SAQA
Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc.
art quilt collector
Issue No. 7
Focus on Commissions With this issue we begin a new feature of the magazine titled “Focus on Commissions,” which will showcase commissions of art quilts, mostly completed during the 21st century. From individual works created for private collectors to multiple quilts humanizing corporate offices and beautifying hospitals, banks, and other commercial spaces, commissioned art quilts have achieved recognition as a successful, popular art form. In addition, quilt artists have undertaken public art projects, especially under the aegis of percent-for-art programs. “Focus on Commissions” will share the experiences of undertaking artwork for hire, delving into some of the problems and satisfactions of the process. Artists and collectors will also discuss financial aspects of the commission relationship, including contracts and pricing, and what happens when a gallery or art consultant is involved. While many commissions proceed in a professional manner, occasionally an artist or patron encounters a nightmare scenario well into the project. “Focus on Commissions” will provide tips about how to avoid this situation, and what steps can be taken should the relationship unfortunately deteriorate. With quite a number of quilt artists now working on commissions, or interested in doing so, we felt that Art Quilt Collector should be covering the subject on a regular basis. If you have created quilt art for a commission since 2000 and would like to share that information with our readers, please let me know: sandrasider@mac.com. We would also be interested in learning about quilt projects commissioned by our collectors. — Dr. Sandra Sider, Editor
Contents Touring Quilt House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Focus on commisions: Barb McKie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Focus on commission: Patricia Malarcher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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.
The Art Quilt Gallery• NYC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
©2017 Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited.
Insurance and art quilts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
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.
Artists to watch Nancy Bardach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lisa Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dan Olfe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Virginia Spiegel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14 18 22 26
ISSN 2379-9439 (print) ISSN 2379-9455 (online) Editor: Sandra Sider Managing editor: Martha Sielman Artists to watch contributing editor: Diane Howell Designer: Deidre Adams
Gallery — Line Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Subscription is $29.95 for four issues. Outside USA: add $12.00
The Newark Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Subscribe online: SAQA.com>Store
Exhibition: The Quilted Canvas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Collector’s bookshelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Cover: Boundary Waters 85, Virginia Spiegel, 40 x 40 inches, 2017 see story p.26
Quilt: A multi-layered textile Touring Quilt House by Suzanne Smith Arney
T
he International Quilt Study Center & Museum (IQSCM), familiarly known as Quilt House, is itself a layered construction — and construct. Rooms open into others and viewers are tantalized throughout the center by architectural details and glimpses of galleries. Located at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Quilt House has become a mecca for quilt lovers from around the world. The main galleries on the second floor are accessed by a wide stepped ramp following the curve of the glass façade. As one ascends, a view of the street-level entry and gift shop and the Dillow Conservation Work Room (where staff and volunteers can be seen examining items in the collection) gives way to the upper level’s reception hall. A graphic frieze of thumbnail images of quilts in the collection gradually comes into view over the galleries’ entryway. Architect Robert A. M. Stern sought a sense “of slowing down from the pace of the workaday.” This conceptualized layout and the galleries’ protective low lighting contribute to a sense of quiet attention to the quilts on display.
The Coryell, Center, and Gottsch Galleries comprise an open, flexible space for displays and ideas to flow, connect, inform, and inspire. These three side-by-side galleries converge onto a passageway leading to the expansive new West Gallery, which opened in June 2015 thanks to a very generous gift from the R obert and Ardis James Foundation. The Jameses gave the lead donation for Quilt House, which opened in 2008, and have donated more than 1,000 quilts from their personal collection. The new gallery, measuring 13,200 square feet, also includes a digital gallery and additional storage space. “This exciting new gallery, with its professional lighting, high ceilings, and open vistas balanced by more intimate enclaves, equals any space that I know of in New York City exhibiting textiles,” says Dr. Sandra Sider, Curator, Texas Quilt Museum, and a resident of New York since 1979. The West Gallery is perfect for showing Luke Haynes’ installation of fifty 90-inch-square contemporary Log Cabin quilts. Inspired by a Donald Judd installation, 100 untitled works in mill aluminum, SAQA Art Quilt Collector | 3
left: Michael James Elaborated Tangram
92 x 90 inches, 1976 IQSCM 1997.007.1012 below: Jean Ray Laury
Barefoot and Pregnant 47 x 46 inches, 1987 IQSCM 2010.014.0005
1982-1986, Haynes chose the Log Cabin as a fundamental block pattern and limited his palette to black and white with the traditional red center. In his blog entry of January 18, 2016, Haynes explains, “The reason it’s alluding to Judd is the material and iteration, and to suggest that the show is objects in space and sculpture, removing the ‘quilt’ pre-conceptions of bed and private and valueless.” Should you harbor any remnants of those preconceptions, the IQSCM will blow them away. From expressionist Radka Donnell, the museum’s first art quilt purchase, to Michael James (professor and chair of UNL’s Department of Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design), to Anne Fitts’s quilted car, the museum’s collection and exhibition of art quilts emphasizes the “art” and adds a necessary component to its goal of creating a “comprehensive collection of the highest quality quilts from all cultures, countries, and time periods.” Carolyn Ducey, Curator of Collections, says, “Art quilts are designated as a priority for collecting, along with international traditional pieces. We hope to see this area of the collection grow significantly in the next ten years. Beginning or ending a visit to Quilt House with a stop in the Pumphrey Family Gallery, you may
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feel a special connection with the quilts shown in this intimate space. It is perfect for a mini-survey of Linda Colsh’s sensitive observations of life, embodied by a stranger glimpsed on a cobblestoned square in Belgium or a rock carried by a rushing snowmelt creek. Her exhibition’s title, Like Breath on Glass, is taken from a line by James McNeill Whistler. Colsh
says, “My work is about the transitory, the ephemeral. While Whistler was speaking about the technique of painting (my work is almost always painted), I found that I liked the imagery of his words very much: breath visible for an instant on the glass, then gone. Thanks to the IQSCM, the incredible variety of quilts, their history, and their visual impact are documented, preserved, and available for study and sheer enjoyment. The many layers of quilts and quilt- making invite exploration and inspire exciting new interpretations. Quilters, collectors, curators, educators, and aficionados will be able to explore Quilt House and its exhibitions during the joint SAQAIQSCM Symposium, “Creation to Curation,” April 27–April 30, 2017. The following exhibitions will be on view: Log Cabins by Luke Haynes Jan. 27 – April 30, West Gallery Quilt Japan: Selections from the 12th Quilt Nihon Exhibition Feb. 14 – May 21, Center and Lois Gottsch Galleries Layered Voices, a juried exhibition of quilts from SAQA (March 31 – July 30), Peg Coryell Gallery Like Breath on Glass: Studio Work by Linda Colsh April 11-July 9, West Gallery
Anna Von Mertens George Washington’s aura, after Gilbert Stuart 33 x 24 inches, 2009 IQSCM 2010.002.0002.
West gallery of the IQSCM
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focus on commissions
Too many bugs or too many people? Barb McKie’s dilemma by Sandra Sider
B
arbara Barrick McKie, a Quilt National artist, has had work accepted into numerous national quilt competitions. She worked as an automation consultant specializing in personal computers and computer graphics, an interest she carries into her art quilts, which often feature digitally-produced surface design on fabric using her photographic images. S: Barb, we would like to learn about your art quilts commissioned for public areas in a hospital. Why do you think hospitals seem to be especially recep tive to art quilts? M: I think that people think of nature, particularly flowers, water, and maybe birds, as healing parts of the universe. Seeing them in an environment where people need to heal can help bring that about, as well as create a calming influence on visitors worrying about their loved ones in the hospital. S: You have three quilts installed at the North western Medicine Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago. Was that your first experience with a corporate commission? If not, what were your previous commissions? M: No, the first commissions were from individuals who contacted me via my website. The first contact from an art consulting company was from Anita Morris Associates in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, for the Crozer Chester Medical Center in Chester, Pennsylvania. They purchased two art quilts from my website in 2006 (technically not a commission). I had a one- person show at the Mancuso Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 2003, and previously had several prize-winning quilts at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza. Although none of them
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was among the quilts selected for the hospital, perhaps the consultant had seen my work there. S: How did the Chicago commission begin? M: In 2007 American Art Resources in Houston contacted me after seeing my website, and they arranged for Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women’s Hospital to purchase three of my quilts. I have had a fairly comprehensive artist’s website since February 2006. S: So you had one contract for three quilts. How did that work? Was a commission for American Art Resources stipulated in the contract, or did the contract stipulate only the amount that you would receive? M: I don’t believe their commission was indicated, just the amounts I would receive and at what points in the process. There were three quilts to be created, all originals, but similar to other quilts of mine that the customers had seen. S: Were you paid part of the money upon signing the contract? How were the payments allocated? M: If I remember correctly, it was a typical payment of 50% after approval of the design by the customer, and 50% plus shipping costs when an image of the finished quilt was presented to the person approving the designs and purchases. S: Were you given a specific deadline or was that more open-ended? I’m wondering how much pressure you might have been under to complete the quilts. M: There were specific deadlines.
Crossroads 29 x 42 inches, 2008. Rejected after the design was approved and the quilt completed.
Duel for My Dahlias 43 x 43 inches, 2005 Purchased from the artist’s studio instead of Crossroads for $3,550.
S: How specific did the sizes of your quilts have to be? Did you visit the installation site or have photo graphs of the locations for your work? M: I had no indication of where the sites would be, and I believe the consultant was working with several artists, some of whom were approved while others were not in the final plan. The consultant did indicate approximate sizes desired. S: How was the design process organized? Did you submit preliminary designs for all three quilts before beginning the work on them? And who approved the designs? Was an art committee at the hospital involved? M: Yes, I submitted exact designs for approval, and all three were approved primarily by the person at the hospital who was working on the project, but coordinated by the consulting company. S: Did you have any problems with this commission? M: Indeed, I did! Duel for My Dahlias, seen on my website, inspired the third commissioned quilt. It features a butterfly and a beetle on a dahlia, and the consultant asked me to make a similar quilt based on a photo I sent. After approval of the design and creation of the second quilt, Crossroads, either the hospital or perhaps another consultant in the firm decided that my quilt had too many insects, or perhaps the wrong insects for a hospital. They decided instead to purchase the original Duel for My Dahlias. I still have the Crossroads quilt, which has been accepted into national and international quilt shows.
S: Do you think there might have been any way you could have avoided that conflict? Part of the purpose of our “Focus on Commission” articles is to advise other artists considering commissions. M: No, I don’t think I could have done anything differently, nor could the consultant for the art agency. It was probably a change of mind of the people approving things at the hospital that caused the conflict. However, we were able to come to a compromise and I received my agreed-upon commission. Because my art quilts are based on my photos (edited by me), I can present exactly what the customer will be getting before approval and the first payment. I do ask for a small non-refundable fee for the design process, as it can take a fair amount of time to do. The commissioner pays 50% of the remaining amount after approval of the design. S: Are you currently working on any commissions? Do you enjoy that type of work? M: I’m not currently working on any commissions, but I did one this past year. It was lovely to meet and correspond with the person who commissioned the quilt. She loved it, as did the person to whom she gave the quilt as a gift. S: Thank you very much, Barb, for sharing your insights and experiences with our readers. SAQA Art Quilt Collector | 7
focus on commissions
An even exchange: art for space by Patricia Malarcher
I
n the mid-1980s I found my dream studio — a classroom in a vacated Catholic school with about 800 square feet of floor space, a wall of windows facing north, a large closet, a long wall for pinning up work, and a blackboard for sketching. The size of the room allowed the scale of my work to expand and easily accommodated several projects at once. But then I received a Renwick Fellowship, a research grant that would require me to spend most of a year in Washington, D.C. How could I keep my studio when I couldn’t afford monthly rent for space I wouldn’t be using? The school was part of a complex of granite buildings, including a church, on the property of St. Cecilia’s Parish in Englewood, New Jersey. The church, an early 20th-century version of French Romanesque
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architecture that had received recognition from the local historical society, had been newly painted in a subtle range of warm grayish greens. Along a side aisle, a niche with a sage-colored wall housed a marble and bronze tabernacle (a container of Eucharistic bread), its pedestal constructed of off-white marble. It struck me that this setting could be enhanced with a textile hanging designed to complement the interior architecture. I had been creating art quilts in geometric patterns with metallized Mylar as a dominant material, and felt this approach was adaptable to such a project. Father Joseph O’Brien, the pastor, was receptive to the idea and agreed on a barter: I would create an art piece to cover my rent.
Months later, upon my return to a studio that had grown “cold” from not being used, it was time to honor my half of the barter. I welcomed a project that was challenging enough to renew my creative energy in the space. To suit the proportions of the niche and to frame the tabernacle, I designed a hanging ten feet high and seven feet wide with a three-foot-wide center opening to suggest a doorway. This format would require 49 twelve-inch-square linen modules appliquéd with patches of silver Mylar, its surfaces both shiny and brushed. Varying combinations of squares, triangles, and parallelograms would form a subtle but lively geometric rhythm. While design was in progress, Father Joseph came to the studio offering a bag of outdated vestments for the project. These added exciting visual possibilities and context to the work. In a range of greens, reds, purples, golds, and whites that signified different liturgical seasons, the garments could be cut into patches that, intermingled with Mylar geometric shapes, would incorporate the parish’s material history into the work. I sequenced the colors as a “liturgical rainbow” to represent the flow of worship from Advent to Christmas to Ordinary Time to Lent to Easter to more Ordinary Time. With purples at the bottom of either side of the hanging, the colors segued upward through greens and golds on the left side and through reds and golds on the right; at the top each spectrum diffused into light yellows and whites. The fabric trove from Father Joseph also included narrative murals depicting saints on unstretched canvas that had been removed from the sanctuary walls. The paint was cracked and faded but had the patina of age; even used sparingly, samples of these would add depth and meaning as part of the community’s legacy. The imagery included architectural structures with rows of triangles that, placed on the diagonal, echoed a large triangular shape implying a tympanum above the open “door.” Centered above this, a frontal image of an eye from a painted saint symbolized the “Eye of God,” a biblical reference. To lighten the labor involved in assembling the piece, Patricia Wrixon, a member of the parish and an excellent seamstress, volunteered to help machine
appliqué the Mylar and fabric to the linen modules. The squares were sewn to a cotton canvas backing and the piece was installed on a Velcro-covered rod. Some years later, the hanging was removed from the niche for the next repainting of the church. I held my breath in fear that it might be discarded. Eventually, however, it was reinstalled and remains in place today. The bartered artwork has outlived my tenure in the classroom, which ended when I graduated into a studio added to my home.
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The first art quilt gallery in New York City
A
s the owner of a quilt shop for the past 20 years, I have been to the Houston Quilt Market many times. It’s the place to find out what’s new, what’s trending, meet other store owners, and gather general knowledge of the quilting world. However, what kept me going over and over again were the quilts. Quilts, Inc., the sponsor of Quilt Market, exhibits more than 1000 of the most beautiful quilts in the world in any given year, and I could never spend enough time looking at them. Year after year, I would go to Houston and look at these magnificent quilts. I realized that outside of the quilting community, relatively few people knew about this amazing art form. Because our store, The City Quilter, was located in the heart of Manhattan, it always seemed to me that we would have a built-in audience and maybe even
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by Cathy Izzo
a market for these incredible works of art. However, opening a gallery always seemed like too big a leap and running the shop was more than a full-time job. Then the store next door to ours became vacant, and our landlord, wanting to fill it quickly and easily, approached us with a pretty good deal. We had expanded once already, so we were not really thinking of getting more space, but we decided to take advantage of an offer that would not come again. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, but I knew that I wanted to try to bring art quilts to New York City. Suddenly the possibility of opening a gallery became real and quite exciting. During the next six months, we not only planned the store addition, but also constructed a gallery and made many decisions about things like hanging sys-
tems, lighting, signage, contracts, shipping, insurance, and, most importantly, artists. Judy Doenias, a longtime teacher at the City Quilter, is a good friend and wonderful mentor. She became my co-curator, and with her invaluable help, The Art Quilt Gallery•NYC was born in March of 2011. We decided that each exhibit would focus on a single artist and last six weeks. Over the next four years we exhibited 21 artists. We went out of our way to have a good balance of established artists and emerging talent. It was important to us that we represent quilters from all over the world. Of 21 artists, three were from Europe, one from Japan, and one from Israel. Since we wanted the New York art world to take notice of our gallery, we knew we had to exhibit world-class quilts. Some decisions were easy. Judy and I turned to quilters whose work we had loved for years, like Velda Newman, Michael Cummings, and Sue Benner. Judy and I also scoured websites, books, and quilt exhibits for lesser known artists whose work spoke to us, moved us, and made us want to shout: look at this! Other criteria were impeccable workmanship and originality, but most of all, the quilts needed the ability to make us feel something, which all good art is supposed to do. After a few months, word of the gallery spread and people began submitting work to us. After each exhibit ended, we made a book containing every piece that we hung for each artist and used these as a marketing device. In our contract with the artists, we had a one-year window to sell any work that had been in the exhibit, and the books became useful tools for that. This approach gave us a chance to recoup some money after the exhibition ended. Over the almost four years that the Art Quilt Gallery was in operation, we sold 17 pieces, ranging from $450 for a small piece to a high of $8,100. The average price was about $3,200. We sold two quilts in the $8,000 range, one from a established quilter that went to a buyer with a well-known collection. The other quilt came from a relatively little known quilter and went into a private home. Both works depicted nature, were fairly large, and were exquisite. We really didn’t see a correlation between the prominence of the artist and buying patterns. People
(left to right): Dale Riehl, Sue Benner, and Cathy Izzo in front of
Benner’s Display II during her opening at the gallery
bought what they loved. Our sales record wasn’t terrible but it certainly wasn’t enough to keep a gallery in business.In December 2014, we regretfully closed the Art Quilt Gallery. The revenue didn’t begin to justify the space. I think the importance of art quilts will only continue to grow. More artists than ever are making quilts, and slowly, word is spreading about the infinite variety, the incredible workmanship, and the unbounded creativity of these artists and their creations. I do think The Art Quilt Gallery was about ten years ahead of its time, and I have no doubt that someone will try to resurrect the idea of a gallery devoted solely to quilt art. Until then, just know that The Art Quilt Gallery•NYC still exists online (artquiltgallerynyc.com), available to everyone with a computer and a wish to experience the joy of this art form.
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Paula Chung’s solo exhibition
Collection Care:
Considering Insurance by Fran Phillips
I
t’s exciting to have your work or a quilt from your collection included in an exhibition. You expend the time and effort necessary to see that the paperwork is filled out and the quilt is carefully packed, labeled, and delivered to the carrier. Tracking number in hand, you return home and wait. Your part is finished. The rest is glory. Until it isn’t. There’s only one way for this story to end happily. Your quilt arrives at its destination, is hung properly, and the show is a success. After receiving due acclaim, it is returned to you, in the same condition it left your hands. The ways this tale could end unhappily are legion. The quilt could have been damaged during the installation or exhibition, or stolen from the venue or its storage facility. It could disappear in transit or be damaged. While these scenarios are mercifully infrequent, they do occur, and given the number of quilts travelling the world’s courier routes and being exhibited at any one time, chances are quite a few fine works will meet such a fate. While there’s no way to prevent this from happening, you can, like a good Scout, be prepared. One insurance resource you may be overlooking is your homeowner’s or tenant’s insurance, which covers your possessions as well as your residence. If the value of your quilts or quilt collection falls below the coverage limit, you probably are safe. Most such policies have a sublimit (cap) on items deemed portable and valuable, such as fine art, jewelry, firearms, etc. The cap might cover items collectively or singly, and your policy will spell this out. If your quilts are worth more, you have two options. You could schedule those items at replacement value on your policy. Or you could secure a personal articles floater, which is a stand-alone policy. The coverage is generally broader and less expensive, and compensation is at an agreed value. 12 | SAQA Art Quilt Collector
Compensation comes three ways: actual cash value, replacement cost, or agreed-upon value. Actual cash value is the market value minus depreciation — good for cars but impractical for art. Replacement cost is what it would cost to replace the item. Agreed value acknowledges that the item cannot be replaced and that it will be paid for at the price mutually agreed upon. So, what’s it worth? You’ll need to know the value of the work. An appraiser will consider such things as whether the maker is a “name” or an emerging artist, past sales, whether this work is recognizable as part of a body of work or is a new (unestablished) direction for the artist. While art appraisers may feel competent to evaluate any media, you are probably better off choosing an appraiser who specializes in textile arts. Keep in mind that in coming to a settlement, you may be offered less than the stated value but not more. If you are working with an art shipper, they will be able to guide you through their insurance requirements. Some have insurance groups with which they work, others prefer you to consult your insurance professional. All the art shippers we’ve investigated require insurance of some form. You’ll need to ask about “ocean marine” policies which cover international transport regardless of transportation method, or “inland marine” policies which cover personal items within the United States, its territories and possessions, and Canada. Let’s look at transit problems first, remembering that your first defense against loss during transit is to package the quilt securely in a sturdy container. The carrier services most often used by quilters are the United States Postal Service (USPS), United Parcel Service (UPS), and Federal Express (FedEx). All three deliver worldwide. So do you need to insure your
package? It depends on the value of the item and your risk tolerance. UPS and FedEx cover each domestic package against loss or damage to $100. USPS provides $100 automatic coverage only on Express Mail. If your package is worth more than $100 it must be declared, otherwise the carrier’s maximum liability is $100. Extra protection costs more and it varies by carrier. Additionally, some items have their maximum declared value capped. FedEx, for example, limits the declared value of art and antiques to $1000. In such cases, you should seek third-party insurance like those listed above. This information is found in the often-ignored fine print that each carrier is mandated to supply. Print it out and keep it with your documentation for that shipment. Documentation should include a copy of the shipping form and photos of the ready-to-ship package and the quilt (front, back, and identifiable details such as labels). You should have a copy of these images inside the box as well. If the box or label is damaged, the quilt could find its way home on the strength of the paperwork packed with it. Keep track of your quilt using the tracking number, and if you see anything amiss, contact the carrier promptly. It’s rare for the carrier to spot a problem and contact you about it. For a heart-breaking account of a lost quilt, read Susan Lenz’ “Guardian Angel Lost by FedEx” (strataseries.blogspot.com/2015/11/ guardian-angel-lost-by-fedex.html). Though Lenz did everything right, the system failed, and the quilt has not been found. Not every lost quilt has a shipper as villain. You might be asked to show work in a local show or gallery. Before you sign on, read the paperwork. Make sure the conditions of the loan are stated clearly and that you understand and agree with them. Some shows ask you to waive liability, while others restrict settlement to a stated dollar amount. If the amount will not cover the loss of the piece for you, you will need to ask your insurance professional about additional coverage. If you show a quilt or collection
frequently, your policy would reflect that. This will generally drive a higher premium, but there is a lower chance of denial in the event of loss because the quilt obviously is valued. If you are dealing with a reputable gallery, the loan agreement papers should include liability information. If they do not, you must ask for this information to be provided in writing as part of the agreement. This is not being pushy or uncooperative, it’s sound business practice. You’re protecting your investment. You also need to know the procedure for making a claim if a quilt is damaged while being exhibited. Whose insurance covers the claim? Yours or the venue’s? You may also be asked to exhibit a quilt in an unconventional venue such as a restaurant or an office building. Newer artists eager to connect with a viewing audience might be tempted to say “yes.” Consider whether you want to reach viewers at any cost or on your own terms. These venues also bring unique problems to the insurance table. In many cases, they are unsecured areas with heavy outside traffic. In many cases, these casual installations are uninsured. One gallery owner friend, in speaking to an office manager who wanted to borrow artwork for a waiting room and hallway, asked how she could borrow work without insuring it, knowing that it had a real chance of being damaged or stolen. Think twice about situations that whisper to the ego rather than to your good business sense. Receiving compensation for a lost work is not the same as selling it even if the dollars are the same. At the end of an emotionally tumultuous experience, there is only cash. When an artwork is purchased, the artist has the pleasure of knowing that the work is appreciated, understood for itself and its place in the vast panorama of the arts. A collector can take pride in recognizing those attributes when acquiring an art quilt. The lost or damaged quilt can be reduced to financial terms, but the payment can never truly compensate for the loss to either an artist or collector.
You can, like a good Scout, be prepared.
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artists to watch
Nancy Bardach draws inspiration from the world around her. She often transforms complex realities into moving abstracts. Lines become translations between reality and mood. Her work is characterized by abstract imagery, brilliant coloring, and meticulous piecing. A retired architect, she also derives inspiration from architectural design to make choices about mass and perspective. Her various series make use of color, texture, mood, and environments, all interrelated by an overarching concept.
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Emma in the Looking Glass, 53 X 39 inches, 2016
Oh! Rock-a My Soul! (or Revelations) 56 x 82 inches, 2008
Artistic journey I started as a home seamstress making small corduroy dresses for my first-born. I found the cut-outs from the dresses — the reverse images — became quirky shapes to appliqué on a small quilt. My serious start was in the early 1990s, when I discovered art quilts at an East Bay Heritage Quilters show in nearby Oakland, California. Mary Mashuta’s work especially helped me realize that this was a true art form, and that I liked its potential. After retiring as an architect in 2006, I became more devoted to making quilts and had more time for designing. I now regard myself as a full-time fabric artist.
Rising to a challenge I believe that design challenges are the fertilizer for much of our creativity. Look at Gothic cathedral history, a play between higher aspirations and the realities of stone construction that results in magnificent narrow high windows and the massive beauty of buttressing.
Challenges set limits on our “wild” creativity. Playing with design ideas within those limits, and redoing the outcome several times either in imagination or literally, often inspires tighter, better solutions to design tasks. In architecture the limits of client, program, building materials, and cost might evoke the most brilliant design solutions, as they channel and focus your imagination.
Idea to reality Part of my inspiration comes from the constant enjoyment of my visual surroundings. My most exciting translation of an idea into reality is Oh! Rock-a My Soul! in which the movement and beauty of the Alvin Ailey dancers entering the stage, skirts a-swirl and pinwheeling, light playing on their rows, inspired a great quilt. Published and shown several times, it is an early example of my studies in light and motion. Other visual translations include Second Balcony, a glimpse of the opera house in San Francisco. It captures the moment just before the curtain rises, the
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above: Second Balcony
24 x 18 inches, 2012 right: View from a High Place
30 x 40 inches, 2013
darkness broken only by the lighted sheet music and glow reflected in the instruments. As a commission, I made View from a High Place, a more realistic view of San Francisco Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin Headlands, and a bit of San Francisco’s shoreline. The horizontal quilting of the water and sky adds movement and rough beauty to the natural colors and forms.
Evolution In general, my work has evolved toward more serious artwork. I try to do excellent compositions and craftlike executions of my design ideas. The technique I am wedded to is piecing, usually with free-hand curved lines similar to what artist Nancy Crow teaches. My materials are richer now. I like to add silks along with hand-dyed and painted fabrics done by other artists. My preference is to piece designs, not to do surface design work. Complexity in my compositions is well represented by A Song of Ascent, created for the SAQA exhibition Stories of Migration and exhibited at The George Washington Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. This piece, evoking the struggle of small boats on a large ocean, needed large scale and drama. To make the water read as vast, I outlined a series of swells with ¾-inch strips of dark blue, set closer together in the distance, wider in the fore-
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ground. I filled in these spaces with many colors of water and foam. Sewing in sections, I kept bending the straight segments to achieve a curved effect for both the horizon and the wave swells. Landforms on each side help tie the narrative to a human scale, as refugees flee the war-torn land on the left and work to reach the green shores ahead. Small boats were appliquéd later. The final touch was long-arm quilting by artist Angie Woolman, with a pattern of continuous wave-like texturing designated by me. Her contributions made the sea read as a whole enormous area, creating an effective and cohesive image.
New directions I take up ideas from my world and mood. If I’m excited by an idea or image, I go to the studio and start pulling it together. I proceed improvisationally. Occasionally I’m inspired by an upcoming exhibition theme or by a request from a friend or relative. I often find that the works I do quickly, in a wave of creative time, are better than those on which I linger. I sometimes create or accept deadlines to challenge myself to work faster. I often work in series. Reworking an idea several times can lead to new insights. The linear works from my Agglomerations series are a good example. This series influenced my piece Ad Infinitum, with its
grids of refugee tents, and my piece for a Frida Kahlo-themed show, Aztec Altar ( not shown).
above:
Studio day
left: Ad Infinitum
I vary my routine depending on which part of the process I am doing. If creating, I will stand at my design board for six hours or more, alternating that task with sewing or re-cutting. There is a lot of contemplation of the work, too. If I’m in the final sewing assembly stage and I find it boring, I may listen to music or an audio book. The home-machine quilting stage takes more concentration because I freehand many of the curves and lines that I sketch on the surface. Quilting is broken up into short intervals of two or three hours so my lines stay elegant and random. For this stage I may work for a period in the morning, take a long break, and return for a later session. I do work at night on machine quilting as well as mundane tasks, but not on the initial design work, where color is so important.
75 x 45 inches, 2015
A Song of Ascent 64 x 140 inches, 2016
Looking ahead I would like to be a better artist. This goal is what makes design work so worthwhile — the sense that you are improving and becoming more sophisticated, doing better and better work. nancybardach.com
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artists to watch
Lisa Call Waikanae Beach, New Zealand
An early start
hallmark of her work, as do the colors of the
I have always been an artist. From my early days, I would forgo time on the playground to hole up in the library with my best friends — a sheaf of paper and a beautiful set of Prismacolor pencils stolen from my mom’s art closet. My dream was to major in art while in college. I was redirected to a more practical career by my father because he was footing the bill. I don’t regret my two degrees in computer science, as the skills I acquired have been immensely helpful in the business side of my art practice. When I left the workforce to stay home with my first child, I needed something to do that was mine — and so I returned to art. I made my first art quilt in 1993. It was called Housework and made with very ugly fabric. I decided I would rather make a quilt with ugly fabric any day than clean my house. This work was published in the inaugural edition of Art Quilt Magazine in 1994.
earth. The lessons she’s learned about setting
Finding my voice
boundaries have given her the freedom to
My style evolved over time as I made a lot of art. Over the last 16 years, I have made more than 850 textile paintings, an average of one per week. In the 1990s, I explored a variety of techniques, always on the hunt for my voice, yet never finding it. I was too busy sampling new ways of making work. In 2000, I learned how to cut and piece without a ruler. I stopped exploring techniques and got serious about developing my art through greater focus on content and form. My first serious series, Structures, was inspired by a photo of a fence in my dad’s backyard. What started as an exploration of fences, walls, and other barriers, became a deeper study into the ideas of barriers and boundaries. Eventually the series became an exploration of relationships and the things we do to build walls, which result in misconnections. My signature linear style emerged two or three years into this series, and I carry that element forward into other work. Narrow lines are present in both my abstract and my landscape work.
One might look at Lisa Call’s schedule and say: Where does she find the time? Call, an artist, teacher, and life coach, knows that time is there for everyone. It just needs to be thought of as a friend, not a foe. Since 2000, she has made more than 850 textile paintings — her term for art quilts — become a full-time artist, and moved from Colorado to New Zealand. While her move to New Zealand has given her a new color palette, narrow lines remain a
walk her own creative path.
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Changing Perspective | – Seeing Forever Each 12 x 12 inches, 2015
Series work lessons I believe that working in a series is first and foremost about growth as an artist. Many people think working in a series is doing the same thing over and over to the point of boredom. I think that by closing a few doors and limiting focus, I am much more creative. It is possible to tap into complex connections as a series develops. Structures began in 2000 and ended in 2016 with 200 works. I felt that I had learned everything I needed to learn about connection and vulnerability. It was time to explore new subject matter. In the last few years I have been looking at landscapes — comparing and contrasting my love of the Colorado mountains and the distant horizon line of the plains to my new home in New Zealand.
My work originally tended more toward browns and the earthy colors of the U.S. Southwest. After moving to New Zealand in 2015, I find my colors have cooled considerably, with lots of gray and green and blue. I have a much smaller studio in New Zealand. As a result, I have not created larger works during the last few years. I’m creating extensive bodies of work on a more intimate scale. New Zealand is a much smaller country, and that could be an influence on the size of my work.
Creating a new piece The five panels in Falling in Love – Cape Palliser are the story of my first trip out to Cape Palliser with my boyfriend. The place is a wild and wonderful section Structures #131 25 x 95 inches, 2015
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of coastline just north of Wellington in the Wairarapa region. These panels are also part of my series of work exploring the horizon line of New Zealand. We usually think of landscapes and horizon lines in a horizontal orientation. I wanted to capture a moment in time. To do so, I referenced a long vertical slice out of each of the horizons to create the story of our trip. I created a series of photographs and pastel sketches before creating the textile artwork. The textiles are freehand cut and pieced. I added the final texture — quilting — on a home sewing machine. I use a Pfaff 1475 for all of my work.
Next steps I will be focusing more on landscapes in 2017. I also have ideas for adding more texture to my artwork. My long-term goal is to live half of the time in New Zealand and half in the United States. If I never saw winter again, I wouldn’t be sad. Right now I’m working to earn residency in New Zealand so I can come and go with ease.
A teacher’s life As a graduate student in computer science, I fell in love with teaching. My advisor would get annoyed
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with me for spending so much time preparing lectures and assignments versus focusing on my research. I never finished my Ph.D., but the joy of helping a student unlock his or her potential never left me. When I looked to leave my job in software, teaching art was a natural path. I know that I can attribute much of my success to working with a life coach, which helped me sort priorities, allowing me to quit my job and focus on supporting myself through my creative work. My workshops have always included ample materials regarding the importance of mindset. In 2015 I became a Certified Professional Co-Active® Coach to enhance that material. Helping students overcome the fear and doubt that plague artists is an honor. I spend about 50 percent of my time teaching and coaching and 50 percent making and marketing my art. In 2018 I plan on shifting that balance to more art. I actively pursue exhibit opportunities and spend time improving my own artwork. Teaching gives me greater insights. Through critiquing my students’ work, I am able to gain insight into my own work and I’ve seen tremendous growth in my art.
Tick, tock Finding time has a lot to do with your perspective of time — making it a friend, not a foe. I set boundaries.
opposite: Falling in Love – Cape Palliser
Each, 46 x 15 inches, 2015 below: Structures #143
37 x 46 inches, 2013
I am really clear on what matters to me and spend my time on activities that help me move forward. It’s very easy to waste an entire day on Facebook, Netflix, and vacuuming the floor, so I make sure each week that I do something beyond maintenance of my existing career.
Setting a path Adventure is one of my three top values. I embraced online selling long before it was mainstream. Some of my first sales were on Twitter nine years ago. That was
when I first made smaller works and mounted them on canvas. I’ve also ignored all the naysayers that say that fiber is not accepted in the mainstream art world. I have been the sole fiber artist in a gallery in Philadelphia for years. I rarely run into anyone in the art world who doesn’t look at my work as art. It’s a non-issue. When I arrived in New Zealand I was told the same thing, yet I’ve had my artwork accepted into a variety of exhibits and venues. While I still have limiting beliefs, my coach helps me to identify them and overcome them. Remaining open to possibilities is my intention. lisacall.com
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artists to watch
Dan Olfe Julian, California An artful journey often starts with a simple
acumen into play to create art. He updates
first step. When Dan Olfe and his wife, Julie,
his approach as technology changes.
moved into a new contemporary house with
By utilizing a variety of two- and three-
many white walls, they commissioned an artist
dimensional computer programs, he
friend, Susanne Flowers, to make a quilt for
continues to produce unique designs marked
their living room. That first quilt enlivened the
by strong graphics and bold color choices.
walls, and it struck a note within Olfe. Since he had recently retired from a career as an engineering professor, he had both time and interest to create art quilts for the other walls.
This artist also has built an impressive exhibition resume. His works have been included in Quilt National, Art Quilt Elements, and a host of other prestigious shows.
Today, just as he did at the outset of his journey in 1997, Olfe brings his computer Hillcrest Cinemas 39 x 70 inches, 2014
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Building blocks of inspiration Initially I was creating works for our home. Now I’m simply working on designs that excite me. I am inspired by the colors and shapes of natural and built environments. I produce a series when a single quilt is not sufficient to explore fully the visual possibilities of the design. When I feel that I have produced several good quilts in the series, I move on to another design. I like to try out new ideas and have many potential designs waiting for completion on my computer. Some of my quilts feature lines by themselves, but in most of Graffiti #1
the quilts, lines appear as boundaries of shapes. When quilting, I usually try to follow the straight or curved lines that define the shapes, and fill in the shapes with similar quilt lines.
Technology timeline I started out 20 years ago making pieced quilts. I created designs on paper using the two-dimensional design programs Adobe Illustrator and Canvas, developed by ACD Systems. I also used AutoCAD when necessary to design special templates for cutting pieces. After a few years, I switched from piecing to painting whole cloth quilt tops in order to put more detail into the designs.
39 x 71 inches, 2014
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Fourteen years ago, to gain even more complexity, I began having my computer designs digitally printed as whole-cloth tops. I then used three-dimensional modeling and animation software to create models of scenes that could be rendered for the final quilt image. Six years ago, I switched to simpler technology, using Photoshop to layer photographs. Initially I used textures downloaded from the Internet, but then I started using my own photos when I bought a Nokia cellphone with a camera that takes high-resolution (36 megapixel) photos. My last two quilts were my simplest: single photos of the ocean surface taken with a Samsung camera purchased in 2016.
I will be happy to embrace new technology in the future, but I don’t know what it might be.
Creative process I like all of the steps in creating a piece, from the initial idea to the construction of the quilt. The processes are similar to academic research. You get an idea based on your previous work or on something you have seen. You experiment with various ways of developing that idea. When you know you have done your best, you send the design out for printing (or in academia, you send a paper out for publishing in a journal). My quilt San Diego Courthouse #3 was designed from three high-resolution photos I took with my Nokia phone camera of the United States Federal Courthouse building, a new modernist structure. Using Photoshop, I adjusted the perspective of each photo to produce images with straight head-on views, making the lines of the building horizontal and vertical. Next, I layered the three images in a single file. There are more than two dozen ways to combine and blend two layers in Photoshop, and there are many more ways to combine three layers. The brightness, contrast, and other visual aspects of each layer can also be changed to adjust the final image. The courthouse building is white, so the combined images produced neutral grays. To add color, I changed the neutral color of the bottom image to cyan, resulting in many colors as the cyan combined with the grays above it. To make quilting easier, I added a grid of thin black lines. These would be covered by black thread during quilting. The final image was sent out for printing to produce a whole cloth top. My wife says the quilt reminds her of Bauhaus weavings, which is not surprising since the courthouse architect, Richard Meier, designs in the modernist style pioneered by the Bauhaus movement. This piece was exhibited at Breakout: Quilt Visions 2016 at the Visions Art Museum in San Diego.
San Diego Courthouse #3 70 x 40 inches, 2015
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Ocean #2: La Jolla, California 45 x 69 inches, 2016
Work as reward Perseverance is the main requirement to build a successful exhibition resume. I started out creating a design to fit a particular show topic, but I found the juror’s vision of the topic was different from mine. Now I don’t plan for exhibitions, but create whatever design intrigues me at the moment. After a while my quilts started to be accepted for exhibitions, but I always keep in mind that when my quilts are rejected, it just means that the jurors were looking for something different from what I submitted. I try to enjoy each day to its fullest, and I make time for the enjoyment of creating art. I welcome any new artistic challenges that I cannot yet predict. As an introvert, I’m happy that my SAQA membership helps me meet other quilt artists. I find that they are as dedicated and passionate about their art as my former university colleagues were about their research programs. SAQA also affords me the opportunity to be in its exhibitions.
Texture Experiment #23
www.danolfe.com
57 x 57 inches, 2012
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artists to watch
Virginia Spiegel Byron, Illinois The natural world as experienced by Virginia Spiegel inspires her art. Each series invites a compelling conversation about a specific place during a specific season. Even though her work is largely abstract, viewers feel the rush of river flow, ride along on the freedom flight of a bee, and mentally touch the peeling bark of a tree. Each piece invokes love of the subject matter, and leaves room for viewers to make their own interpretations. There is, Spiegel says, beauty in ambiguity. Her art quilts are evocative celebrations, filled with meaning and emotion, of a lived landscape.
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Defining moments I find fabric, paint, and paper to be “warm� media. I am mainly a maker of art quilts but also create collages, photographs, sculpture, and paintings. I made my first quilt after seeing a quilting show on PBS. The show came on before Victory Garden every Sunday afternoon, and I caught snippets every week. I started quilting because I needed stress release from working full-time while doing the coursework for my Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Iowa. I learned quilting by having fun making things. My grandmother Alice and great-aunt Clara were quilters,
Boundary Waters 84 33 x 51 inches, 2016
and I come from a long line of creative needle workers. Being a self-taught quilter was an ideal foundation for my career as an art quilter. I didn’t know the rules, so I focused on what I wanted to say and worked out what needed to be done to say it. I became a full-time artist after surviving a car accident. It was an impossible-to-ignore reminder that life is too short not to do what you love. Becoming a full-time artist wasn’t a total shock for me as I had, between higher education positions, worked for several years as a graphic designer while completing graduate coursework in typography, photography, and design. Not working long hours away from home was quite the shock. No one believes that being an artist requires ironclad self-discipline. But it took time to develop a studio routine that works.
Inspiration For me, it’s all about nature, but not a generic nature. My artwork is about landscapes I have experienced,
studied, photographed, drawn, and lived in. Each one is based on my experience in a specific location in a specific season. I’m always thinking about what a particular detail tells me about the big picture. My sister and I have made 23 wilderness canoe trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) for a total of almost 200 days in the last 14 years. We carry everything we need for 10 days in three packs in our Kevlar canoe. The BWCAW comprises more than a million acres set aside from human development along the Minnesota/Canadian border. The area was named one of National Geographic Traveler’s “50 Places of a Lifetime” with good reason. In my artwork, I try to emulate how simple the materials in nature are, and yet how complex their forms and expressions. I experience firsthand the power of nature and realize how small and temporary humans are. In the wild, there are concrete examples — the downed giant pine fostering a tiny new tree; a loon’s nest destroyed so another animal might eat — of the endless recycling from life to death. SAQA Art Quilt Collector | 27
To see the bull moose, the spindly twin moose babies, the eagles, and so much more wildlife in their natural habitat, is not a gift I take lightly. Part of sharing my art is the hope others will respect and honor our irreplaceable environment. I live in the Midwest by choice. The landscape and my one-acre landscape garden I created from bare ground are always before me and on my mind. It’s a landscape of huge shagbark trees, waving grasses, ever-changing fields stretching to the horizon, and small patches of preserved prairie. We change with the seasons, from frozen winter to the bounty of summer. All of it inspires me.
Full-time commitment Being a successful artist has to begin with having something meaningful to say, wanting to say it more than anything else, and knowing in concrete terms what success means for you as an artist. The most important thing is not to be dissuaded from your personal definition of success by others. I’ve had a successful creative year if I’ve been able to create meaningful artwork that’s new to me in some way and if I’ve improved my resume with quality exhibits and publications. Even though I try to limit my time on the computer, I share something online every week about what I’m looking at, thinking about, creating, experimenting with, and where my artwork is being exhibited or published. My blog is a huge resource of my thoughts, inspirations, and artwork built up over almost 10 years. Currently I share more quickly and frequently on other social media such as Facebook. My life and my art are inextricably intertwined, so there’s always something to share.
Studio seasons
Rocktime (Boundary Waters 60) 60 x 24 inches, 2011
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Since my artwork is inspired by nature, it is fitting that my studio practice should follow the seasons. Almost all of my artwork is created from November through April. In the spring and summer, I travel, work in my landscape garden, and paint or print all the fabrics I use in my artwork. During the winter, the studio is my refuge, and I’m thrilled to spend long, concentrated hours in its warmth and light. I find that toward the end of summer, I actually feel a frisson of excitement, a rising push of inspiration that compels my return
to the studio. All summer long I have been living in nature and traveling about seeing new things. There is an urgency when I return to my studio, knowing that time is limited, time is passing. I work in series and within those series in groups of artwork. With art quilts, this is due, in part, to the fact that the only fabrics available to me are those that I have already created. I have yet to be able to go back and “make” additional fabrics to continue a grouping or series of artwork. Using what I have and moving on works best for me.
Inviting new artwork I always know what I want to talk about before I start, and it needs to be something for which I feel passion. I begin by auditioning fabrics, putting lots of possibilities on my design wall. At this point, I might sew all these fabrics together, cut them apart, add more fabrics, and sew again. The artwork develops organically. While I know the subject, I’m open to what form it might take. I find that the artworks I like the best are the ones done in the white heat of a moment. If I tinker with an artwork once it seems done, I know that the artwork’s intent wasn’t clear. I am not adverse, however, to adding another layer of paint to an almost-completed artwork. I definitely “ruin” a lot of artwork (no worries, they’ll be used in a future work), but I let the artwork drive the bus, even if eventually I
have to stitch through layers and layers of fabric and paint. I am always trying to push myself in new directions. I’m open to new materials and work in groups of artworks exploring new possibilities. For example, the Shagbark series is made almost exclusively from screen-printed upholstery samples. I completed a group of art quilts in the Boundary Waters series using thousands of miniature paper fasteners in lieu of stitching.
Next steps I’m curious and easily bored, but l have the touchstone of how the Boundary Waters and my daily landscape make me feel and what they say about life: Keep a steady thread of purpose in my mind and in my artwork. I have in mind a group of art quilts in the Boundary Waters series that will follow strict parameters. I’m not yet sure if the decisive factor will be color, size, motif, or some other interesting aspect. It’s always good to be learning something new, so I’m working on developing a more relaxed but realistic style for my paintings on canvas. I’m sure that this will feed into my textile artwork over time. www.virginiaspiegel.com
left: Boundary Waters 82
40 x 40 inches, 2016 below: Rock
40 x 40 inches, 2015
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gallery line drive
Karen Schulz Open Ended 58 x 38 inches, 2014 www.karen-schulz.com
Lisa Kijak Odyssey Liquor, Long Beach 59 x 39 inches, 2014 www.lisakijak.com
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gallery | line drive
Joke Buursma Will we ever be free? 48 x 24 inches, 2016 www.jokebuursma.weebly.com
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gallery | line drive Christi S. Beckmann Factory 38 x 51 inches, 2015 www.christibeckmann.com
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gallery | line drive
Sandy Gregg Data Breach 34 x 32 inches, 2015 www.sandygregg.com
Dena Dale Crain All That Jazz 26 x 29 inches, 2015 www.denadalecrain.com
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gallery | line drive
Diane Melms Rejoice 35 x 50 inches, 2014 www.dianemelms.com
Bonnie Peterson Glacier Transect 40 x 52 inches, 2015 www.bonniepeterson.com
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gallery | line drive
Virginia Abrams Roadside Construct 7: Shipping Containers 35 x 38 inches, 2014 www.virginiaabrams.com
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The Newark Museum: A pioneer in collecting art quilts by Sandra Sider
T
he Newark Museum is New Jersey’s largest museum, holding fine collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and of the ancient world. The size of its collection is the 12th largest among museums in the United States. Founding director John Cotton Dana believed that museums were established to promote the appreciation, understanding, and enjoyment of the arts and sciences. Together with a group of public officials, prominent business people, and local collectors, he established the Museum in
Anonymous, Wild Goose Chase 90 x 90 inches, early 19th century Pieced wool. Purchase 1918.
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1909 at the Newark Public Library. Dana provided the intellectual leadership that made it one of the most progressive cultural institutions in the country. The art and science collections are used to educate, inspire, and transform individuals of all ages, as well as the communities served by the Museum. I met with curator Ulysses Dietz in November for a tour of the Newark Museum and discussion about the art quilt collection. S: What is your position at the Newark Museum and for how long have you served in that capacity?
Joy Saville Interruptions 92 x 94 inches, 1980 Pieced cotton and polyester. Purchase 1983, Sophonia Anderson Bequest Fund
D: I was hired in 1980 as Curator of Decorative Arts, later became Senior Curator, and in 2012 was appointed Chief Curator. S: What is your background, if any, with quilts or other types of textiles? D: My graduate studies were at Winterthur, where I was exposed to various types of historical textiles being collected by Henry Francis Dupont, and where I learned to do needlework. S: For how many years has the Newark Museum been collecting art quilts, and how many pieces currently are in the collection? D: We began collecting art quilts in the early 1980s and now have fourteen in the collection. S: What or who prompted you to purchase the first art quilt for the Museum? Who is the artist? D: Our first art quilt is by New Jersey artist Joy Saville, who was transitioning into becoming a professional artist at the time. I found her work to be very exciting — how she uses abstraction in a dynamic way within the quilting tradition. S: Does the Museum also collect traditional quilts, either antique or contemporary traditional quilts? D: The Newark Museum owns approximately 200 quilts, mostly bed size, but including crib quilts and Joe Cunningham Snake in the Garden 72 x 74 inches, 2000 Pieced and appliqued cotton. Purchase 2015, Membership Endowment Fund and Robert Riggs Kerr Memorial Fund
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doll quilts, also some quilted petticoats. Quilts have always been an important part of the collection, with the first quilt purchased by our founder in 1918. He was a graphic artist, and he bought a red-and-blue wool quilt in the Wild Goose Chase pattern made in the early nineteenth century purely as visual art, not as an antique. By the latter 1920s, quilts were acquired as documentation of local history and folk art, an acquisitions policy that continued into the 1950s. By mid-century, quilts were being acquired to build our collection of Americana (we were also collecting Colonial furniture). In the early 1980s, my colleague in the Art of the Americas department commissioned a Native American star quilt from a Lakota quilter, Nellie Two Bulls. S: What appeals to you about quilts as contempo rary art? D: In the history of quilting, art quilts are distinguished by being consciously created as art, and for
me the most successful art quilt should still be a quilt in theory, even if the piece is not intended to be used on a bed. The visible reference to the history of quilting matters to me. S: Has anyone influenced you in making art quilt purchases? D: Yes, in that the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation in 1984 gave the Museum a grant to commission works of art. I was interested to discover a male quilt artist, Michael James, whose work I admired because, on the one hand, he approached quilting as a medium from a traditional perspective, while also approaching it aesthetically in a purely painterly way. We commissioned a quilt (Rhythm/Color: Spanish Dance) from him as a result of the grant. S: How and where do you usually acquire art quilts for the Museum? Have any been donated or pur chased since 2000?
left:
Marilyn Henrion Disturbances 68 x 66 inches Pieced silks. Photo by D. James Dee opposite:
Sandy Benjamin Hannibal Potholders and Dervishes Plus 96 x 108 inches, 1996 Pieced cotton. Purchase 2001, The Members’ Fund and Emma Fantone Fund
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D: Our art quilts have been purchased from the artists, with just two exceptions. I never want to ask artists to donate work, but of course, to be honest, I would welcome the opportunity to consider possible donations of art quilts. (Ed. note: The curator’s email address is udietz@newarkmuseum.org)
S: How many exhibitions of quilts have been dis played in the Museum? D: There have been lots of quilt exhibitions at the museum since the 1920s (when we opened our “new” building). One major quilt exhibition, Optical Quilts, was curated by J. Stewart Johnson in 1965. This show, for the first time in an American museum, associated the graphic energy of antique quilts with the Op Art movement of the time. Time magazine featured the
exhibition, and Johnson went on to become Curator of Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. We have never shown art quilts alone, only within the broader context of quilts as folk art (From Folk Art to Fine Art is a title I’ve used more than once!). This is really because of limited exhibition space, not because I haven’t wanted to show art quilts on their own. S: How do you see the art quilt collection ten years from now? D: I will be retiring at the end of 2017, and I hope that my successor continues to expand that collection — indeed, all our collections. Art quilts and historical quilts both are important parts of our decorative arts collection, and we’ll continue to acquire them.
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Selections from
The Quilted Canvas at the New England Quilt Museum This exhibition is the first in a series of installations showcasing the work of New England quilt artists over several decades. The Quilted Canvas is a unique insight into the relationships of a critique group. Judy Becker, Nancy Crasco, Sandy Donabed, Sylvia Einstein, and Carol Anne Grotrian have been meeting monthly for thirty years to support and sustain each other as artists. Nancy Crasco explains, “The focus of our gatherings is always about the work: assisting with aesthetic and construction concerns, sharing opportunities to exhibit, discussing current trends in fiber, and providing the impetus to continue creating.�
Carol Anne Grotrian Incoming Tide: Jones River 29 x 46 inches, 2014
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Judy Becker Fragments #478, #479, #480, #481 12 x 12 each, 2011
Nancy Crasco Weed Wars (Milfoil) 60 x 60 inches, 2012
Sandy Donabed Golden Apples of the Sun 63 x 39 inches, 2013
Sylvia Einstein LeMonde 42 x 39 inches, 2011
Judy Becker February Snowstorm 56 x 48 inches, 2000
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t h e co l l e ctor ’s b o o k s h e lf Wen Redmond’s Digital Fiber Art C&T Publishing, 2016 978-1617452697
Reviewed by Sandra Sider
Fifteen years ago I learned about the magical quilts being created by Wen Redmond through photographic processes on fabric and have followed her career with interest since then. Her new book Digital Fiber Art shares many of the artist’s techniques for texturing and collaging digital imagery, including her signature holographic effect.
I asked Redmond to describe how she approaches art making: “I am a process person. My process is fed by my love of being outdoors. I’m passionate about coming up with ideas and working out the kinks. This leads to more discoveries, an evolution. I make the art and then the art makes me. Part of that process is photography. I see the most exquisite scenes or combinations of patterns, and I want to share that beauty. My art represents these moments. They are what lie beneath. I bring them back to share, to remind, to remember. These moments become my source, my well. I hope to bring that energy into my art
SAQA artists on tour Share a world of techniques Reserve a 2017 Trunk Show for more information:
www.saqa.com/trunkshow
The 2017 Trunk Show showcases the diverse talents of SAQA artists. This special traveling exhibition is divided into eight separate trunks, each available for viewing from May 2017 through December 2020 at locations worldwide. Each trunk allows audiences to engage with the quilts in an up-close and personal way. This SAQA program provides opportunities for viewing anywhere, from a meeting to an exhibition at local libraries or arts centers.
Contact William Reker at exhibitions@saqa.com to reserve a trunk show 42 | SAQA Art Quilt Collector
making, to communicate the positive. Layers peeled back reveal the source, the inspiration, and my mad desire to capture thoughts, dreams, and the beauty of nature.”
Art Quilts International: Abstract & Geometric by Martha Sielman Schiffer, 2016 978-0764352201
Reviewed by Sandra Sider
Martha Sielman, executive director of Studio Art Quilt Associates for more than ten years, has produced yet another important book celebrating
contemporary quilt art. In 224 pages, the book beautifully illustrates 270 quilts from 18 countries. Sielman conducted in-depth interviews with 29 artists to explore their inspiration, working methods, and artistic growth. Each featured artist interview showcases six quilts. The interviews are interspersed with three galleries of full-page photographs of work by 95 additional artists. The author explains: “While geometric art focuses on lines and the basic geometric shapes, abstract works can range from these geometric forms to compositions based on realistic imagery that has been simplified in a variety of ways. Some of the pieces in the book tell stories while others
play with colors and forms.” Knowing the quality of Sielman’s earlier books, I can highly recommend this one and am especially pleased to see the international coverage.
Legacy funding helps ensure the future of SAQA, an organization supporting artists and promoting the art quilt medium internationally. The gift is also an easy way for me to say ‘thank you’ for facilitating my growth as an artist. — Nelda Warkentin
Is SAQA in YOUR will? SAQA Art Quilt Collector | 43
Photo Finish
Luke Haynes America Context #3: American Gothic 93 x 94 inches, 2010 Hand-pieced cotton and synthetic clothing fabric. Photo by Howard Tu. Collection The Newark Museum. Purchase 2012, W. Clark Symington Bequest Fund, Felix Fuld Bequest Fund, John J. O’Neill Bequest Fund and Emma Fantone Endowment Fund.
