Photo suite 213 -- thinking about flags

No, it's neither Flag Day nor Memorial Day, but I've been working on flag quilts and they're on my mind!

Opening the mystery package

A few years ago, my dear friend and fiber art pal Joanne Weis went to Tuscany on vacation, and bought a mystery package at a Sunday flea market for a couple of euros.  The woman who sold it to her thought it was a roll of old linen, but it had been neatly sewed up so Joanne bought it pretty much sight unseen.  She brought it home and put it away, and just recently came upon it and decided it was high time she opened the package and saw what was inside.

She decided this needed to be a ceremonial occasion, so she brought it to our fiber art support group.  First we surveyed the package and heard the story.

Then we noticed how neatly the roll had been sewed together, and the tiny brown cross-stitched motif on the roll.

Joanne cut the stitches and undid the roll.

We measured it -- about nine and a quarter yards.  It had brown spots on the first foot or so but was creamy white on the inside of the roll.

Best of all, Joanne gave me a piece to use in my next flag quilt.  If I can stand to machine stitch all over it; maybe I'll have to keep out a bit for hand-stitching.

What a find to come across such a treasure in a faraway place, and how nice it is to have fiber friends who appreciate it to share the moment with.

Flag quilt progress report

I'm nearing completion on my first flag quilt, and got it to the point where I could hang it on the wall. Which is easier said than done, since it's almost 100 inches long and the ceiling in my studio is almost 84 inches tall.  Fortunately I have a display space in my front hallway, with a rod right at the ceiling and a wall that extends down the stairway to the nether regions.  So I was able to put the quilt up and see what it looks like.

It looks very imposing, but it doesn't hang straight.  The right-most white stripe bows toward the left, which forces the middle red stripe to double up on itself.

I am not opposed to this quilt hanging wonky; in fact, it fits with my conceptual theme of going wrong, but this just looks like accidental wonk, not deliberate wonk.  The latter I would embrace; the former I have to fix.  So when I get back from my road trip next week the quilt is coming off the wall and back to the sewing machine.

I'm going to cut a wedge out of that wonky white stripe and hike it up so it will hang closer to vertical.  Then I'll put it back on the wall and see how the right-hand red stripe feels about its relationship to the revised white stripe.  Maybe I'll have to either take up some of the extra height of the right-hand red stripe, or re-stitch it to the white.  I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I already LOVE this piece and think I'm going to love it even more when it gets tweaked!

Very afraid

During the SAQA conference a couple of weeks ago I heard at least four presentations in which the topic of fear played a prominent role.  Yes, in the final reckoning fear was always vanquished, at least temporarily, but I had an uncomfortable feeling about the whole subject being brought to our attention so frequently.

Several trains of thought left from that station.

First, I wonder why fear is such a popular subject for artist presentations.  Maybe starting with the famous "Art and Fear" book, there seems to be a pervasive assumption that yes, of course artists suffer from fear, and that overcoming fear (aka self-doubt) is the major task one has to accomplish in order to unlock one's full artistic potential.  If only we could get past our fear of success, or maybe our fear of failure, or perhaps it's our fear of being liked, or being disliked, or something....  then we could MAKE ART!!!  In 20 years of working among actuaries, and in 40 years of working in communications I never once heard a professional development talk in either field exhorting people to overcome fear, so I wonder just what is there about artists that makes us so fragile.

Second, I wonder whether this fear of fear is gender-related.  Let's have a thought experiment.  Let's imagine a professional group called the Heavy Metal Sculpture Artists, of which Richard Serra is the president, and let's further imagine that it's 90% male, because you know those welding tools are really heavy.  At the HMSA annual conference, how many presentations do you suppose will talk about conquering fear?  I imagine not very many.  (After all, a guy packing real heat with a welding tool is almost as well-defended as one packing mere metaphorical heat.)

Third, I wonder whether all this talk about the need to overcome fear really helps people overcome fear -- or whether it actually encourages and enables fear.  People who do have doubt and fear are comforted: apparently everybody has doubt and fear, I must be just fine, I'm like everybody else, it's OK to be afraid.  You could walk in to a conference fearing nothing, your self-esteem at an all-time high, and by the time you sit through four or five of these talks you could start thinking geez, I'm not afraid, what's wrong with me????

All together now, let's sing:

Whenever I feel afraid
I hold my head erect
And whistle a happy tune
So no one will suspect
I'm afraid.

While shivering in my shoes
I strike a careless pose
And whistle a happy tune
And no one ever knows
I'm afraid.

The result of this deception
Is very strange to tell
For when I fool the people I fear
I fool myself as well!

I whistle a happy tune
And every single time
The happiness in the tune
Convinces me that I'm
Not afraid.

Make believe you're brave
And the trick will take you far.
You may be as brave
As you make believe you are.

So if I were organizing the next SAQA conference I would tell all the presenters that there will be no talk of fear.  There will be talk of hard work, and continuous learning, and rigorous reading and thinking, and brave self-evaluation.  Focus on those things, and maybe fewer people will be afraid.

Sunday funnies 13

Art Quilt Elements 3 -- pieced quilts with pieced stripes

The theme for today is stripes, and I know whereof I speak, having worked largely in stripes for at least the last three or four years.  But I admit it, I cheat -- I buy commercial striped fabric.  So when I see other artists who skip that step and construct their stripes by piecing them, I admire their dedication.  Here are two pieces that do it the long way.

Hope Wilmarth, Fault Line II, 40 x 40"

This quilt really resonates with me; in addition to using my beloved stripes at wonky angles, it even shares a title that I have given to several of my own quilts.  I like the stripes and the wonky angles, and the occasional white lines that edge some of the shapes.

Niraja Lorenz, Strange Attractor #3 -- Riverway, 41 x 41" (details below)

This is another artist whose work I have not seen before, but I'm impressed!  I love the complexity of the piecing and the wide variety of forms and shapes.

Seeing these two quilts next to one another (in the show they were in different rooms, I think) makes you realize and appreciate how many different ways there are to use little stripes.  Wilmarth's piece is calm and simple, even though the stripes make sectors of varying shapes and angles; by contrast, Lorenz's is unpredictable and exuberant, with way more going on.  Which do you like better?