COMING
SOON
Volume A The UPPERCASE Encyclopedia of Inspiration encyclopediaofinspiration.com
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Dear Reader, Quilts are personal. Whether created by hand or by machine, the seams and stitches that make up a quilt are from the heart and mind of the maker. Quilts are art. Things that had little utility on their own are brought together, and reinvigorated as a patchworked object of self-expression. Quilts are poetry. And for those of us who aren’t professional textile artists or even casual quilters, their tradition and visual history evoke emotion, memory and story. Quilts are reinvention. Quilts and patchwork can inspire us to create art that is written, drawn, painted or collaged. Assembling the unique pieces of ourselves into a blanket of shared cultures and values, we take fragments of ideas, scraps of fabric and pieces of ourselves and reassemble them into a greater whole.
Ja n i n e Vango ol P U B L I S H E R , E D I TO R , D ES I G N E R
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Here’s my start of a “crumb” quilt, a process that uses up even the tiniest scraps! Cheryl Arkison, contributor to this issue, teaches the technique. cherylarkison.com
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Contents
October November December 2021 4
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U P P E R C A S E
An UPPERCASE Log Cabin Australian subscriber Jillian Galvin does something unusual with her magazines—she gets them coil bound at her local stationery store. “I like the fact that the mag lies flat on the table when it is bound. Plus I fold it back to mark where I am up to, and I can hold coffee in one hand and a chocolate biscuit in the other!” The offcuts don’t go to waste: “I couldn’t discard those lovely spines! My Log Cabin arrangement keeps growing and will be an art piece in the future.”
Welcome Editor’s Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
EPHEMERA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Domestic Sewing Machines by Mark E. Sackett and Melanie Roller
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Subscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Snippets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Noted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Stockist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
CREATIVE CAREER . . . . . . . . 12 Luisa De Santi
WORTHWHILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Circle Creative Collective by Amelia Woodbridge
Fine Print LIBRARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Art & Design COVER ARTIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Poppy Dodge by Claire Dibble
FEATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Sista, We Gotta Tell Our Own Stories: Beverly Smith and Letitia Fraser Interviews by Ann Johnson
SKETCHBOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
BAC K C OV E R
ASK LILLA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Oma’s Quilt by Lilla Rogers
ABECEDARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Stripe Stack
Creative (Re)Inventions by Lydie Raschka
Ellen Grace Ruden
COVET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 On Reinvention by Andrea Jenkins
PAINTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Susan Moss
Once a Quilt, Always a Quilt by Cheryl Arkison
Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
The Textile Paintings of Brittney Tough by Linzee McCray
FRESH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ORIG IN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Looking Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
ILLUSTRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Illustrated Quilts by UPPERCASE readers
Monica Bond, Stephanie Huang, Ruth Barrow
BEG INNINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Misc. Encyclopedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
BEING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
My Missing Piece by Lauren Venell
HOBBY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Lindsay Sutton by Brendan Harrison
Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Art Quilts by UPPERCASE readers
Making Customer Service a Priority by Arianne Foulks illustration by Andrea D’Aquino
DISCOVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Poetry and Patchwork by Katherine Ferrier
“I Am Known for My Quilts” by Minaachimo-Kwe (Alice Olsen Williams)
GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
STITCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Focus on Quilts Irene Blanck by Emily Orpin
TOG ETHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Recommended Reading
Reinvention: Each Road Leads Back to Me by Meera Lee Patel
Craft
I O WA C I T Y, I O WA , U S A
I got obsessed with the idea of an improv stacked stripe quilt a while ago and knew my box of smaller solid scraps would be perfect! Cutting strips with scissors was freeing and fun, and my design came together pretty quickly with very little tweaking. Piecing this quilt puzzle together was tricky and luckily I only sewed myself into a Y-seam corner once! Hand quilting all the straight-ish lines across it was a slow and steady process. In the end, I decided to keep it for myself, and I love that this cheerful work of art makes me smile whenever I see it! @ellengracequilts uppercasemagazine.com
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C O N T R I B U TO R
U P P E R CAS E 201B – 908, 17th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2T 0A3
Janine Vangool P U B L I S H E R , E D I TO R , D E S I G N E R
janine@uppercasemagazine.com C U STO M E R S E RV I C E
shop@uppercasemagazine.com
Correy Baldwin C O PY E D I TO R
Ann Johnson
Core Contributors Jane Audas Correy Baldwin Andrea D’Aquino Arianne Foulks Joy Deneen Glen Dresser Brendan Harrison Andrea Jenkins Linzee Kull McCray Andrea Marván Kerrie More Emily Orpin Meera Lee Patel Lydie Raschka Christopher Rouleau P RI NTE D I N CA N A DA BY T H E P R O L I F I C G R O U P.
Interior pages are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled Rolland Enviro 100. Give this magazine a long life! The content is evergreen, so we hope you’ll revisit it over and over again. If you’re done with it, please pass it on to a friend or colleague who might enjoy our content, or cut up the pages and create some art.
We plant a tree with every subscription. treeera.com
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3) and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta. 6
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Thank you to all of the talented writers, illustrators, creative collaborators and loyal readers who contributed their talents to this issue of UPPERCASE.
O CTO RO O N , F RO M T H E AU CT I O N BLOCK SERIES, 2021 I N TA G L I O O N R AW C OT TO N , F O U N D O B J ECTS , TRANSFER PRINT
Subscribe! This independent magazine thrives because of you— its loyal subscribers! shop.uppercasemagazine.com
Ann Johnson was born in London, England, and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and is a graduate of Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where she currently teaches. She has an MFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Primarily an interdisciplinary artist with an affinity for experimental printmaking, she has a passion for exploring issues, particularly in the Black community. Her series It Is the Not Knowing That Burns My Soul, examining the “Black Indian,” was included in IndiVisible for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. She has been featured in the New York Times and the International Review of African American Art. She has exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas, the Smack Mellon in Brooklyn, New York, Women and their Work in Austin, Texas, and the California African American Art Museum in Los Angeles, California. Ann is represented by Hooks-Epstein Galleries in Houston, Texas, and Spillman Blackwell Fine Art in New Orleans, Louisiana. solesisterart.com
Thank you to everyone who submitted to the open calls for this issue. Even if you weren’t featured within these printed pages, your effort was noticed and appreciated!
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Snippets
COMMUNITY
Where We Have Been and Where We Hope to Be Liberty Worth LOS ANG E LES, CALI FORN IA , USA
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iberty Worth has been an artist and textile designer since 1997. “As a person who has walked through trauma and healing, I have been called in for the past 10 years to lead workshops with people on processing grief through art,” she says. The challenges and racial turmoil of 2020 led Liberty to immerse herself in her art. “I found that my art became the safest place to process what I needed to process. Though I am normally an artist who creates abstract pieces with quilted fabric, I found the simplicity of quilts drew me into a place of comfort when I needed it most.” Through an artist residency, she developed a curriculum that brings in diverse people through making paper quilts as a narrative for their own processing. “The paper quilts and personal narratives that I received back were so inspiring that they became a collaboration between artists, and I even turned some of them back into quilts.” More details are available on Liberty’s website.
libertyworthart.com
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KO R E A N
17th Korean Art Quilt Exhibition The Korean Art Quilt Community will present its 17th exhibition at the Quilt Festival in Korea from October 7 to 9, 2021. Entries in the contemporary category are evaluated for their creativity and uniqueness, but the quilts still must follow the structure of a traditional quilt. Members are encouraged to share their research in experimental quilting in order to exhibit a quilt. qfik.kr/galleries/ art_quilt
FAS H I O N Modern Geometry Circle Bag Emily Van Hoff believes that quilts deserve to get up off the bed, get down from the wall and walk out into the world. Her quilted bags are portable pieces of art. @emilyvanhoff
Self portrait PPHHO OTTO O BBYY KKC C SSTTUUDDIIO O
Yoonjung Lim Kantha stitch quilting, embroidery, machine piecing on silk fabric and digital printing fabric.
Painted Flower Pots
These pretty painted pots by illustrator Aubrey Bauer are inspired by patchwork and folklore. folkandfloradesignco.com
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N O T E D
corrugated constructions
Berri Kramer Colour expert, fibre artist and teacher Berri Kramer has created these corrugated cardboard colour studies. “For over 25 years I have explored colour relationships in fibre: non-traditional quilts structurally based on a predetermined set of rules instead of a standard block repeat.” berrikramer.com
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THIS IS A LOW RES PREVIEW OF A HIGH QUALITY Wool Song Q U A R T E R LY P R I N T M A G A hand-knotted ZINE rugs Art Beneath Your Feet
Wool Song specializes in contemporary and transitional hand-knotted and flat-woven rugs made in Nepal. This design is from a quilt illustration by Monika Forsberg and is handmade using 100% Tibetan highland sheep wool.
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C R E A T I V E
C A R E E R
luisa de santi P R O F E S S I O N A L T E X T I L E A R T I S T, D E S I G N E R A N D T E AC H E R
Please describe your creative career. Since 2009 my installations and laboratories have been part of art and crafts events in Italy and abroad (Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney in Australia, Nantes in France and London in the UK). I have created and organized public installations and yarn bombing projects for charities in Italy (Milano, Gorizia, Modena, and the last one for Science in the City Festival in Trieste for ESOF2020 with Picknitartcafe, the association I founded in 2014). Using a broad range of yarn techniques, typically considered as crafting and feminine hobbies, I focus on experimenting with the expressive potential offered by these techniques, especially in their three-dimensional facets and applications. Knowing these techniques that are so popular and familiar to many people, I feel free to ironically focus on the symbolic content of the single works, be it empathy, sharing, interconnection or affirmation of a personal point of view. I’ve always loved crocheting, knitting and embroidery, as they relax me a lot. Transforming my hobby in my actual job changed my life for the better. I am able to dedicate myself to what I love full time, and I am paid, too! What makes your job, profession or calling unique and interesting? Why are you drawn to this work? My research is based on experimenting. It’s a story about emotions, feelings, colours, textures, research, experimentation and enthusiasm. Threads simply pave the way to playfulness and to a world of infinite creativity. What training or education prepared you (or didn’t!) for this career? Right from my childhood, the possibility to construct practically anything starting from a thread felt absolutely magical to me—a fairy goddess spell, a touch of the supernatural turning into reality. In fact, the fairy tales I loved most were often about shirts woven without seams, fairy creatures creating enchanted dresses overnight, never-ending threads, straw being spun into gold. What advice do you have for someone trying to find their own creative career path? The most important thing is to find your own style, and experimenting is the way to achieve it. Don’t copy, don’t spend too much time watching the galleries online, work with your own mind and your own hands. It’s funnier, easier and makes more sense: you’ll start a journey in your mind and in your own world. Anything else you’d like to share? I work on my creations without any sketches. I find that working without sketches and plans is like leaving without a destination: you just enjoy your journey. This process gives me a feeling of freedom and emotion, so it is the best way for me. My idea of perfect happiness is the equilibrium between dreams and reality, the harmony of feeling connected with everything that surrounds me, knowing that I am a small part of a larger organism that comprehends everything and everyone. @luisa_desanti
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S T O C K I S T
Inspired by all the quilts in this issue? You can find fabric, notions and UPPERCASE magazines at independent brick-and-mortar shops!
the workroom Karyn Valino T O R O N T O , O N TA R I O , C A N A D A
the workroom opened in 2007 in Parkdale, a west end neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. the workroom is a place for makers to find inspiration and supplies through our retail sewing supply and fabric shop. They can also create, learn and share though our studio space and roster of 50-plus workshops. The magic of what we do was created though having a brick-and-mortar space for people to connect in person with our team, instructors and each other. With the pandemic, our space was closed for almost 500 days to keep our community safe. Thankfully, our online shop and curbside pickups kept us going and kept us in touch from a distance with our people. We’ve finally been able to open our space back up again for in-person shopping. It is a surreal experience to shift slowly back to doing what we love to do in the shop and truly realizing how nourishing and important our creative community contact is. theworkroom.ca @_theworkroom
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W O R T H W H I L E
Using our creativity for good is one of the best ways we can make a difference. Through design, art and craft—and with our hands and hearts—we can effect change. However small it may seem at first, each incremental effort is still significant.
circle creative collective STO RY BY
a m el ia wo o d bridge
C
reativity allows us to change traditional ways of thinking, develop new ideas, take risks and solve problems. It thrives on diversity, conflict and shared exploration. For Circle Creative Collective (Circle) in the Hudson Valley, New York, there’s no better way to bring good things to the world and realize personal growth than through creative pursuits. Drawn to connect and inspire their community, Circle co-directors Melissa Hewitt, Mirabai Trent and Jenny Wonderling crafted an inclusive studio of art and craft creative experiences. Their mission is to use the healing power of creativity, through community, to share and preserve traditional crafts and skills. Circle brings together people from different cultures and backgrounds through hands-on, sustainably sourced creative classes, workshops and retreats to learn weaving, dyeing, printmaking, sewing, spinning and more. This “full-circle” approach bridges tradition with the value of everyone’s contribution, in a safe, supportive environment that builds skills, friendship, self-esteem and healing.
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“We engage the hands and the heart,” says Mirabai Trent. “For us, it is important to honour the artisans and skills of those who came before us for the next generation. People take pride in making things and find handmade craft very fulfilling for their soul.” Circle reaches 15,000 people in their community and beyond each month through an email newsletter, social media and word of mouth. Among their program offerings are Chrysalis, which provides emotional and creative tools for teen girls to navigate life; Sankofa, a traditional African craft series that explores crafts and fibre art; Coser a Mano, an immigrant sewing initiative working with women of Guatemala and Mexico to create pathways of income for themselves; and Craft Preservation, an ongoing series of workshops celebrating different cultures and crafts. Most recently, Circle has added Sacred Transitions, a program to nurture milestone life stages, such as becoming a mother, post-graduation paths, coping with divorce and more. A combination of craft, inspiration and collective support encourages a smooth transition through these bumpy phases of life. Currently offering in-person and online classes, technique videos, an online store and events, Circle plans to grow its program selection with additional retreats, video tutorials and corporate events. Artisans can also reach out to Circle to offer courses for the community. “Immersive craft experiences foster inclusion and authentic relationships, especially when we make friends with people of different backgrounds than our own,” says Jenny Wonderling. “At the heart of all we do is the people, helping them to feel more supported and connected both to themselves and each other within a greater context.” Circle is committed to racial justice and social equity, providing opportunities to all people, particularly those who have traditionally been marginalized: women, Native Americans, Indigenous people, immigrants and refugees, African Americans, LGBTQ and Latinx communities. “People find joy and an open heart when connecting through making. Circle facilitates the process, but the magic happens because of the experience,” says Melissa Hewitt. circlecreativecollective.org
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RECOMMENDED READING BY
j a n i n e va ng o o l
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U P P E R C A S E
L I B R A R Y
C O L L AG E D
From Collage to Quilt: Inspirational Quilting from What You Have SA R A H H I B B E RT
London-based quilter Sarah Hibbert has been informing her quilting practice through the art of collage. “For the past few years I have been creating a paper collage each day from cuttings I have collected since childhood. I have used these simple designs as an inspiration for larger fabric pieces.” Sometimes painting the fabrics, other times using commercially printed fabric, Sarah uses this collage approach to creating quilts. “This technique lends itself to either small hand-stitched pieces or large wall hangings.” Sarah shares this process in her new book, From Collage to Quilt, published by Lucky Spool. Within, you’ll learn how to create paper collages from recycled items you have on hand and then transpose those ideas into a quilt. Sarah also incorporates found objects and paper into the actual quilts, creating unique artistic quilts. @quiltscornerstone luckyspool.com
PA I N T E D
The Quilt VA L É R I A N E L E B LO N D
This illustrated storybook tells the story of a family emigration at the turn of the 20th century—a quilt lovingly made by a girl’s mother is one of the only possessions brought over to the new land. The quilt envelopes the homesick little girl on the journey and during her acclimation to a new home. valeriane-leblond.eu
H I STO R I C
Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns BA R BA R A B R AC K M A N
Barbara Brackman is a quilt historian with decades of experience. She undertook the mammoth task of indexing thousands of pieced quilt patterns. Using old magazine articles, mainly between 1920 and 1950, she identified the name and lineage of the designs. The resulting encyclopedia from 1993 was a beloved reference. This third edition, released by Electric Quilt, has been fully modernized and updated with precise line and full-colour diagrams of classic quilt blocks. With over 4,000 blocks included, this epic edition can help you identify traditional block designs, but also provide endless inspiration for new ones. Electric Quilt also offers a unique software called BlockBase+ that brings these thousands of blocks into a digital license. Users can print rotary cutting instructions, templates and foundation patterns, and export files at any size, bringing contemporary possibilities to these historical patterns. electricquilt.com
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B U S I N E S S
STO RY BY
arianne foulks
I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y
andrea d ’aquino
C
ustomer service is every interaction you have with customers and potential customers. This can be direct (such as a phone call) or indirect (such as information they find on your website). Great customer service leads to word of mouth, glowing reviews and social media posts—all great ways to expand a customer base. Being a smaller business means that you can offer an authentic personal touch that is meaningful to your customers. Here’s a starter guide on how to use customer service to improve your business. |||
Benefits of Spending Time on Customer Service Word of mouth is powerful, and thoughtful customer service creates happy customers who will spread the word for you. Aim to please and impress your customers enough that they feel compelled to endorse you to their friends. You can share customer reviews and testimonials on your site, convincing new customers that you are a safe business to buy from. Reviews inspire trust, provide answers to questions and help your customers decide. You can gain valuable info for your business by listening to your customers. How can you adjust your product or the shopping experience to make it what they want? Their communication with you can give you ideas for improvement.
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How to Fit Customer Service into Your Day Much of customer service happens online, from email to social media to online review sites. It’s important to find and reply quickly to the customer communication that’s out there.
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fresh talent
Monica Bond S U M M I T, N E W J E RS EY, U SA
My wish is to create art pieces that make the viewer pause, bringing them back to the present moment. With a combination of words, paint and collaging techniques, I carefully choose the colours and theme based on the message I am trying to convey. My dream is to keep producing my artwork and patterns as art prints, notebooks and fabrics, and expand into editorial art, book covers and any other piece of work for which “be here now” is the overarching message. ciaozen.com @ciao.zen
W H ET H E R YO U ’ R E A F R E S H G R A D UAT E O R M AT U R E A RT I ST, IT IS OFTEN A D R E A M TO B E PUBLISHED FOR T H E F I RST T I M E !
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B E G I N N I N G S
my missing piece STO RY BY
la uren venel l
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hen I was a kid, one of my favourite books was The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein. It’s the story of a shape (a circle with a wedge cut out of it) searching for the piece that will complete it. When it finally finds the piece that makes it a perfect circle, the shape can suddenly roll forward with speed and ease. But it can no longer stop to smell a flower, or talk to a worm, or sing, and the shape ultimately lets the piece go, realizing that it had been whole all along. Despite reading this book dozens of times, I spent more than 20 years trying to “find my passion” so that I could roll forward with speed and ease. People I knew who had found their callings early seemed to live with purpose and momentum—they knew what they were put on this earth to do, and had plenty of time to learn how to do it well. I desperately wanted that kind of self-assuredness, so discovering my passion became my primary hobby.
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I turned to exercises, books, classes and coaches to try to find my missing piece. I was a classroom teacher, a soft sculptor, a conference organizer, a prop maker, a bookkeeping instructor, a data visualizer and a designer in technology startups. None of those occupations quite fit, but in my desperation to feel whole, I changed my own shape to try and complete the circle. I printed new business cards, joined new professional groups and updated my website to make it look like I’d always been dedicated to my current field. But no matter how much or how often I reinvented myself, I still struggled. It seemed like I wasn’t cut out for work in schools, work in the corporate world, freelancing for clients, or selling my own creative work. I had some minor successes, but never in anything I truly enjoyed. In trying to diagnose the problem, the only throughline I could find was my own inadequacy. Maybe I wasn’t good at the things I liked, or didn’t like things I was good at. Or maybe my years dabbling in multiple fields rather than specializing in one meant that I simply couldn’t (as one manager put it) “add enough value” to make me worth hiring.
F LOSS P H OTOS BY L AU R E N V E N E L L , E M B RO I D E RY P H OTOS BY K A R E N BA R B É , H E A DS H OT BY SA R A H D E R AG O N O F P O RT R A I TS TO T H E P EO P L E
creative (re)inventions lyd ie ra sch ka
MARTHA G RAHAM
COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY
Avant-Garde Art Art that opens new ways to see and represent the world, often in opposition to established ideas and traditions.
Eppsicles In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson left water, powdered soda mix and a wooden stick on his porch and it froze overnight. He called the result an “Eppsicle.” Later, his children would ask for “Pop’s ’sicle,” and so the popsicle was born.
Boro A type of Japanese household textile, such as bedding or clothing, which has been mended or patched to extend its use—now celebrated for its ingenuity and inherent beauty.
Cartone A full-scale sketch that served as a stencil of sorts, in the 15th century, to transfer a drawing to a wall, wood or canvas in the creation of a fresco, mosaic or painting.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
B O R O : C H I L D ' S S L E E P I N G M AT, L AT E 1 9 T H C E N T U R Y CA RTO N E : M I C H E L A N G E LO A N S E L M I , 1 5 4 8
A B E C E D A R Y
This book by Betty Edwards reinvigorated art instruction with exercises designed to sharpen our powers of observation, including upside-down drawing and blind contours.
Gee’s Bend Quilts African American women in rural Alabama pieced together strips of cloth to make bedcovers, now celebrated worldwide for their stunning, improvisational design.
Finder
NYC’s Harlem became an important hub of creative reinvention in the 1920s and 1930s, brimming with writers, actors, singers and artists, who gave artistic expression to the African American experience.
Jigsaw puzzles The first jigsaw puzzle was a map of the world to help kids learn geography. It has evolved into a staple of simple, mind-sharpening entertainment.
L A N G STO N H U G H E S . 1925
Inkling
A vague idea or notion, often the spark of creative reinvention. 26
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LU CY M I N G O, 19 79
Harlem Renaissance
Artist Corita Kent equipped her students with “finders,” paper cards with a cut-out rectangle, or 35 mm slide cases, to help them observe the world anew. “You have to look at the world [in] small pieces,” she said. “Look at it. Just a small part of the world.”
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TEXT BY MARK E. SACKETT AND MELANIE ROLLER
C O L L ECT I O N BY
ma r k e. sacke tt
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Art & Design
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F E A T U R E
sista, we gotta tell our own stories I NTE RVI E WS BY
a n n j oh n son
Beverly Smith and Letitia Fraser create art with quilts
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ister we gotta tell our own stories.” Faith Ringgold, the modern goddess of the narrative quilt, once said this to me. With the politicized erasure of Black culture, it is more important than ever that we tell our stories. There has been a renaissance of narrative quilt storytelling amongst African American artists. In the tradition of Ringgold, who is still producing work in her 80s, and Harriett Powers, modern and contemporary quilters are making it a point to tell our stories stitch by stitch. Bisa Butler and the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, have had major museum surveys and exhibitions that have introduced a new audience to African American quiltmakers and storytellers. Beverly Smith and Letitia Fraser represent the wisdom and youth of contemporary quilters. They are unified in listening to and respecting the spirit of the ancestors. Chatting with Beverly is like sitting on the porch, drinking lemonade at a family reunion. We are definitely kindred spirits. Her work is a history lesson rooted in the American South and inspired by family. “Conversations with my mother, grandmother and aunts have always inspired me to base my artworks on Southern expressions and idioms,” she says. Beverly’s dedication and level of research is impressive, particularly as it relates to textiles. She often draws directly from live models on canvas, which she then applies and stitches into her work. Her work pushes the boundaries of quilting, as it often infers two- and three-dimensional soft sculptures. I found myself fixated on her sculptures. Beverly’s studio is housed in her former family church— Grace A.M.E. Zion Church—in the historical Brooklyn neighbourhood of Charlotte, North Carolina.
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attached to it, so I’m not beyond the scraps. But that’s why I was so curious. My grandmother was known for those patchwork quilts, those little squares, but they would meander here and there, and what I discovered through research is that, you know, that comes from ancient Africa. That offbeat phrasing is what they call it. It’s almost like jazz notes that go up and down. We are on the same planet. I wrote that down three times: bebop, bebop, bebop. Yeah, you know, my aunt was the kind who was always into roots and witch doctors, so they couldn’t understand why I never wanted to spend the night at her house, right? But she would say that a lot of that had to do with keeping evil spirits out of the fabric, and they would get confused with all of that movement. I don’t know how much I believe that, right? I never take chances, so all of my quilts have that offbeat phrasing, that patchwork, that crazy kind of movement. You use quilt codes from the Underground Railroad in your work. There are scholars who said the Underground Railroad didn’t happen. How do we know if it happened or not? So, no, we didn’t write everything down, but you understood how to read those, and to know how to use those different codes, right? And those gestures. When I unpack a piece, a lot of it has to do with those body gestures. They meant a lot, especially for Black women. We did not have a voice at all. You know, you don’t even give me eye contact. You don’t speak. So you know sometimes that rolling of the eye and hand gesture, that hand on the hip, all of that was to communicate in other ways when that voice was taken away. So it would make sense that the codes were used. Even since the beginning of recording history, they found that women would hide codes in crochet and knitting. But because it was done by her, because it was done by women— again it’s a gender thing, too—it was dismissed. I retired last May, so I’ve had time to do more piecing, which I did not have a lot of time for because it does take a lot of time. So I’m putting together more of the symbols that were identified in the Underground Railroad quilts: the Bears Claw, the Bowtie, the Log Cabin. So yes, I’m including a lot of those in more of my quilts, bringing my contemporary style with, you know?
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Plant a Seed 2017
Rite of Passage 2020
Fabric, graphite, transfers, acrylic paint, embroidery, 78" x 64"
Mixed-media quilt: graphite, paint, vintage flour sack, 75" x 45"
T O G E T H E R
“I Am Known for My Quilts”
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y real name is MinaachimoKwe, while my English “pseudoname” is Alice Olsen Williams. My mother’s doodem (clan) is the Caribou, but because my father is a white man (born in Oslo, Norway), I was not born into a clan. However, the Martin adopted me into her clan. I was born in Trout Lake, in Northwestern Ontario, the land of my mother’s people and relations from time before memory. I have been living now for the past 44 years at Curve Lake (a First Nation between Ottawa and Toronto), where my husband and four children were born and raised. To date, we have five grandchildren and one two-and-a-halfyear-old great-grandson. I am a sovereign member of the mighty Anishinaabe nation. This is what I say when I introduce myself at ceremonies. If I’m with friends we have a good little chuckle about that. I am known for my quilts. As a quilt maker, I hope that I help to bring honour to women, as women in many cultures and down through the millennia have made blankets for warmth, comfort, beauty and expressions of love for their families, households, relations, ceremonies and as gifts.
S T O R Y A N D Q U I LT S B Y
minaachimo-kwe / alice olsen willia m s
As a quilt maker, I hope that I help to bring honour to women, as women in many cultures and down through the millennia have made blankets for warmth, comfort, beauty and expressions of love for their families, households, relations, ceremonies and as gifts.
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I did not always twig to quilts and quilt making. The first time I carefully looked at a quilt I was dismayed to see all those tiny, tiny stitches which covered the quilt, and wondered how anyone could even imagine finishing all that stitching, let alone really believe they could complete the quilt. True, I had done a lot of beadwork in the past and it requires working with minute beads and small stitches, but the projects are relatively small and it is easy to see an end to them. But quilts—they are so big; how can anyone imagine being able to finish one!? How can anyone even think there can be an end to it!? After that first time when I inspected a quilt, and all those horrible and dreadful feelings towards the work that has to be done to complete a quilt overwhelmed me, I’d actually turn and walk away from a quilt display whenever I happened to come across one. Thinking of all that work used to make me shudder! All of my life I have loved fabrics. My mom was poor when we were small, but she managed to possess a few pieces of fabric. She made her own blouses and dresses, and sewed clothes for us, her six children. I remember her gazing at some of her fabrics, fondly touching them and saying how she loved the different designs and different colours. That must have rubbed off on me because I feel the same way about the fabrics I have. As early as my high school days I have bought little bits and pieces of material. However, I couldn’t buy a lot until after I was married and settled down in my own home, for I’d had nowhere to keep my possessions. By the time my firstborn, a daughter, was one year old, I
G A L L E R Y
art quilts Readers share their own interpretations of what an “art quilt” can be.
A Patchwork Sky Andrea Myers COLUMBUS, OHIO, USA
I create technicolour patterned fabric surfaces and immersive installations from a wide range of found, repurposed and donated fabrics. I consider my process a “gesture quilt making” technique, in which I quickly compose strips of fabric onto the surface in sections and collage them together using frenetic machine sewing to create energized, tactile moments of concentrated colour. “A Patchwork Sky” evokes an abstraction of a moment of passing clouds and pieces of sky floating across the horizon, wrapping around the picture plane. andreamyersartist.com
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Polychromatic Predilection Judy Coates Perez SACR AM E NTO, CALI FORN IA , USA
I like to speak in the language of colour, and I have long admired the tremendous strength and resilience of succulents. I’m endlessly fascinated by the multitude of variations in colour, shape, size and beauty. This quilt is whole cloth and painted on white cotton fabric with acrylic inks, and free-motion quilted on a domestic sewing machine. @judycoatesperez
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McCall Shelley Davies VICTOR IA , B R ITIS H COLU M B IA , CANADA
I love looking at quilts, with their handsome and very handmade graphics, all lovingly stitched by a long line of people, stretching back into both my family history and that of countless others. These small, 3D paper collages of mine (which I photocopied many actual quilts for) use rather humble ingredients, just like the quilts themselves. It was so much fun to create these and think of all the busy hands that went into creating them, and how the quilters would be so pleased that their work is still being admired and enjoyed today. @shelleysdavies
Love Quilt Kieren Dutcher B E R K E L E Y, CA L I F O R N I A , U S A
I send out Valentines every year, to about 100 family and friends. This LOVE quilt is the Valentine I sent this year, 2021, during the pandemic. I felt everyone needed to be wrapped gently in a LOVE quilt! @kierendutcher
Paper Quilt Block Collage Series Maura O’Brien McDermott L A G R AN G E PAR K , I L , U SA
I’ve always loved quilts and had an interest in collage. Recently, I was going through old sketchbooks and pages of my abstract, mixedmedia experiments and paintings. I was in a “cleaning out” frame of mind but didn’t want to part with these fun, colour-filled pages. The idea struck me to cut them up, and combine and overstitch them on a sewing machine following traditional quilt block patterns. I love the idea of repurposing and transforming my art it into a completely different and unexpected art form, recognizable in its own right. @begorra_dsn
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plaids. It was an amazingly enjoyable and comforting process. I think the plaids are beautiful, and paging through them today reminds me of the pleasure I took in making them. Sketchbooks are also a great means for learning about materials. I love gouache but also use watercolour and gansai paint. I have a really large collection of pencils, pens and markers. And brushes. And paper. And a wide variety of sketchbooks in the studio waiting for me. The studio is half of what used to be a two-car garage. The conversion, with its tall windows, high ceiling and French doors looking out to a hay meadow, is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. On occasion, my sketchbook imagery finds a life in a larger or more “finished” format, but the main goal is to keep engaged, thinking and alive creatively, especially when day-to-day urgencies don’t allow for large blocks of studio time. My textile work includes hand embroidery and stitch—slow, restrained processes. In contrast, the sketchbooks provide a space for spontaneity and improvisation. I also use sketchbooks in combination with journaling to reflect and zero in on current interests or obsessions. I write sketchbook prompts for my students and for myself and have accumulated a small library of books about sketchbooks. Once or twice a year, I teach a workshop on The Sketchbook Habit. This is an exciting opportunity for me because of the range of participant responses, energy and creative ideas that emerge. Participants find, as I do, that keeping a sketchbook is rewarding, and that it becomes a valuable record and resource. susanmmoss.com @susanmmoss
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A S K
L I L L A
oma’s quilt STO RY A N D P H OTOS BY
l i l la rogers
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hen my mother-in-law passed away, I thought it would be a nice homage to her memory if I used some of her clothing, old fabrics and even her dish towels to make a quilt, all with her trademark Bavarian folk imagery. She was originally from Nuremberg, then moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, after the Second World War, and as she lived on a modest income as a single parent, only bought at flea markets and yard sales. So naturally, she had a fantastic vintage collection. (That’s her Bargello-stitch pin cushion. She embroidered the “Have a Good Day” piece while her daughter was undergoing surgeries as a child.) Design principles as seen through a quilt
Recently, when looking through an artist’s work that was sent to me inquiring about representation, I noted how lovely the drawing was, how rich and beautiful the colour—but something wasn’t quite right. The overall design of the images lacked something. That’s how important design is to any image or craft—it can bring your art from good to great. It’s as important as your intriguing subject matter, sublime drawing skill and pretty colour palette. Design is about the composition of your piece, the elements you’ve chosen and how they are arranged. When UPPERCASE publisher Janine Vangool spoke to me about my next column, she mentioned that this issue was focused on quilts. Naturally, I thought that I would use my quilt as a vehicle for discussing four favourite design principles: variation, scale, contrast and unity.
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Variation adds the surprise element— what’s next to discover? It’s the key to adding sustained interest to your work. Here, we have three different floral patterns, an ombre ochre rectangle and a geometric red gingham. That’s a skinny strip of vintage orange velvet on the right.
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dear what is made before we make it you already shimmer behind the veil of imagined and enunciated things
Before we make a thing, there is a space through which we cast our attention, like a net, to calling forth that thing into form. It is a space of mystery, of not knowing yet, the space before the wisp of an idea takes form, where endless possibilities eddy and spiral and hover. Then comes the first word on a page, the first seam: a mark is made, a decision set in motion from which future decisions will follow and unfold. A pile of tiny fabric scraps feels like a kind of question, a kaleidoscope of potential encounters, as if each piece of fabric is asking: What might I want to be? What will I become? Two tiny pieces, sewn together, starts to feel like the beginning of an answer. Few things are as satisfying to contemplate, to be in the presence of, as the simplicity of a seam: the place where two things touch, connect, become one. Improvisational patchwork is a practice of paying attention, of deep listening, of saying yes to what wants to be made. When I am working, I listen to the fabric, listen to the accumulating stitches, to the resonance of each juxtaposition. Every time I sew two pieces together I feel the sweet hum of the made thing, the undeniable clarity of the pressed seam. I listen to the unfolding melody as I sew one piece to another, and another and another. I let that melody move me deeper into the mystery of how it is things are born and take shape. I give myself the gift of not knowing what will happen, or how what I am making will look when it’s done. The longer I can linger in that unknown, the more I can deepen my attention on what I notice 118
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happening, inside and around me, in the moment of making, and the more I can be surprised by the infinite possibilities presented by each juxtaposition. I open myself wider and try to learn everything I can from being in conversation with things as they come into being. There is much in this world that feels impossible to understand. When I find myself asking, “How can I make sense of all of it?,” I try to remember that often the answer is right there in the question. I come back to making, come back to sensing. I come back to the simple practice of paying attention to the thing I am making, and notice the ways it, in turn, is making me. Peter Korn writes about this in his seminal book Why We Make Things and Why It Matters: The Education of a Craftsman: “But whatever our motivation may be, the bottom line is always the same: we engage in the creative process to become more of whom we’d like to be, and just as important, to discover more of whom we’d like to become. We may make things because we enjoy the process, but our underlying intent, inevitably, is self-transformation.” This work is a practice. It’s also a life practice, and a life-long practice, one that I turn to again and again when the world feels overwhelming or chaotic.
H O B B Y
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lindsay sutton: moving the needle
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ike many modern relationships, my friendship with Lindsay Sutton relies a little too much on the false intimacy of social media. While we’ve known each other for the better part of two decades, we live in different cities. Like most distanced friendships, the majority of our interactions between visits rely on our carefully curated social posts depicting our vacations, celebrations and tribulations.
STO RY BY
brendan h ar r ison P H OTO S BY
m iruna dragan
But in this past year, I noticed Lindsay’s feed changing. Instead of the friends and family members who usually dominate it, her grid is increasingly filled with stunning photos of abstract quilts in various forms of completion. While I’d always known that Lindsay had a background in making art, it never seemed to be her main focus. She always had a cool side hustle going, usually in collaboration with the circle of creative friends who surrounded her. Whether it was learning how to sew while designing a clothing line with her pals in the Loyal Loot Collective, running a vintage shop with friends, or
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“I didn’t even know what it was going to look like when I started. It evolved and was very improvisational. It just came out of me. And I couldn’t stop, once I started.” styling photoshoots for local photographers and agencies, Lindsay was always trying to scratch the creative itch. That’s why it was so compelling when this flood of beautiful quilts started taking centre stage. “I started with little wall hanging quilts—mini-quilts, baby quilts,” she explains. “I was calling them sketches. I started posting them and got really good feedback and that felt good. I’m not really one to share stuff that I’m working on, but it felt good to get great feedback and it fuelled the fire. So I started making different things and posting them.” When I first met Lindsay, she had just graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD). While she had originally gone to art school intending to become a graphic designer, she was lured by the fine arts and ended up getting a degree in drawing. But even after going down that path, she never called herself an artist. “I thought I was going to go into either curating or arts administration once I graduated,” she says. “Soon after, I was working at a gallery, but then I had an opportunity at the stock agency Veer. It was in a creative space, and I thought it would eventually lead to something more creative. It definitely paid way more than artist-run 124
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centres. Essentially, the paycheque wooed me away. I got sucked up into a nine-to-five job. And art school felt really far away all of a sudden.” Without the focused time and energy that being a student allowed, Lindsay found it difficult to work on ambitious projects. While she tried to keep the creative juices flowing with her side projects, eventually she fell into a lull. “For the last six years, I wasn’t doing anything,” she says. The dry spell began when her daughter Henrietta was born in 2015. “Everyone kept telling me to wait until Henny’s two. You’ll feel more like yourself. You’ll have the energy and space and time to feel creative again. And then when Henny was two years old, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.” “I was diagnosed, did chemo and had a mastectomy, in that order. And then I was on immunotherapy treatments until the end of 2018. In the summer of 2019, we found out I was stage 4, that it was officially in my lungs and that I’d have to do chemo again.” With all of that to deal with, Lindsay has no regrets at all about her fallow period. “ There wasn’t any space for even wanting to create,” she explains. “There just wasn’t, and that’s okay. There’s a time and a place for everything and those six years were crazy.” Although she wasn’t creating art herself, Lindsay stayed in close touch with Jason de Haan, one of her best friends from her time at ACAD, whose Corbin Union artist collective with Warren McLachlan and Miruna Dragan gathers each year in the deserted East Kootenay coal-mining town of Corbin, British Columbia, to create art together.
“I decided I wanted to do something that would contribute to the Corbin Union residency,” Lindsay says. “I had been wanting to make a quilt. And of course, because I never did anything on my own, I asked Jason to collaborate on it. We started by hand dyeing and hand bleaching fabrics. That was the spring of 2019.”
“It keeps my hands busy, and that helps with my anxiety,” she says. “It’s a real bucket filler for me. I get so much energy from doing it. If I’m not quilting or playing the piano these days, I’m pacing because I’m anxious. So it’s great to always have something to sit down and start doing.”
“Then I ended up in chemo again that fall, up until Covid happened. So nothing really happened with the quilt; we weren’t able to get together and collaborate on it.”
But the benefits don’t end there. Quilting has also helped provide Lindsay with a sense of self.
“I mentioned to my therapist that I wanted to do this, but that it wasn’t working out and it felt impossible to even get started. I hadn’t done anything creative in so long that I didn’t know how it was going to go. It just felt really huge. It felt so intimidating.” “My therapist told me to make it as accessible as you can so that you can just step into it, a few minutes at a time. So I did. I brought my sewing machine upstairs and we moved everything into the dining room. I had stuff all over the living room and dining room and really got into this quilt. And it kind of turned into an opus. It’s huge. It ended up being a king-size quilt, really intricate. I didn’t even know what it was going to look like when I started. It evolved and was very improvisational. It just came out of me. And I couldn’t stop, once I started.” The awe-inspiring quilt depicts the landscape of the Crowsnest Pass, capturing the moodiness and darkness of an area shaped and scarred by the coal mining industry. It depicts a place out of time, somehow managing to be both earthy and otherworldly. It’s a remarkable first quilt. “It’s definitely an expression of something,” she says. “I don’t know if it’s the last six years or just the summer… I don’t know what I was expecting to do, but it wasn’t this quilt. I thought I’d do something more traditional, like a patchwork quilt of some sort, but it turned into something really different.”
“It’s been nice to have something that’s for me,” she says. “When everything went into lockdown, it was a really weird transition having Henny home all the time. Having just come out of chemo, I was really tired and recovering. Quilting gave me a space of my own in the house. It gave me a purpose, more than just being a parent or a wife.” “It’s good for Henny to see me passionate about something. Although, it’s become a bit of a contention point where she thinks that it’s more important than her now. It’s absolutely not, but it definitely provides things for me that, unfortunately, nobody else can. It’s hard for her to understand now, but I know she’ll understand it later.” As Lindsay started to field requests from friends and followers, she decided to open up an Instagram shop. When it came time to name it, she wanted to make sure her daughter knew that she was part of it. Henrietta Quilt Shop sells bespoke quilts, placemats, pillowcases, wall-hangings and more, all handcrafted by Lindsay with her signature abstract shapes. Creating work for people to own also speaks to one of the aspects of quilting that drew Lindsay to it. “Quilts are objects that are traditionally handed down,” she says. “I think more these days about legacy and how I’ll be remembered. I love knowing that a piece of me goes to each person that has one of my quilts.” @henriettaquiltshop
After that first piece broke the creative block, the floodgates opened. “After that, I started weaving like crazy on a children’s loom from IKEA,” she says. “It was more of a tapestry style of weaving, where you can create pictures within instead of overall patterns. I was creating geometric shapes within squares.” These woven shapes inspired a new direction for her as she began creating quilts with shapes made from fabric scraps, moving them around like puzzle pieces until they clicked into place. And she soon found that this form of quilting provided the perfect combination of loose creativity with repetitive, rigid tasks. The process and hand stitching help her cope with the stress of being sick.
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S T U D I O
Aurora Molina COR AL GAB LES , F LOR I DA , USA
Miami artist Aurora Molina’s interdisciplinary fibre art practice is dedicated to social change and raising awareness of far-reaching issues such as ageism, the objectification of beauty, the failings of government and political apathy, anti-immigration and the border separation of families, and the mistreatment of Indigenous communities, to name just a few. Using the tools of embroidery, sculpture-making, drawing, photography and video, she uses the radical potential of fibre art to communicate ideas about social and political issues. Her multifaceted platform provides a sustained and powerful critique of a society that dismisses the elderly as they become invisible and hidden from everyday life. auroramolina.com @auroramolinafiberartist
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E N C Y C L O P E D I A
VO LU M E Q
Quilted Published in 2019, Quilted is Volume Q in the UPPERCASE Encyclopedia of Inspiration, an ongoing series of books released in whimsical (non-alphabetical) order on all manner of creative and curious topics. The world of quilting is vast, with an infinite range of aesthetics, influences, heritage and culture. Quilting reminds us of the artistry and ingenuity of our ancestors and allows us to explore our natural creativity. The craft slows us down in an ever-busy world and connects us to a welcoming community of kindred spirits.
So (Sew) America Cares This is a participatory social art project with a commitment to raise awareness about the lives of the children separated from their parents at the border—all the faces stitched together to strengthen the very fabric of our own society. This project’s mission is to advocate for these children. Thread by thread, fibre by fibre, a participating community will increase its understanding of the circumstances of these children who never asked to be “illegal aliens.” We cannot allow these traumatized children to disappear, and in time be forgotten.
With in-depth profiles and stories of individual quilts (384 pages!), this book pieces together quilters from professional connections and friendships that UPPERCASE editor Janine Vangool has made over the years of publishing UPPERCASE magazine and designing four fabric collections for Windham Fabrics. 384 pages. Limited inventory available!
These are all the same book inside, but you can refold the dust jacket to highlight your favourite design!
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looking forward Be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter for behind-the-scenes updates and the latest on open calls for submission. UPPERCASE Encyclopedia of Inspiration Volume A: Art Supplies
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The content of Little U is always cute and cuddly! Get your copy today.
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C O V E T
on reinvention
STO RY A N D P H OTO BY
a n dre a j en ki ns
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nderneath the dining room table is where it happened. On my hands and knees, scraping crusted peas off the floor. So much of early motherhood is buried in fog, but some moments shine, mostly the gems, thankfully—first words, first laughs, the time I stood in the dark on Christmas Eve and held my five-monthold son in my arms and felt an impossible, impenetrable love. But underneath the dining room table that morning so many years ago, what I remember feeling was despair. I wondered where my life had gone. With a college degree in dance education, a job with an award-winning creative youth development program and over a decade of teaching and performance experience under my belt, I felt certain this was my future. And nothing, not even the throes of motherhood, could keep me from it. As I chiselled away at the peas on the floor that morning, kids crawling through my legs, a dull layer of rage just beneath the surface, I realized maybe it was time to reassess. In that moment, what I finally admitted to myself was that it was nearly impossible to juggle what had become, for me, two lives: motherhood and teaching artist. I struggled to keep up with classes, found it harder and harder to get to rehearsals and, perhaps most telling, summon the energy to even care. What I also realized underneath the dining room table that morning was that if I could no longer pour my creative energy into movement, something else would have to take its place. And I wondered what that something could possibly be. I could not imagine my life any other way, but when I picked up an old film camera and began
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shooting, it felt like something. At least, the beginning of something—the edges of change, quiet as they were. Tectonic plates, shifting. What I found was that photography was something I could (mostly) do with a baby on my hip. I documented our days on film, wrote about them at night, saw light and colour differently for the first time, saw my own life with new eyes. At first, it felt more like an experiment— something to play around with before I returned in earnest to dance, to teaching full time again. But the days turned into weeks, turned into months, turned into years, and in that time, in between raising children (and finding new ways to make ends meet), I taught myself photography. I fell hard for the medium, fell deeply, hopelessly in love, and by the end of my thirties I was no longer making dances, but photographs. No longer teaching dance classes, but photography workshops. And when people asked what I did for a living, I no longer answered with hesitation. I told them I was a photographer. Under the dining room table all those years ago, reinvention never occurred to me. I just knew, in my bones, something had to change. And change came, like a tiny earthquake, turning all my ideas about who I thought I was and what I thought I wanted, upside down. I will always be a mover. Dance will always be an integral, foundational part of who I am, and many times over the years, I have grieved the loss of it. But when I pick up a camera, I feel alive. I hold one in my hands and it still feels right. I have no plans to switch course. Unless, once again, I feel the faint, familiar rumblings of change.
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