Last week a surprise package arrived -- a copy of Martha Sielman's new book, "Art Quilts International: Abstract & Geometric." It has finally been published, after a long and tortured path.
You may recall that Martha has written two previous books about different sub-genres of art quilts: "The Natural World" and "People & Portraits," published in 2012 and 2013. She had a contract with Interweave to do "Abstract & Geometric" and asked for submissions in July 2014. More than 450 artists responded, and I was thrilled to be selected as one of her in-depth artists; I submitted additional images, and answered a detailed set of questions. Then disaster. In January 2015 Interweave was acquired by another company, which cancelled the contract for Martha's book. After several months of scrambling, she hooked up with Schiffer Publishing, and in the fullness of time the book has finally been issued.
It's a beautiful book, with excellent color reproduction and LOTS and LOTS of quilts!! There are 29 artists chosen for in-depth interviews, which means four full pages, about six quilts, and quite a bit of text. In addition, 95 other artists who have one quilt pictured in the book.
At the time I was so impressed with Martha's questions; instead of asking everybody the same things, she had clearly done a lot of research and tailored the questions to the individual. For instance, she asked me about my daily art projects, why I have said needle-nosed tweezers are my favorite sewing tool, how I chose the title for one of my quilts, and how my love of leftover bits from other people's projects has affected my art.
I haven't yet gotten through the whole book, but have read enough to know that it's going to be one of those books that will stay on my reference shelf forever. I know a lot of the people in the book, some of them very well, but was impressed at the number of people I had never heard of. Martha has gone to great lengths to find people from outside the US and those who aren't regulars on the big show circuit. And the quilts are just plain wonderful to look at.
Why not buy yourself a present? It's available from several online sources, including here and here.
Here's one of my quilts pictured in the book:
The book sounds wonderful; I'll add it to my "must have" list. Your pictured quilt is stunning.
ReplyDeleteLike you Kathy I was so excited to receive my copy of the book and honoured to have a piece included. Not had time to open it for a proper perusal yet, it is hard to not skim through it. Hope to have time next week.
ReplyDeleteI So enjoy reading your blog. from a gorgeous sunny day in Northern Ireland