goodies in my e-mail

I was happy the other day to get a few jpgs from my dear friend Marlene Cohen of work she has finished. My goodness, she has been busy -- no wonder she's been so quiet.There were five pieces altogether - two of them made with fabrics I had printed, given to her, and forgotten about. I am not posting those at the moment. Marlene is from London -- much too far for my taste. If we are lucky, we see each other every couple of years. I have a quilt going to Birmingham this year, but I will not be going with it.

At any rate, I always find her work expressive and filled with layers of meaning. This one, with its juxtaposition of pastel and acid colors and its graceful, but sharp-edged shapes, speaks to me of strong and conflicting emotions. Here are two more -- entirely different from the one at the left - either a diptych or the beginning of a series.

On another subject... I finally attacked the reconstituted gelatin plate I showed you the other day. Here it is before I printed with it. It had the good grace to fall apart as I was removing it from its pan. Made my life easier. And here is a piece of fabric I printed, inspired by looking at my own fabric in the quilt of Marlene's which I will post at some point. It will look good when it is cut up into bits. I will leave the cutting-up-into-bits for tomorrow after I get what I hope will be a decent night's sleep.

getting ready

I decided yesterday that I had better start cleaning up and hanging work for Sunday's Open Studio tour. I had brought in my monotypes and collages weeks ago and now I have brought in some fiber pieces, as well. Spent yesterday hanging the work. I pinned some finished pieces to my design wall and left the piece I'm still working on, just as it is. The place looks pretty nice, if I do say so.

Then, today, I brought in some fabric postcards and scarves. The last time I had some postcards at a craft gallery, I overheard people saying "$30 for a POSTCARD?!!" So I double-matted and framed them in 8 x 10 clip frames; now they look like ART and maybe some civilians will buy them. Right now, they are lying on the table that will hold the wine, cheese,crackers,& fruit on Sunday.The scarves did not make me happy, so I brought them home and will decide whether or not to bring them back with me over the weekend. I don't want to clutter up the place too much.

I spent a good part of the afternoon making a price list - the worst part of the whole deal. Some of my studio mates, most of whom have done this before, insist that people come to studio tours looking for bargains and you have to have $15 things and "studio tour" pricing; i.e. - 20% lower than the would otherwise be. I don't make $15 items and am reluctant to lower prices across the board. My friend Lisa Westheimer, who had an open studio last fall, told me that she had a bunch of $5-15 items she wanted to get rid of. Nobody bought them - they bought the $300 pieces. Is there a lesson here? I continue to struggle.

Got back a little while ago from my artists' crit group - 3 painters,a collage artist, Lisa, a photographer, & moi. A young woman, who is a college student majoring in art, brought two paintings in for crit. She told us she has a university professor who looked at a painting of hers and said "I hate it." Can you IMAGINE? The arrogance! Not only useless, but destructive. We were much more helpful to her tonight.

Tomorrow, back to the pricing thing and I really do have to print some fabric...

my lecture on art quilts

I was invited to give a lecture on contemporary quilts to the Decorative and Fine Arts Society here in New Jersey, which I did this afternoon. The program chair is an admirer of Eleanor McCain's work and has fallen in love with art quilts in general. She decided that the group to which she belongs needed an education about what is being done today in the art quilt world. I brought along, in addition to the slides, a few of my own pieces. This one,"Bad Hair Day," garnered the most enthusiasm. Interesting.

Before I started talking about art quilts, I showed the audience a few of my own antique pieces.I'll share them with you, too - and you really need to click and enlarge them. This Tumbling Blocks top is so vividly graphic that it knocks me over every time I look at it.
I adore this wonderfully quirky pattern and Marty fell in love with it,too, years ago at the Piers in NY, so we bought. I hve been told by someone who should know, that this is very likely an African American piece because of the pieced strips between the rows of blocks. If anybody out there can verify this, I'd be interested in knowing more. I love this top! It was never finished and seems to have been cut off at the bottom.
I bought this one in Denver more than a decade ago. Chimney Sweep? It's an album quilt and some of the blocks have been signed in pencil but none has ever been embroidered. 1860's-1880's, I think.
Finally, two quilts I actually use. I rescued both of these from oblivion when they were dirty old tops. I washed, added batting/backing/binding and HAND QUILTED both of them. The first one is 1910-20; I think I replaced one of the stars that was rotting.It lives in the downstairs guest bedroom.
The next one lives with me: I cuddle under it when I am tired or cold; it is made of feedsacks from the '30's and was so filthy when I found it, tied with an old sheet and red & white striped bakery string, that I didn't think it would every be healthy again. For that reason, it is dear to my heart.
The audience was gracious and enthusiastic and asked lots of questions. Hooray for education! By the time I was done with my slide lecture (thanks to those of you who sent me jpgs or slides) these folks wanted to know when the next juried art quilt exhibit in this area would be so they could take a trip! I'll keep them posted on the next Sedgwick (or whatever it is now called) in Philadelphia, which is a 2 hour drive from here. We've gained a whole new audience - isn't that nice?

but is it art?

There hs been some (not enough,as far as I am concerned) discussion about 'art' quilts and whether they are, in fact, good art.

This was generated by the exhibit of contemporary quilts at the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, and one viewer's assessment of the work in the show. This viewer was not alone in his thought-provoking assessment. Art quilts are not necessarily good art any more than a painting is good art just because it is on canvas. The term 'art' quilts came about to distinguish them from quilts made from a traditional pattern -- or, in fact, from somebody else's pattern. In fact, the exhibit of the Shelburne quilts contained several original, delightful, quirky, amusing 'journal' pieces that would certainly fit today's definition of ART quilts. And they were beautifully executed - with workmakship I could not begin to imagine doing. Quite a few of them were two layers - not three; a number were NOT quilted, and at least one had hand AND machine stitching, done sometime in the 19th century. Juxtaposed with the Norton's beautiful collection of 20th century American art, the 'art' quilts, with a couple of exceptions, paled on every level. Part of the problem may have been that there was a theme; pieces made to a theme are a double-edged sword. When was the last time you saw a museum or gallery exhibit of paintings/works on paper/sculpture - etc. where the work was made for a particular theme? I don't mean an exhibit where the curator determines the theme and selects work from a broad range of sources that fits his/her vision of the exhibit's theme: I mean a juried show where the work submitted was specifically aimed at the theme, as so many 'art quilt' shows are. Yes, we are insular. Yes, many of us think that the more embellishment piled on, the better. And yes, too many of us are unaware of what is being done outside our medium. I maintain that the medium is meaningless unless the piece works visually. On the other hand, each medium has its own characteristic which either adds or detracts from the artist's intent. But that is another conversation.

In the meantime, please add your comments about the image below, which is the same as the one at the top of the post. Whether or not you like it, irrespective of whether it is cloth or a serigraph or a painting on canvas, does it work as art? Would stitching or embellishment add anything to improve it or would it only detract?

Let's talk.