Sign of the week

at the cemetery

Election Day for SAQA's public image

Members of Studio Art Quilt Associates were given a challenge today.

Seems that SAQA has struck a deal with Aurifil, the thread manufacturers, to have a special "SAQA Signature Collection" -- twelve colors of thread in a box, with the SAQA logo and a SAQA brochure, which will be sold as a fundraiser for the organization.  And "We need your vote to decide on which palette of threads best represents SAQA."

I love Aurifil, my favorite thread, so I thought this was a nifty idea.

And I love voting, so I went to the site and checked out the three palettes.

One of these is supposed to "represent SAQA."

This is a hard one.

Here's Set A.  Art quilters as pale neutrals, and a couple of grayed pastels.  Washed-out grannies, or Modern Quilters needing something for those huge expanses of pale background.

Here's Set B.  Art quilters as go-to-business gals, practical dark colors, not too dangerously bright or anything, with an off-white silk blouse -- but a touch of drama!!  Check out those variegated threads!!  Bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan!!












Here's Set C.  Art quilters as medium darks.  Not even jewel tones, let's gray down that gold and coral lest anybody get a headache.  Perfect for an afghan in your TV room.













Which one best represents SAQA?  Well, what do you think?

If you're a SAQA member, you should go vote here.

But whether you're a member or not, I'm interested in your vote.  And unlike SAQA, who wants just the vote, ma'am, I'm interested in your reasoning.

The SAQA voting doesn't close till next Tuesday so you have some time to think about it.  I'll continue to think about it too and let you know what I decide.  

It's spin, all right....

If your experience with men's underwear is like mine -- buying your sweetie the occasional three-pack of Fruit of the Loom boxers -- you may share my surprise to learn that the with-it guy can now spend $100 for a pair of shorts.  The New York Times explained it all yesterday, and mentioned several pricey innovations that I will be sure to suggest for my husband's amusement.


But the one that caught my eye was the one made from a microfiber that is "spun on a 40-gauge machine with distilled water from the Italian Alps."


Silly me, I didn't know you even used water in spinning.  And in my brief Google research on spinning machines, I didn't come on any that were described as "gauge;" all the ones I found used "denier" as the unit of measurement.  So I have to wonder how close any aspect of this stuff ever came to the Italian Alps.  Maybe the copywriter's last vacation....

Creative Statements 3

More comments about the Creative Statements show at the Zanesville Museum of Art:

Lisa Quintana, Texture Study I: Found Objects (detail below)

I'm a sucker for the fabric equivalent of Arte Povera, made from old and distressed stuff that more rational people might throw away.  This small piece is an appealing blend of  different fabrics, hand- and machine-stitching, rust stains and little doodads.

And finally, two spectacular works of surface design.

Mary Lou Alexander, Justice #2: Until Justice Rains Down Like Water (detail below)

Since studying with Jan Myers-Newbury a few years ago, Mary Lou has been making beautiful shibori, which she sews into elegantly simple pieced quilts.  This one is in cheerier colors than others in the series I have seen.

Sue Cavanaugh, Ori-Kume #14 Rio (detail below)

Sue recently wrote a book called "Extreme Shibori," and that's an excellent description of her work. She stitches the work, paints it with dye, undoes the stitches (leaving many of the cut threads in place), paints again and then hand-quilts the whole thing together.

The palette is almost monochrome, the stitching is obsessive and the total effect is stunning.  Worth a trip, as the Michelin Guide used to say.

Creative Statements 2

It's common to find nods to the designs and conventions of traditional quilts in contemporary works of fiber art.  Not surprising, since those of us who choose the quilt format must presumably have some fondness for the metaphorical baggage it carries.  I like to see those nods done gracefully, and here are some from the Creative Statements show, at the Zanesville Museum of Art through July 6.

Martha Warshaw, Textiles Nine Patch 6 

I'm showing you one of two quilts that were fraternal twins; when I was jurying the show I spent several minutes in front of a split screen trying to figure out whether they were identical and only after some scrutiny proved they were not.  I guess I didn't read the info submitted with the entries closely enough, because it wasn't till I saw the two pieces in person that I realized one is printed out on fabric and the other (the one pictured here) on mulberry paper.  Both are flat and almost abstract; I think they are based on black and white photos of draped fabric.

The block-to-block format clearly says "quilt" but most of the blocks aren't actually sewed together; they're printed out and the only seams are those required to join the widths of printed fabric or paper.  A nice reference to the traditions of quilting while moving beyond them.

Kris Worthington, Kimono (detail below)



















The kimono form is another time-honored tradition in fiber art; this one is an elegant composition of gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics, with both hand- and machine-stitching and a couple of discreet beads.

Sara Deever, SeventyTwoCircles (details below)

This may be the most traditional-looking quilt in the show, but up close you can see that it's really an homage to hand-stitching.  The circles (and a couple of non-circles) are densely embroidered onto various fabrics and assembled in a deliberately off-square block array.

Since I'm doing a daily hand-stitching project this year, I paid close attention to Sara's little designs and might just use some of them myself.

Creative Statements 1

A week ago I attended the opening of Creative Statements, a show of work by SAQA members in Ohio, held at the Zanesville Museum of Art.  I had the honor and pleasure of serving as juror for the show, and it was nice to finally see the work in the flesh after having scrutinized it on the computer.  I wasn't asked to make awards, but let me show you some of the pieces that I liked.

Let's start with some representational pieces.

Patricia Kennedy-Zafred, Photo Booth Shot (detail below)

This work, with lots of straight and zigzag stitching on shiny vinyl, had a Warhol flavor and a nice juxtaposition of before and after: happy newlyweds and assassination headlines.  (Of course it's all ancient history now and I wonder how old you have to be to recognize the people in the photos.)

Debra Bentley, June's Dementia -- A Life Unraveled (detail below)

Photos of the artist's mother, rust-stained, raveling and fading away, are the focus of this sparse but powerful work.

Jancy McClellan-Ryan, Battles (detail below)

What's not to love about this cheerful saurian, fending off flying dragons and other creatures while skyscrapers burn on the horizon?  It's airbrushed onto whole cloth, then overlaid with hand-stitched raw-edge appliques, and is quite unlike anything I've ever seen on quilts before.  I've left the electrical outlet in the picture so you can judge the size (medium big, so he makes quite an impression).

Paet VanDyke-Burcham, Dream or Nightmare, It's Your Choice (detail below)

Here's another cartoon-like piece, nicely executed in a variety of styles and techniques, with lots of hand-stitching and good use of novelty fabrics.  A lot is going on in a very small space, about a foot square.

Shelley Brenner Baird, Countervailing (detail below)


And while we're talking cartoons, here's a quilt by Shelley Brenner Baird, with complex layers of silkscreened and painted imagery, complemented with heavy machine quilting.  Almost the entire composition is made up of photos of faces, but I found this little detail tucked in a corner. 

So you thought I didn't like representational quilts!!  Especially those using phototransfers!!  I've said many times that I think fabric is not a medium that is particularly friendly to representation, and that phototransfer is easy to do poorly and hard to do well.

But I was happy to find a lot of representational work that escaped those traps.  (Well, heck, since I was the juror I guess I ought to like what I put in the show....)

I'll show you some abstract works in a later post.  Meanwhile, if you're in, near or driving through Ohio between now and July 6, please stop by and see the show.