Inspirations and year end insights

Inspirations all around. The spells generated by books, politics, nature, artists and musicians fuel my journey as I create my art. Here are some of my favorites for your end-of-year browsing pleasure.

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Beastie Boy and His Pals will be part of the Stitched Dissent show at Christian Brothers University Beverly + Sam Ross Gallery in Memphis, TN January 10 - February 12

Theo Jansen creates spectacular strandbeasts of wood and plastic that come to life when exposed to the wind. I could watch them for hours. He says that he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches so that they can live their own lives. I think about my artwork as it travels into the world, living its own life. Check out his video explanations of how these beasts work. Fascinating.

Leo Ray gives us joy and play and commentary and history and calligraphy and dreamscapes in his Infinite Painting. His canvases are all the same size and each one abuts the previous one to add to the inner dialog he is translating for us. There is a wonderful slide show of the painting you can visit with this link. The work ranges from abstract to cubist to surreal to realistic, freely combining texture, rhythm and color over the surfaces. There are over 100 canvases to date. He calls it a “public-access diary”. And isn’t that what all artists do when creating their work — releasing the inner to the outer?

Ragnar Kjartansson’s, The Visitors, left me spellbound when I saw his nine-screen performance at the Columbus Art Museum in Ohio. The performance combines video, music and poetry in a way that I have never before experienced. I floated through the space with a longing, a sadness, and a joy that stays with me to this day. This video link doesn’t really do justice to the experience in person. If you can imagine walking into a room with nine huge screens each showing one of the musicians and their instruments in separate rooms of a historic mansion you might get an inkling of the experience. The music builds and ebbs. The musicians move in and out of the rooms. I am still humming this evocative tune 2 years later.

As for me? I put together this little movie of the work I have done this year. It was a great year. I finished 14 pieces and I’m in process on three more. I led a 3-month festival (Stitched: Celebrating the ART of Quilting) in Memphis, taught three week-long workshops (Quilting By the Lake, Focus on Fiber and Art Quilt Tahoe), and took a brilliant workshop by Michael Brennand-Wood at the Shakerag Workshops in Sewanee, TN. I had a solo show at the Rockland Art Center in West Nyack, NY and created a proposal for a show devoted to our political realities (Stitched Dissent) that will travel to two different venues in 2020. Just in time for the vote.

Please vote in 2020.

Here’s a little summary slideshow that highlights some of my favorite moments.

Quilt National

Disruptions debuted at Quilt National 2019

Stitched: The BLUE show

We issued a challenge to artists and quilters to create 24” x 24” blue quilts. We ended up with 233 quilts that showed for 3 months at Crosstown Concourse.

Stitched: interactive quilt wall

I designed a wall of half square triangles that people could rearrange to create new quilt patterns

Stitched: Community Quilt workshop

We had 3 days of fun with Maria Shell creating a community quilt from blocks made by community members.

Stitched: Community Quilt

Sandy Call was an expert assembler

Stitched: Memphis Quilts event

Regional guilds showed up to share their work.

Memphis Quilts event

Mike and Darla Ives were expert photographers for the people who brought their quilts to show and tell during our Memphis Quilts event.

Stitched: teaching

We taught children at the Memphis Quilts event as well as a 3 month class for nine students at the local high school.

Artist visits

Karol Kusmaul, Pamela Allen and Mary McBride visited Memphis during the STITCHED events. We had a great time being tourists.

Michael Brennand Wood workshop

I got to play with tools at a workshop with Michael Brennand Wood at the Shakerag Workshops venue in Sewanee. TN. SO MUCH FUN

Workshops

Walls and walls of practice squares in my workshops at Lake Tahoe, Quilting by the Lake and Focus on Fiber. So many talented students!

Quilting by the Lake

This incredibly talented group of folks worked hard on drawing exercises.

Art Quilt Tahoe

THe combination of spectacular scenery and talented artists was hard to resist at Art Quilt Tahoe.

Round and Round It Goes

Best news ever. My quilt, Round and Round It Goes has been acquired by the International Quilt Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Insights?

I know that I am inspired by reading. Reading feeds my inner voice and gives my artwork ballast. I know that I need to find beauty in everything to keep myself grounded. I know that sometimes my mind will not rest until I have worked things out in stitch. I know that the challenges ahead in our government, our environment and our health will affect the way I think and work. I feel like time is condensing and I am breathless and restless with the ticking sound of not enough hours in the day. I know that I need to learn to rest.

Best in stitches to you all. Thank you for taking the time to read thoughts .

STITCHED, a celebration of quilting in Memphis, TN

In the past several months I have been actively engaged in planning a festival of quilt art here in Memphis. It has taken more of my attention than I had first assumed. So I haven’t done much work lately. The year of planning is over. The festival opens on May 10.

Nervous? Yes. Have I covered all the bases? Have I welcomed as many people as possible into the circle? Have I achieved the goal of presenting the ART of quilting to Memphis? Soon we shall see. And, though I have some doubts, worries and regrets, I am also very excited, grateful and motivated.

The BLUE show is a regional quilt challenge sponsored by Crosstown Arts. We asked artists, quilters and makers of all sorts to create quilts that are three layers, stitched, 24” x 24” and predominantly blue. Over 180 people responded with 230 quilts.

One thing I learned this past year? There are lots of people with lots of ideas out there. Our main challenge has been honing in to the ideas that were both doable and unique. So we ended up with these:

• We have taught children how to quilt.

• We have invited artists to experiment with the quilt form. The community has contributed over 230 blue quilts to the BLUE show.

• Local artist, Greely Myatt, is installing three of his metal quilts in the atrium.

• Masterworks: Abstract and Geometric is coming into Memphis for a period of three months. Martha Sielman will introduce an eager audience to the world of art quilts on May 11.

• A fiber installation from Pat Pauly, Genesee, is being installed in the next two weeks.

• The Memphis Area Modern Quilt Guild has donated a beautiful quilt to a local healthcare provider that focuses on people with limited access to health services. They will include it in their annual fund-raising efforts.

• We have created a video showing quilt stories and quilting techniques.

• Workshops in May and July will be focused on people who have never quilted before.

• Local guilds and community members will come together on June 8 to share their quilts at the longest Show-and-Tell in history.

• And, today, the interactive quilt wall will be installed..

The interactive quilt wall gives people an opportunity to experiment with pattern and color. Each of the 96 squares have magnets on the back of them and can be moved around to create new patterns.

It’s been a year of planning, coercing, nail-biting, sourcing, encouraging and teaching. I had some amazing people helping along the way. And now we open on May 10. Only 18 days away.

Come to Memphis. We are celebrating our bicentennial AND the art of quilting. The Stitched festival opens on May 10 and will continue to July 28. If you are here on June 8 bring a quilt to share with our audience! Good food, good music, good people and good quilts. What could be better?

And then I can go back to work. I miss that work. Everyday.

Stitched: Celebrating the Art of Quilting

About 2 years ago I thought it might be a good idea to organize a quilt festival in Memphis. There are quilt shows in Memphis. They show traditional quilts with exquisite stitching. I love seeing that work.

I had a different idea. I thought I could assemble enough quilters, artists and makers to present quilting as an art form. There are art quilters out there (though not many in Memphis) and there are artists in Memphis (though not too excited about quilting) but I persevered.

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The BLUE show will be part of the STITCHED festival opening on May 10 at Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, TN.

Photo: Chad Mellon

Memphis has an incredible new venue. It is a completely renovated warehouse called Crosstown Concourse that stood vacant for almost 20 years. A group of visionaries put together the money and expertise to transform the blighted space into a community of businesses, art galleries, restaurants, shops and a high school. They built a black-box theater, sculpted the parking lots into welcoming community spaces, worked with local stakeholders to build a community and transformed our ideas about what can be possible. All this with the vision of helping to cultivate the creative arts community in Memphis (read their story here). How cool is that?

And now they are hosting Stitched.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Instagram @stitched2019.

Stitched includes two quilt shows, Masterworks: Abstract and Geometric from SAQA and the BLUE show, a regional call for entry for quilters, artists and makers. We have planned two community workshops, one focused on children by Amie Plumley and one on community members by Maria Shell. Martha Sielman, author, curator and Executive Director of Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. (SAQA)  is coming in for a lecture on May 11. Because of some dedicated and inspiring volunteers students at Crosstown High and elementary students at the Carpenter Art Garden are learning to quilt. And, on June 8 we are hosting the community Show-and-Tell event where anyone can bring a quilt to share on stage with an audience of quilting fans.

Make some plans to get to Memphis this year. From May - July the focus is on the Art of quilting. The azaleas bloom in May and I’d love to show you around.