Why DON"T people buy art?

It's not easy selling art quilts, is it?
 At least I've not found it so....I thought at first that people don't buy fiber art because they think it's more difficult to clean - or will gather more dust....of course neither is true.  Think of a "dream catcher"  - nothing catches more dust than one of those!  And how often have you laundered a calendar or a poster?

Having visited several different homes recently - new acquaintances, I think people simply don't buy art at all.   Perhaps  the odd poster, or dust ( sorry, dream) catcher...but not real art.  Even the tallest walls are depressingly empty, around the windows might be fancy drapes with succulent valances, on the floor, beautiful Chinese or Persian rugs, quartz in the kitchen and the most luxuriant fittings in the bathroom...but no art.   Why not?

Why don't people buy art?

Like everything else there are probably lots of reasons but some of the chief ones I've come across are:

1. Money:  Real art (i.e. not a reproduction) is seen as being too expensive.  And quilts certainly are expensive - the amount of time it takes to make one, if truly reflected in the price, would make them monumentally expensive.  Nearly as much as a tv, or a computer, or a year's supply of phone cell coverage or a few month's worth of eating out.    And we know how much more important THEY are!

2.   Supply and Demand: There are a lot of objects and services out there competing for money.   There are all those expensive electronics to buy and then their service plans, and the extra insurance we all need these days (though sometimes I REALLY wonder about that!).  There are a LOT of things we can spend out money on!

3.  Hidden value: Few see the value of owning art.  You never  see people comparing the paintings or wall textiles they've bought.  At a social event, frequently everyone is whipping out their smart phones (very smart most of them because they make people feel instantly better about themselves for owning one!), or their iPads, trooping out to look at the new car ...and I'm sure in some places, their artillery! but rarely do you hear "oh you must come and see this wonderful art quilt I just bought".
Have you ever seen a tv program about owning art?  And yet look at how often all those other products are seen in adverts:  the cars, the computers, the clothes, the fancy houses, even the recreational drugs to be taken in the bathtub!  Society as a whole doesn't value art probably, in part, because big business isn't out there advertising it!

4.  Fear of looking foolish, uncertainty:   It's easier too to judge the cost of a car - if it's bigger and faster and shinier then we know it's worth more.  Hard to judge that with art work.  People are unsure of the value of a piece of art - whatever medium.  They worry that others might think they've spent too much, that they've been taken for a ride (and not in a big, fast, shiny car!)  The average perception of the value of something called a quilt is based on Walmart prices...craft fair prices.  
They're worried that they're making a mistake, they don't know whether or not they'll still love the piece in a year's time...  If you think about it, it does take quite a lot of guts to drop a grand on something that you're unsure of.  That's a lot of money for most of us to justify spending.  And most art quilts cost even more than that:  in a show like Quilt National, I bet there are very very few pieces that are not well over a grand.

5.  Lack of knowledge: most people have absolutely no idea how much a piece of art can enrich a room, how it can simply make you feel good to look at it.  When we make our art quilts we feel very good!  We've pulled it off, we've got our idea out there...in reality.  That's a great feeling for us.  But will it make others feel good to look at it, will it enrich Their lives as well as ours in having made it?
Is that so...and can we convince them that it is so?

6. Unconsciousness of the continuity that owning art work gives you.  this is especially true for those of us who have moved a lot in our lives...every time we've moved the first things I have unpacked and hung are the paintings and hangings; immediately our surroundings become home.   The dearness of the familiar composition is something that's hard to convey unless you've done this.

Alas, knowing why doesn't really help the cause....every art quilter I know has a cupboard full of the beautiful creations, all rolled up.....

how do you feel?  

And, if you have been, thanks for reading!!   Elizabeth

Seeing is Believing.

Many many artists these days, let's face it, work primarily from photographs and there's nothing wrong with this.   As a starting point.  But there comes a time when you MUST forget the photograph and pay attention only to the piece you're making - whether you're at the sketch stage or the blocking out of the quilt stage.

Adhering too closely to the photo leads to many problems.

1. Objects:
The photo is not necessarily a good composition.  the shapes and lines might well be in the wrong places!  Wrong in the sense of a good coherent, pleasing and Interesting arrangement.
Don't put the tree slap bang in the middle just because it was there in the photo!

2. Horizon Line. As it happens, the most common thing to have right in the middle is the horizon line - because  that's the way we look through the camera - holding it at that mid point to take the photo.
However a composition is invariably much more interesting if the horizon line is high, or low...not right in the middle bisecting the image exactly in half.

Note in the above photo, I've got a nice low horizon, and  the focal point is off center...but see how the camera makes all those deep shadows into one dark black?  in actuality, they were dark green, marroon, purple and blue... 80% and 90% black not 100% black.


3. Focal Point: Also when we compose a photo, we usually put the focal point right in the middle...but in a composition in cloth (or paint and paper), the design is much more interesting if the focal pint is NOT exactly in the middle.

4. Value: The values are almost certainly going to be wrong - it is well known that the camera tends to push all the light values into one Super Light value, and to put all the darks into one Really Dark value.
If you think about values on an 11 point scale : 0% dark, 10% dark, 20% dark all the way to 100% black, the camera will probably get the middle values: 40-70% about right - in that it will show them as being different....but it will frequently blur the 80, 90 and 100 % together.  Ditto at the light end of the scale.

5. The subject of the photo: The photo is only what the camera sees and not what you actually see (your Eyes are much better and you have Two of  them!).  Look with your eyes, then compare that visual memory to the image on the camera ( or these days for it seems every one except me still muddling along with a dumb one...) the image on your (perhaps not so?) smart phone.  Where is the sparkle?  Where is the depth?  where is the subtlety of tone?  Where is the sense that the air is soft and misty or sharp to the point of crackling?

6. Your own impressions: Nor does the camera view reflect what you feel, what you sense in the temperature of the air, the stillness or windiness, the smell, the sounds, perhaps even the taste.  A camera can't capture these...but you can take a quick moment to note them all.

7.  Make notes: So when taking the photo, don't just hastily whip it out, snap snap snap, barely even look at the scene with the Real Thing: your artist's eyes....instead look and look and look - capture it all in your mind and then take the photo, for reference.  Make a few notes on a scrap of paper if you can.  I usually carry a pencil and a few 3x5 cards with me when out for a walk.  It's amazing how often you have Great Thoughts when walking!

8. Color: On the other hand....a photograph can tell you something about the color of the objects in the scene, because it just images what is there.  It doesn't label the colors as our brains do - frequently incorrectly as it happens.  Look at the tree you have just photographed - see how many different greens there are?  often the leaves will go from very light, almost white to very dark tones.  If  the sun is warm, or there are reflections from a warm toned object, they'll show those overtones too.  And vice versa with cool tones.  But what does the brain do??  Leaves are green...all the way round!  Look at an orange sitting in a sunny window.  Our brain says oho that orange is orange all over....but - no - really look - see how it's almost white where the sun hits it?  see how the underside reflects the color of the window sill?  see how there are blue shadows, and green shadows?  This is even more noticeable if you can get a naked person to sit in a sunny window!!  I guarantee you'll see practically every color there is - but probably NOT beige!

 9. Rose colored spectacles: If ever I see another quilt with a bright blue sky, a bright green tree, a bright red barn, bright yellow chickens, brown fences, purple and pink flowers, I shall have to search out those rose-colored glasses again - long retired and used only for the sake of my stomach when eating school dinners (I went to a convent school where the usual fare was grey mutton, grey mashed potatoes, yellowish grey swedes followed by grey rice).  Ugh......

10.  Color is light, light spreads: Trees are rarely (if ever) a solid viridian green, fences are rarely a solid brown etc.   Just look and see!
And if the sky truly is blue, that blue is usually reflected (to some extent) in anything that is in any way glossy that is facing towards the sky.

yes Seeing, really really really Seeing...can lead to Truth!
and you know the adage:  Truth is Beauty!
If you have been, thanks for reading....and do please comment - I promise I won't put those rosy specs on to read your comments!

Elizabeth

A Magazine Interview and a Divided Quilt

No, the Magazine interview isn't about the Divided Quilt!!
 But it is about the quilts I've made - and not chopped up! -  plus a very nice interview I had with Rose de Boer, the Editor.
 The magazine in question is Quilting Arts Magazine.
The June/July issue is coming out on May 26 - alas I'm not a cover girl (well that was hardly to be expected with my hair!) but my quilts are on more than one page...somewhere inside!  So, do take a look!

And the quilt I divided up??

Well...here's the story.  I need two gifts for two ladies who have been very good to me, and they are good friends....so I was wondering what to take them...and then I had the idea of cutting a quilt into two and giving  them half each!  It's not a very big quilt...originally about 18 x 24...but I always liked it and it's travelled around quite a bit - time it got a good home - or Two Good Homes!

Here's the original:

I love cutting things up and creating new things...and in my classes I'm always suggested people crop their sketches.  So often we put Far Too Much into one image.

So here are the two....tell me what you think!!

I hope my two friends with be happy with them!  And that they think these are more fun than a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates...though of course it does depend on Which Wine and Which Chocolates!

If you have been, thanks for reading!

Love the comments....please, more!

Elizabeth

Why are there so many Quilt teachers?

I notice that a great many quilt makers are teaching nowadays;  I wonder why?

If I talk with my painting friends, very few of them teach.  And in my piano playing group nobody teaches at all!  Nor in the square dancing group.  So what is it about quilt making that leads one to teach?
For me...I had one lesson - the very first one in traditional quilt making where you cut out precise triangles and put them together also very precisely to make a cushion/pillow cover.  (Cushions and pillows mean different things in the UK and  the USA by the way.  An American pillow is an English cushion!  I've never yet discovered what an American cushion is!  Also it took me a long long time to realize that in America, a garden is actually nothing more than a vegetable patch - people say "I'm putting in my garden this weekend" and you're thinking "a whole garden???!! in a weekend?!!"..ah well, I digress.)

My beginning: I had one quilting lesson, the teacher had to go into hospital, I went to visit her - no grapes, no health enquiries just "when is the next lesson?"  Like an addict!  I quickly volunteered to help her teach the next lesson and the one after that....and so it began.

And so, I began teaching because I wanted to learn...and I would say that has continued for me.  I wanted a class in design - nobody was teaching it, so I went out and learned it in a different medium, then taught it to myself for fiber, then was asked to teach it to others. (of course now, Everyone is teaching design!)

For me teaching has always been about what I wanted to learn myself.  I love to do the research required before I put a class or set of classes together.  I rarely devise a class where I already know everything!  I want to be able to go out and learn something new, analyze and synthesize, really get to know it and then put it together in a class.  So I really enjoy coming up with new classes.  I don't know how people can just teach the same class over and over.  When I was a university lecturer and had to do three sections of the same topic in one semester, I felt like an automaton!!  Of course soon I would deviate from the curriculum in three different ways!

 I'm currently really enjoying putting together a Master Class where I get to choose the topics!!  (if you're interested by the way, call Linda at  508-477-0057 , she's organizing it and there are a couple of spaces have recently opened up because of late cancellations.  Cape cod.  June 8-12). 

  I've chosen to study something called the Hidden Order, the structure that holds a composition together.  It's a way of seeing the bones of the design, like the skeleton supports the human body.   But that's just the first thing!  
Then I thought it would be really interesting to look at some of the male abstract artists that I ignored when I developed my Abstract Art for quilt makers class.  Funny that...ignoring the white males!!!  So we're going to take a look at them, examine and analyze their abstraction processes then apply those to quilt design. 
  After that, I decided it would be really neat to show how one photograph can lead to many many different designs.  By the end of the week everyone should have a whole folder of great designs, and several small quilts all blocked out.  
Lots of critiquing to help make designs stronger - which I could have used myself when I made this shaggy dog below!!

This winter, I plant to expand the Hidden Order part of this class into an online class for next year....and then develop a Part 2 to my Abstract Art for Quiltmakers class after that.
But who knows what I will stumble across that I really want to learn!

So Learning is why I teach.  Here's a link to my workshops.
Of course there is also the wonder of visiting so many different beautiful places.  I've been all over the West Coast now from San Diego  upto Salt Spring Island (July).
On the East Coast I've been down to Sanibel and upto Cape Cod - never, alas, to Maine!!
I've been from Alabama to Canmore, north of Calgary. From Gateway Canyon to Hudson River Valley.

But why is teaching so popular for other folk?

Perhaps one reason  that people start teaching early is because the basics of quilt making are pretty straight forward and easy and it's so much fun you want to tell everyone about it and get them doing the same thing!

Another reason is  that it's a lot easier to make money (albeit not a lot) with teaching than it is with selling work which seems to get harder and harder every year.

What d'you think?   Why are so many of us quilters out there teaching? Do comment!

And, if you have been, thanks for reading!   Elizabeth