La Conner, WA, Australia and impatient patients....

Still, alas, on crutches and trying to be Patient!! Which, of course, is what Patients should be!
However, I was lucky enough not to fall downstairs until after I'd shipped about 30 or so quilts to La Conner, Wa for a show in the Quilt and Textile Museum there.

Red Morning

 
It's up through the end of the year so I hope, if you're in the area, you have a chance to pop in and see it - if not for me, then to support the museum!! I've heard it's a very classy place and it's important that we show as much support as we can to elegant galleries that specialize in showing fiber. And let me know what you think!
 After the show, one lucky quilts will be headed to Australia - I'm fortunate to be included in a group called Through Our Hands based in Leamington Spa, UK and they're arranging shows all around the world.  I wonder if they would notice if I was curled up inside the quilt when I ship it!!

Because of the dratted Ankle Infirmity I had to postpone my workshop on abstract art for quiltmakers (see side bar) which has given me more time to work on the Power Point Presentation with which I'm going to start the class. I have images of the work of around thirty female abstract artists, mostly (but definitely not all!) American (do let me know if you have a favorite so I can be sure to include her).  And their work is truly amazing, it is so inspirational.  It's taken me weeks and weeks to put the PPP together - in part because I got totally carried away researching!! And I must admit to purchasing several new art books for the Barton Art Library!! I may only have ancient jeans, tatty tees and obviously handknit sweaters to wear...but boy! have I got a library!!  My most recent acquisition was a book about Sophie Taueber Arp whose work - much of it done in fiber - is so strong and fresh it would blow even Nancy Crow's socks off!! ( I remember she was always looking for that experience when she taught a workshop, though I never actually saw her without socks!).

As I compiled a short biography on each artist, one thing did strike me and that was that nearly all of these ladies had an extensive art education.  Most quiltmakers do not - and the few that do are obviously way way ahead of the others. I'm thinking of people like Joan Schulze, Pauline Burbidge, Elizabeth Busch - and of course Nancy Crow.  So now I'm researching just what goes into an art education and I'd love to hear from you as to those features of the education that you feel were the most important.  The courses I've looked at include a lot of art history, many technique classes (well we've all had those, right?!!), drawing and basic design.  I don't think you get a lot of critiques until you get to the MFA stage, but tell me if I'm wrong!  And then very often the critique is a group discussion rather than a well informed evaluation.

So - what do you think?  Do we, as quiltmakers striving to improve our art, need an art education?
And, if so, of what should it comprise?
And now to hobble off to put the kettle on -  not easy on crutches!!
If you have been, thanks for reading!  Elizabeth