after my husband, Allan, gave me a book entitled A Moment in Ireland. When I first opened it to a photo of the Piper Stones in County Wicklow, chills went through me. I had to see that stone circle in person. I started planning a trip to Ireland shortly thereafter. Knowing that I wanted to start making art quilts, Allan strongly suggested I come back with an idea for a quilt, and that was it: my first Piper Stones-inspired “stone quilt.” I was addicted to the stones, and still am.

As I work on my quilts, I feel as though I’m communicating with the stones, or at least their history. My portals, in particular, are designed to make people want to actually go through them, to see what’s on the other side, to revisit times past, to appreciate and remember the people who built the stones, the worshipers and their ceremonies, the generations of families and clans that revered them.

Over the years I have learned a lot about Ireland’s stones—particularly their stories and lore—and I am now reasonably well-informed about my subjects before even beginning a new quilt.

Nevertheless, my Irish friends and quilting associates have told me for years that I must have Irish in me (my great-grandmother came from County Donegal), because the stones clearly talk to me and help guide many of my design decisions. When I learn more about them after finishing a quilt, that information typically confirms and reinforces what I already chose theme-wise. I have never been “wrong” about a site. My stones wouldn’t lie to me!

Touring the stones

I knew nothing of the megalithic stones until I visited Ireland. I wanted to share my love for them and associated insights. These quilts invoke feelings of belonging and continuance, of permanence, of stability, and of the importance of family and clan. Scores of generations and thousands of years may have passed since the stones were first created, but they are still there, more glorious than ever.

Eightercua Stones

39 x 40 inches, 2009

Uragh Stone Circle

30 x 47 inches, 2015

Poulnabrone Dolmen

32 x 63 inches, 2008

Poulnabrone Dolmen —creative process

My original photos of the dolmen, which I used for initial composition and design, had no shadows due to the cloudy Irish skies on the day they were taken. In this case, the use of deep shadowing— along with making the sky almost indistinguishable from the land — plays a central role in helping create the piece’s overall moodiness (Poulnabrone means “well of the sorrows” in Gaelic).

I had taken photographs of the actual dolmen from all angles and was thus able to create a true-to-scale 3D miniature dolmen clay replica. Photographing the clay model from the same viewing angle as the quilt itself, I used a flashlight to create shadows for the applicable light angles. I selected the best photo of the shadowing, and then I photographed the almost-finished quilt. I composited the two images in Photoshop. Digitally removing the clay model gave me a virtual rendering of my quilt complete with shadows.

Using Setacolor paint, I handtransferred the digitally-cast shadow

boundaries onto my quilt. To keep the shadows from becoming too dark, I started with very diluted paint. As the paint dried, I could determine the right shading, repeating the process up to three times to get the correct effect.

The quilt is machine pieced, appliquéd, and quilted. All the fabric was hand painted and then stripped in. Additional landscape textures were created with couched-in yarns and flosses. My website, labadiefiberart.com, includes a pictorial summary of my process.

The quilts highlight, and perhaps reflect, emotions and needs our increasingly frenetic lifestyles have diminished or caused us to forget. My quilts make visible universal themes that are often left behind. People seem to react to my quilts on a strongly emotional basis, regardless of their culture or geography.

When I see someone stand before my artwork with tears in his or her eyes, or when people travel to Ireland to see the stones after viewing my quilts, I know I have succeeded.

Future challenges

Each new piece I work on is a new challenge. I want to continue to document more sites. I can’t get enough of the stones. I was in Ireland again this fall to hunt for more stones and ruins.

People are surprised that I am still doing stone quilts after 20 years, yet each one uniquely challenges me with different stories, different landscapes and compositions, different emotions. These quilts also constantly push my limits regarding perspective and shadowing, the two areas that have challenged me the most as an artist since the beginning.

I very much doubt that this sense of challenge, and the depth and degree of fulfillment associated with my fiber-based storytelling, is going to diminish. As noted above, my quilts often invoke strong feelings. Several of my quilts have been purchased as meditation tools, as catalysts for healing.

Personal fulfillment

I most enjoy trying to manage the relationships among stones, landscapes, and skies. I also love being able to solve perspective and shadowing problems. Finally, I love using my experience to discover new ways of making my quilts—different appliqué techniques, different uses for yarns and ribbons, and different fabric painting challenges.

I also enjoy just working with fabric. I sew on my home machines, a Janome and a Viking, and I love being at my machine doing even the simplest tasks.

I have very little organizational structure and am not by nature a strong planner. I tend to jump all over, from task to task, not necessarily fixing the squeaky wheel but focusing on whatever piques my interest at the moment. Luckily, I have a large and flexible studio and fabric painting area that allows me this ad hoc freedom to have lots of unfinished tasks going on at the same time. I get distracted easily, and it’s a constant struggle to stay focused.

That said, my primary guiding principle is to do my work as a stonemason would, working from the bottom up. This I never compromise on or get distracted from. I think the fact that I build a quilt as a stonemason would build a wall or arch is important. This process highlights my use of appliqué and the need to create many complementary stone pieces (usually fat quarters) of painted fabric. I create colors and textures that best mimic or represent the stones, and I use background material as mortar. All this is central to me as an artist. Each stone, no matter how large or small, is an individual object on its own, contributing to the greater composition.