Our Changing Landscape An exhibit of contemporary fiber art sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates of Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma Exhibited at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center 2012 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO 64108 June 2, 2017 - July 29, 2017 Juror: Judith Trager Curators: Karen Hansen and Mary Kay Fosnacht
Landscape as defined by Merriam-Webster is “a picture representing a view of natural scenery” or “the art of depicting such scenery” and is also defined as “a particular area of activity” as in “the political landscape.” The show features 32 pieces made by 21 members of the Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma region of Studio Art Quilt Associates. Artists were encouraged to interpret their own “Changing Landscape” whether abstract, graphic or representational. Artists may have been inspired by a representational landscape or have chosen a broader interpretation of a particular area of activity. Our Changing Landscape could encompass concepts such as global warming, seasonal changes, climate change, changing / lost habitat, the Internet, urban vs. rural, day vs. night, etc.
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In the Distance Marge Banks
Lawrence, KS Curving Seminole Patchwork strips create paths meandering across the landscape. Reflecting colors carry our eyes beyond the near. Multi-color thread in the quilting highlights the colorful patterns found in all of nature. 38� x 31� 2
Westward Trail Cindy Brendzel
Overland Park, KS This work tells a story of how the Midwest landscape changed in the last 150 years as waves of settlers made the overland journey westward. 29.5� x 26.5� 3
Glacier Pathways James R Brown
Lee’s Summit, MO After studying the Michael Miller fabric on my design wall for some time, I envisioned the fabric patterns creating mountains in my mind. The design inspiration came from a memory of flying over Alaska, looking down on a mountain landscape with sand colored pathways weaving their way through the valleys between and around the base of the mountains. 24” x 40”
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Fall Transitions James R Brown
Lee’s Summit, MO I took a workshop at the 2015 Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival, Leaves: Floating Free by Shelly Burge. I had a fabric color palette all picked out for this project. I made a file and vowed to complete this wall hanging in the near future. “Our Changing Landscape” exhibition came about and my imagined “leaves” project transformed in my mind to a fall/winter scheme using the fabric color palette I had acquired before. I did some sketches; a gray winter sky, gray shades of mountains background, fields in mid ground, and dormant grasses foreground. Large gray rocks with wild shrubs in the foreground. Trees with falling leaves and a harvest moon. My leaves are not like the ones Shelly Burge taught us but inspired me to more appropriate leaves for this artwork. 36” x 24”
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Lakescape
Shin-hee Chin
McPherson, KS Water reflections are fascinating in their endless variety. The reflection of the building makes its own abstraction. 30� x 38� 6
Moonlight Shin-hee Chin
McPherson, KS This work is inspired by Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune,” meaning moonlight. 41” x 36” 7
Sundown Tranquility Shin-hee Chin
McPherson, KS This work was inspired by the poem, “It is a beauteous evening, calm and free” by William Wordsworath. 48” x 30”
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Do You See What I See Shannon M Conley
Moore, OK As our country and political landscape become more divisive, I’m struck by the idea that things might be a little less extreme if we could take a minute to view the world from the perspective of others. How we see the world, metaphorically, shapes our responses and actions. This piece depicts the disc-laden photoreceptors of the retina (based on an electron micrograph), and thus represents how we see the world, literally. Yet even in this I have chosen to add color and vibrancy- a reminder that the world is not black and white and that positive energy is beneficial to us all. 37” x 24”
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Chain of Craters Vicki Conley
Ruidoso Downs, NM Our National Parks protect beautiful natural landscapes and serve as a geological record capturing changes over eons of time. When I first peered over the rim of Haleakala Crater I was awestruck by the desolate territory broken up by the colorful cinder cones. The scale of this expansive landscape was hard to appreciate until I dropped over the rim and hiked much further than I had anticipated to reach the first cone. Upon closer inspection, this feeling of isolation was supplemented with an appreciation for the unique life, such as the silver sword, that flourishes in the crater environment. The contrast between this harshness and the lushness of the surrounding areas was emphasized by the recurrence of the muted colors of the cinder cones in the more saturated tones of the chickens that roam the verdant regions of the island. 10
25� x 46�
Hanging Out to Dry Vicki Conley
Ruidoso Downs, NM After three straight days of rain in normally dry New Mexico, I spotted these buzzards on a tree snag drying their wings just as the sky was clearing. Their crazy posture and undignified look seemed so out of sync with our normally dour and ominous perception of these birds, and it brought a giant grin to my face. I love making quilts that depict the world around me, and the natural world abounds with striking and entertaining subject matter. We as humans must try to enjoy our flora and fauna without doing irreversible damage to them. Let nature make the changes - not us. 29� x 39� 11
Fires Ahead
Rebecca A Douglas
Columbia, MO The changing environment will present many challenges ahead, including fire and flood. This work was inspired by recent fires near Gatlinburg Tenn, a beautiful place now marred. 36� x 24� 12
From the Outside in 6: A Seeing Way Series Linda Filby-Fisher
Overland Park, KS The changing landscape of life, Il cammino della vita. Sorella-sister, appoggiati-lean! Created with the hope that we will Understand more than our eyes perceive. 27.5� x 24�
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Aspen Overload Mary Kay Fosnacht
Overland Park, KS Aspen are flourishing in Colorado after years of drought and the subsequent infestation of lodgepole pine by the mountain pine beetle. It has been interesting to see the transformation of the forest over the last decade. This quilt was inspired by a photo taken on a beautiful fall day. (Inspiration photo by the artist) 27.5� x 33.5� 14
State of the Union Mary Kay Fosnacht
Overland Park, KS Our political landscape has changed quite a bit over the last year or so, although, some would argue there has always been political controversy and turmoil. The black and white are meant to suggest contrast and tension, yet within each color there are many directions – not all aimed in alliance with the overall shape – and each main shape has also changed direction. Fake news and alternate facts that have dominated the headlines cause concern about the direction we, as a nation, are heading. 33.5” x 27.5”
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Broken Pipeline Linda Frost
Lawrence, KS Recent changes in the landscape of our country’s administration seem intent on rolling back protections to the environment and wildlife. Shortsighted policies threaten our future. 28” x 29” 16
The Death of Compromise Linda Frost
Lawrence, KS Left, right, red, blue, liberal, conservative…we insulate ourselves by listening only to those who agree with us. Progress and understanding come through compromise. 31.5” x 28.5” 17
How High’s the Water Mama? (Johnny Cash, 1959) Karen M Hansen
Overland Park, KS Rising sea levels and a changing climate present a challenge for our country. Like the old Johnny Cash song, we will be singing, “Five feet high and rising, we gotta head for higher ground.” 34” x 24.5” 18
Mixed Messages Karen M Hansen
Overland Park, KS Regardless of your political leanings, red, blue or other, the 2016 presidential campaign was divisive. It felt like the fabric that holds society together was being pulled apart. I cut up an old quilt of mine, painted and stitched a map of the USA on it, and loosely put the pieces back together. 24� x 27.5�
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Rolling Prairie Karen M Hansen
Overland Park, KS Not so long ago, covered wagons rolled over the Kansas plains. Now urban sprawl is taking over. Step lively … it will roll right over you! 27” x 33”
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Refuge/No Refuge Carol G Jones
Lawrence, KS This quilt is from a series inspired by inspiring books. In Refuge, naturalist Terry Tempest Williams chronicled a period in the 1980’s when the rising water of the Great Salt Lake inundated wildlife refuges on its shores. At the same time Williams’s personal landscape was devastated as her mother and grandmother were diagnosed with and died of cancers perhaps linked to nuclear weapons testing in the American West. As the birds she loved reacted to loss of refuge habitat, Williams sought some refuge of her own in closely observing and recording their strategies for adjusting to the changing landscape. Among the many species she wrote of were burrowing owls, red-winged blackbirds, whitefaced ibis, great horned owls, and trumpeter swans. 40” x 38”
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Ondaatje’s World Carol G Jones
Lawrence, KS This quilt is from a series inspired by inspiring books. In his memoir of family and childhood in Sri Lanka, Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje paints a vivid picture of eccentric and self-destructive relatives in an insular, equatorial setting. The teardrop-shaped island has been called the pendant on the ear of India. When Ondaatje was a child his father managed tea plantations sinuously terraced on the steep mountain slopes. Of seasonal change in the plantation gardens Ondaatje wrote: “ Walls of flowers—ochre, lavender, pink—would flourish and die within a month, followed by even more exaggerated and inbred colours.” 22
31.5” x 36”
Life Cycle
Andrea C Luliak
Wyandotte, OK Our landscape changes minute by minute and we can measure time passed by observing the life cycle of a sunflower. From the emergence of the flower in the morning, to the beautifully opened flower in full sunlight to the eventual decline of the sunflower at night, I have attempted to capture it’s entire life in fabric. 31” x 36” 23
Oklahoma Earthquake Andrea C Luliak
Wyandotte, OK Oklahoma has experienced an unprecedented rash of earthquakes in recent years because of wastewater disposal during fracking operations. I recently felt two very strong earthquakes where I live and the impression it made on me was intense. No one knows the extent these earthquakes will have on Oklahoma, but I needed to show the displacement of the earth in this piece. 28� x 40.5� 24
There is a Season Ada Niedenthal
Lenexa, KS I grew up in Kansas, the wheat state. And my art is frequently motivated by my desire to describe the sense of a particular time or place. Kansas’ hard winter wheat is an annual crop which needs to be planted and harvested every year. Kansas’ changing weather and changing seasons are critical to the health and growth of this crop. Planted in the early fall, it lies dormant under winter snow, grows to maturity in the spring, ripens and is harvested in the summer. The price of wheat is ever-changing, depending on supply and demand or, more often, depending on the petty whims of the market speculators. The land itself changes hands as the original settlers and farmers die and their children and grandchildren seek opportunities elsewhere. 28” x 33”
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Lovely to look at? Pat Owoc
St. Louis, MO Oil well drilling -- exciting, scary, powerful, noisy, stinky – that’s my memory from childhood as drilling took place on our farm near the house and on the plot known as the Dickey Place. And, when the drilling ceased the result was a well which might bring in a bit of money for family expenses. Or a “dry well” with the land partially returned to crop production. Fast forward – I read now of waste water from the drilling process being disposed of below ground in porous rock. The injection and shifting of rock has resulted in earthquakes. I’d never imagined earthquakes in north-central Oklahoma and southern Kansas. I imagine the waste water to be smelly and caustic and dangerous. Not blue and pure, that’s for sure. Purple and metallic, perhaps? 26
30” x 40”
Fukushima: Nuclear City Cynthia Parry
Lenexa, KS On March 11, 2011 the world’s worst nuclear disaster occurred as a result of a tsunami due to the 9.0 earthquake in Japan. Four of the six cube-shaped reactors melted down spewing nuclear fallout into the air; the air we breathe and falling on the crops grown. Run off into the sea poisoned the fish a major food source a food source that does not stay put. *This piece is one of a series of 12 on the Japan triple disaster of 2011. 31” x 28.5” 27
Illumination Cynthia Parry
Lenexa, KS I love to read as much as I love to quilt. Artistic license allowed a rough tracing of the sort of reading available and the process of the time. Scrolls by quill and ink gave us illuminated letters. Typed manuscripts gave us books which could illuminate the mind. Computers provided easy editing and reading by illuminated devices. Limitations placed on size meant Gutenberg didn’t make the cut. 28
31” x 47”
Beneficial Burn ll Ruth Powers
Carbondale, KS Controlled burning is very important and beneficial to the ecology of the prairie. The annual burning of the Flint Hills grasslands insures that the prairie will continue to produce the very best grazing, as it has done for centuries. It is a beautiful sight, especially at night. Original artwork based on my own sketch. 36� x 36� 29
Three Trails and an Interstate-: Spirit Hawk Remembers Carmen Rinehart
Olathe, KS The pioneers began their trek Westward on one of three trails, the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California. These trails, originating in Independence, Missouri, wound through the area which is now Greater Kansas City. Cave Springs, in Raytown, was the last fresh water stop before the trails divided at the intersection now known as Three Trails Crossing, where three interstate highways retrace this route today. From the early tallgrass landscape, a vibrant metropolitan area has emerged. My quilt blends images from both eras as Spirit Hawk gazes down. 30
31.5� x 41�
Drive-By
Jackie L Stoaks
Overland Park, KS The youth of today have a much different life landscape than mine was. The chance of encountering violence is a part of the lives of many of today’s children. Too often they are exposed to random acts of violence on the playground, the classroom, the streets of their neighborhood, and in the backseat of the family car, in the warmth of their own bed and in the comfort of their family’s arms. 29” x 43” 31
RECYCLE PLEASE Randy L Temple
Topeka, KS RECYCLE PLEASE, is composed of plastic bags. Changing Landscapes is an opportunity to bring attention that our envirorment/landscape is being threatened by plastics (bags). Floating in the air, stuck in trees and in the waterways. PLEASE RECYCLE! 32
48” x 26”
And Then There Was One
Sherry Turpenoff and Katie Turpenoff
Glen Carbon, IL This quilt remarks on the polar bear’s loss of habitat, and the effects climate change is having on the Earth’s entire ecosystem. 31” x 41.5” 33
Studio Art Quilt Associates: SAQA is an international non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the art quilt and the artists who create them. We are an information resource on all things art quilt related for our members as well as the public. Founded in 1989 by an initial group of 50 artists, SAQA members now number more than 3,400 artists, teachers, collectors, gallery owners, museum curators and corporate sponsors. For more information, visit the organization’s website at SAQA. com. Catalog designed by Shannon Conley
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