Today I’m looking back to see if things have changed or stayed the same since I began my blogging journey…which seems so very long ago!
These two posts are from 2012 and still reflect my style and my views on art and quilting…art can be canvas and paint or fabric and thread (or many other things) and knowledge is always to be shared freely.
I had a difficult time selecting one post…ergo two. Both are quilts, next time paintings.
POST #1: The first quilt, LET’S TAKE A BREAK, has travelled to exhibitions, appeared in the inaugural online exhibit, Wild Things, at Visions Quilt Museum in San Diego, but remains in my possession because I just can’t let it go. This is unusual for me, as I am usually happy to share my art and have it find a new home…maybe one day. Here is the original post.
A QUILT IS ART..first posted July 31, 2012
I am an artist and work with cloth as well as paint. I dye painted the fabric for this quilt using Procion MX dyes. The cloth is pieced and heavily machine quilted. I mount many of my art quilts on stretcher bars so they hang on the wall just like a painting. Maybe next time I will paint this image on canvas…a quilt, a painting…it’s all art…from the studio
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POST #2: The second quilt, I’M ONLY IN CONFLICT WITH MYSELF, was the first larger, almost whole cloth, wall quilt I completed using the dye painting technique. I envisioned it in my head, but I remember painting three or four fabrics because, as I washed out the dye, the black dye would migrate to the white fabric and ruin the piece. I needed to put fixative on the entire piece of cotton before dying, so as I rinsed the excess black dye from the fabric, I had a black and gray piece, not black and white. The only thing that worked was hand sponging the fixative from the areas I wanted to remain white before I washed out the residual black dye. It worked, and I am still happy with the finished product. Enjoy reading these oldies…from the studio 2021. Here is the original post.
VISITORS IN THE STUDIO…first posted September 12, 2012
I enjoy having visitors in my studio. I feel it is a great opportunity to explain and actually demonstrate how I create my artwork, either quilts or paintings. My main focus during a studio visit is education. The more my visitors know about my techniques and about me as an artist, the more they can appreciate my work. I believe people visit an artist’s studio to learn and to have a personal connection with the artist. I do not focus on selling my work. Actually, I firmly believe you cannot sell a painting or a quilt. The buyer needs to feel an attraction to a piece of art and have an understanding of how it is done. None of my techniques are secret and all of them can be discussed freely. I enjoy sharing and I learn a lot from the questions I am asked. Sometimes I’m not sure of an answer, but through our discussion, we can usually come up with something that will satisfy our curiosities, with a bit of laughter thrown in the mix. With a welcoming attitude, a sharing of ideas, and a bit of fun, a studio visitor may give some of your art a new home. This quilt found a new home with a lovely couple that visited my studio last week. As I explained to them, this quilt was dye painted, hand dyed and quilted…plus a little bit more…I can go on and on…from the studio
studio 18 art 