Quilts from the QBL workshop: working in a series

I just got back from teaching at Quilting by the Lake in Syracuse, NY.   QBL has moved its annual seminar to a really great new facility – a college on a hill overlooking Syracuse and a lake! (Onandonga).   The college has excellent audio visual capabilities, nice new dorms, beautiful auditorium, library, perimeter walking trail – and oh yes! good choices of food! Loads of parking and just a short ride from the airport if you fly. So I’d definitely recommend it if you’re thinking of going to next year’s QBL.  

My workshop was on working in a series , so often recommended because it can lead to a significant improvement in your work:

by getting better at an idea or technique through practice
by being more focused, thinking things through
by exploring an idea in depth
by not putting too many ideas into one piece
by making starting a piece easier by setting a few parameters
by developing a consistent body of work
by trying new things – but with a constant theme – making changes and improvements gradually
    (this is a great way to learn – practice + critique: in the next piece deliberately trying to improve the areas you consider weak in the current work.  This works for everything of course from art quilts, to golf to gardening even cleaning toilets!).

The ladies in my QBL class all developed a theme that they wished to explore in depth, then they drew a number of possible sketches for the first few pieces. The themes were not just general vague ideas e.g.  “landscapes” but – a particular area or place with specific feelings, thoughts, ideas related to that: a full paragraph of information!  A little preparatory work like this can help set parameters and makes decisions so much clearer.    The students also made a commitment to continue with several quilts within their chosen theme.  Everyone began one quilt, several were close to completion by the end of the class, and some people began a second.  A great variety of wonderful unique individual and expressive work was developed – here are some pictures:

Nina-Marie’s theme was arches – she had collected many images in her Inspiration Notebook (so useful to keep notebooks like this)…from which to sketch and manipulate idea possibilities.  She has captured a wonderful  airiness and sense of space in her first piece.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                 Terry’s theme was not just wild flowers but the elegance and grace of woodland flowers…it really helps to focus in on what it is about your theme that just fascinates you.  Her composition has great movement which shows of the ballerina elegance of the flower.

Stephanie was excellent at seeing the abstract possibilities in her first sketches of Venice, from which she developed a super little block .  She made about 40 of them… enough to play with.  Her signature block!  Every orientation had a different quality of meaning about it…but she finally settled for the one  that looked like gondolas on the water.  However many of the other possibilities were so strong that I think the series is well on its way!

Laura wanted to remember a visit to Viscaya, a mansion in Florida full of fascinating little architectural details…as well as urns of flowers and palm trees and colonnades – this could be a long series!

She brings to our attention with great  sensitivity the little things that might otherwise be missed…also a beautiful sense of the edges of things…look at the  contrast between the shadowed edges of the stone work, and the soft edges of the feathers!

Mary wanted to express the connection between trees and people in a number of different ways…thinking about the spirit of trees, people who might live or appear in trees, and the ways that trees sometimes take on anthropomorphological shapes….In her first piece she has used an interesting device: the whole tree is within a circle superimposed upon a larger detail…..the paper drawn tree people will be finely machine stitch drawn in the finished piece…Mary started her second quilt by making small adjustments to colour, value, shape and line…..    it’s exciting to see the second piece begin to evolve and Mary’s lines are quite beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeanne planned a series of nine quilts called the Nine Blocks of Lancaster…a great play on the old (but good!) Nine Patch.  she made several sketches, determined values and light sources etc.  She conceived of several ways of making a window but wasn’t sure which would work the best. Following the rule of Make Visual Decisions Visually she made several little windows using different construction methods so she could choose the right one.  Not only is this the best way to decide, but also her little windows will be a great piece by themselves!  Jeanne’s balance of bold shapes will make for a great series!

 

 

Mary S loves leaves!  She made several beautiful leaf drawings and then decided to superimpose them upon pieced backgrounds to reference traditional quilts…this is the beginning of the willow leaf piece….Mary also was experimenting with value studies….having the values run one way in the background, and the opposite way in the foreground – a great reference to the way that trees look as we explore their shape with the ground behind the lower trunk, and the sky behind the branches.

 

 

Priscilla is a garment maker and a mola lover….she took some of the design elements out of the mola and scattered these perky seeds across the background in a joyful dance.   While it was by chance that she placed them on two separate pieces  we all liked the effect so much and the movement it created that we could see this as a garment back with the right sleeve…

Creating movement in a piece is vital to getting and sustaining the viewer’s interest, and Priscilla has achieved this with style!

This was such a fun class to teach – and I had great students!  I look forward to seeing photos of  all the quilts in their series!

I had such an amazing response to my last blog  (August 10th) that I’m definitely going to write a follow up !  Thank you all for writing in, it’s great to stimulate a discussion and I’m energetically cogitating away on the points you all made!

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

surface seduction - patting isn't enough

All those surface design techniques (shibori, screen printing (whether constructed, deconstructed, or otherwise disported!), discharge, pastes made of corn, rice, flour, potatoes, old shoes or anything else, stamping (with rubber, foam or gusto), clamping, phototransfer etc etc ) are so seductive!! They're satisfying to make because you've an instant result, often magic! But then, what d'you do with the fabric you've created? I'm sorry, but patting just isn't enough!

Art quilts are begun in many different ways: from a concept, a sketch, an idea, a pattern - but I think the most difficult way to begin a piece is from the fabric itself - which there is a great temptation to do when you have made luscious fabric. Could a painting be about paint? or a sculpture about stone or steel? For a short while there was a fashion to make work about the process - I remember seeing a framed canvas with one knife slash through it....and no paint at all!! But we have seen that. We know that ceci n'est pas une pipe! A painting is paint and canvas, not boats on water, Grandmother's flower garden was hexagonal pieces of fabric (especially if she lived in a city!). Therefore, I think beginning a piece "from the fabric" isn't a particularly valid, unique or interesting idea. Imagine: "hey! I made this quilt about this new fabric I just dyed/purchased!" What do you say in response? There's nothing to say except enquiring how or where...there's no interest in the design.

A quilt about stamping might be interesting to stampers wanting to learn a different way to stamp (raise your legs higher!) but isn't going to be very meaningful to a wider audience. (Thus Hoffman's comment that "quiltmaking is the most redundant when jurying because quilters don't step out of their comfort zone.") If we're only making work about things that interest other quilters, or stampers or tiers and dyers....then those quilts don't add anything to the art world - they are redundant, it's been said.

So despite the seduction of the medium, I do think a concept, or idea or overall structural pattern - something above and beyond the medium itself, that you want to communicate- is important if you wish to make strong appealing pieces. We see this in Joan Schulze's and Linda Colsh's work with images (whether from photo transfer or screen printing) - their images relate to an overall theme, an idea they want to convey - whether the loneliness of old age, or the gilded portrayal of women portrayed in advertising.

The organizing theme could be a concept like old age or it could be an overall patterned structure as in traditional quilts. That's part of the reason why many of those old quilts are so strong. There are many different kinds of organization or structure or "backbone" as Twyla Tharp calls it in her book The Creative Habit work - there's lots to choose from. But I do deplore those quilts that look like sampler pages from a surface design text book.

So now I'd better go and THINK about my gorgeous seductive fabric...as well as stroking it!

If you have been, thanks for reading! Elizabeth

PS - I do enjoy comments, they'll set me cogitating...and my responses will gradually occur in blogs to follow! so please do.....
the next blog, however, should have the pictures from QBL. For tomorrow I fly home - Delta and thunderstorms and shuttle buses willing.

The Gallery's point of view

I'm blogging from Burlington, Canada where I'm spending a week relaxing after teaching at Quilting by the Lake - so no camera attachment yet...I'll have pictures from the class (excellent students!) when I get back home next week.

At QBL we had a talk from Bruce Hoffman, director of the Snyderman gallery in Philadelphia, one of the top fibre art galleries in the US. He had some very pertinent comments to make. He always looked for a combination of fine craftsmanship and excellent design and rarely saw the two together in quilts. (This is a challenge!!! Look to your work and decide which area might be weak and focus on making it stronger. I know I plan to do that!)
HOffman went on to say that he felt that quiltmakers need to be held responsible for developing their craftsmanship and design skills. (Of course I know I harp on about this all the time!) Hoffman stated that we need to know how to proportion colour, how to use colour. We need to know the elements with which we work. (I wish he had specified more, but he didn't). However, he did say that he felt that one well known quiltmaker used colour better than most painters. Here is a link to her website! Were you suprised? I think not! If you study her colours, she uses very strong contrasts in value, and saturation and temperature - hue is of less import. Something to learn.
HOffman said that when he curates a show, he feels that his choices become more subjective. His preference for the gallery is for nonobjective, nonfigurative color field and mark making work. It's important to assess your work and see if the type of work you make fits what the gallery you're aiming for actually shows - pointless to even think of sending them images if they don't show your kind of work. He stated that he was always looking for new and fresh work...but has at least an 8 month backlog of portfolios awaiting his attention. I personally know someone who sent portfolios 3 times over 5 years before getting a response. And her work fit his gallery totally! He rejects most of the work that is offered him. It really helps if you have been in several major shows.
He felt that it was important to show that you really know how to use the material with which you work..not clarifying if he meant this literally or metaphorically, however - but I'd guess - both!
Speaking of the Gees Bend quilters, he felt that the new generation don't understand what their grandmothers' work was about. The spirit of their work is gone. When I saw the Whitney show I felt exactly that - there were a couple of more modern pieces, clearly influenced by patchwork patterns and quilting magazines that just didn't have the soul of the earlier work. New cloth, all straightened up and no history, no freshness, no individual voice.
If you want to approach a gallery, he said, a CD with at least 10-15 images that load fairly fast is ideal...plus details, plus a list and resume. Also include a printed out list of the works, and a cover letter, and a printed out resume and price list - making it easy to see your work and find all the information very quickly. (remember 8 months backlog!). Make it clear if the prices quoted are wholesale or retail and also add any special information re the medium or techniques used. Of course enclose an SAE; he also stated that popping in a stamped addressed postcard which stated "The Snyderman Gallery has recieved your portfolio" really helped you to know if the portfolio actually ever got there!
It's the quality not the medium - he stated..and quality is craftmanship+design.

Another challenge: "quiltmaking is the most reduntant when jurying because quilters don't step out of their comfort zone."
So, if you want to make it in the upmarket gallery scene, no more coziness, no more twee images, no trite solutions, excellent sewing skills, and dynamic design! That's all!
If you have been, thanks for reading!
Elizabeth

Last post before QBL: Far from Folksy!

Well I’m off  tomorrow to teach a workshop on Working in a Series at Quilting by the Lake.  There is no lake, alas – but the new college where the workshop is to be held is on a hill, so there should be good views and lots of fresh air!!  Two things I really love.  Plus excellent facilities including a/v back up which is really great.  Having taught quiltmaking at the continuing Education Centre at the University of Georgia for many years I was  spoilt by having any audio or visual device I wanted available at any time…so workshops in windowless hotel conference rooms where there is nothing available except tables of the wrong height is extremely frustrating.  I’m also thrilled to be asked to teach at Penland next year – an arts and crafts school near Asheville, NC with a wonderful reputation. (and great a/v!)

I’ve always worked in a series myself.  I found I had such a tendency to try to put all my ideas about something into one piece with such a chaotic result, unbalanced, unfocussed, full of knight’s move right brain thinking that you needed anti-nausea pills to even look at it!   Splitting up the ideas across several quilts really helped.  Plus it meant I didn’t have to reinvent solutions to problems all the time.  If I came across a neat way to solve something I could use it more than once – obviously, though,  not ad nauseam (again!).

Though working in a series is not a new practice for me, therefore, this actual workshop is.  It’s going to be really exciting working with people who are prepared to push themselves beyond making one piece in the style of the current instructor.  There is an awful temptation to do that when you take a workshop and it’s quite natural.  I see it as a normal developmental step.  But then, as Picasso said, you have to reach the stage where instead of borrowing another artist’s ideas and just using them for a short while before borrowing someone else’s,  you steal them!  You take them away and make them completely your own! Expand them, develop them, improve them.  You know if you borrow a sweater from someone, they’re not going to be thrilled if you change it – but if you sneak if out of their wardrobe when they’re not looking……you can cut it in two, insert another colour, throw it in a dye bath, shorten the sleeves, cut down the high neck…etc etc and then it’s your creation!!!  So my workshop will definitely be about “stealing”! (and please don’t worry if you’re just coming for fun!! that’s a perfectly legitimate and worthy goal!!)

Actually T. S. Eliot, a poet I’ve always loved, said something very similar:
“One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. 
( Eliot, T.S., “Philip Massinger,” The Sacred Wood, New York: Bartleby.com, 2000.)

As an interesting corollary, Eliot went on to say:
A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.
Those of you who watched the recent Bravo Fashion design show will have seen clear examples of when to “steal” (from different cultures and times) and when not (copying a runway dress from a current wellknown designer).  These are some of the ideas we’ll be discussing in class. 

 

What the class won’t be is folksy!  Why does the popular press still begin virtually every piece on art quilts with some reference to your grandma or days gone by?  Here is the first page on an article published this last week in Athens magazine, a nice glossy magazine with some beautiful pictures  including about half a dozen of my quilts to say nothing of my somewhat less glossy phyzog!  It’s great to be in print though! and the rest of the article is just fine – I only wish I lived up to it!!!

I’ll be posting again after QBL – and with luck with have some pictures!

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

Shadowing Still

I’ve been reading a book by Alan Bennett, the British playwright in which he says:

“Always beneath the play you write is the play you meant to write; changed but not abandoned  and, with luck, not betrayed, but shadowing still the play that has come to be”.

That seems to happen so often in art, you have this wonderful vision in your head – I see a dramatic castle in red, or a cool green landscape, or a strange ominous juxtaposition of industry and nature… and then the tangible reality in front of me that develops on the design wall…fights me…says “No Jagged Red!- too unbalanced!”,  or “those the cool greens  are too blah or too blue”… or the cooling towers or pumping stations  sit there bland and placid in their fabric haven instead of lordly and threatening as I had imagined…

But sometimes, there is no “betrayal”.  Instead an interesting quirk appears, a fabric I’d forgotten about is tried, and adds depth and texture way beyond its unassuming appearance at the end of a dye session.  In fact it’s often the unpretty bits, the places where I simply wiped off the brushes, or spilled the dye when reaching for a fly swatter, or forgot and left under a bush for 3 weeks (yes that did happen! what a find!! better than truffles! and no pig necessary).  Those ugly sisters who actually turn out to add the spice to the mix. (yes! a mixed metaphor!).

So if you have an original intention, it can change…Let It!…shifting the point of view,  literally or metaphorically, can give a truer, stronger vision.  Looking at some of Margaret Bourke White’s photographs  I realized how thoughtfully she organized her images, not accepting the initial idea as presented.  A very low horizon makes the towers look so tall, or lining up the generators shows the rhythm of the engines…even the dreadful photographs from the concentration camps show by her use of the enclosure of the men with the timbers of the bunks a visual hint as to their imprisonment.  Ghandi is balanced by the spinning wheel of life – O Fortuna!  

So often people bring to workshops a single photo they’ve taken of their central idea.  But don’t just fix on one view!  A fixed viewpoint can be so limiting – in many ways on many levels.  If change happens, it doesn’t mean you’ve abandoned the idea so much as enriched and developed it into a probably unpredicted but fuller result.  The shadows bring the painting and the play to life ….

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

Landscape/pictorial or abstract/geometric: some random thoughts about Quilt National 2009

I’ve been  taking a look at the 2009 Quilt National catalogue – some wonderfully inventive pieces – so wish I could have seen the show…and while the underlying composition for over half of them remains abstract/geometric (either random or regular repeated geometric shapes pieced together), about a quarter of them are pictorial – often botanic, or landscape with very different compositions demands.

I don’t think one style or the other is easier/more difficult. Each has particular challenges. An abstract/geometric piece may have a pre-ordained basic compositional structure but the artist needs to establish an idea or theme – most do! A few don’t!! There are always some pieces that you think “how in the dyepot did that piece get in there?”! Whereas, those pieces that are pictorial or landscape in nature have a much more obvious central idea but the artist has to make more design or compositional decisions.

All work is stronger if there is a specific center of interest. The center of interest relates to the overall theme for the piece…thus in an abstract piece if the theme is texture, that texture should make you want to touch and feel (no! you can’t!! but oh boy you want to…) in the same way that you want to stroke sueded silk, bounce your hand on a crew cut, or run your fingertips over a tree trunk. If the theme is a polar landscape, the harsh monotony and immense distances should be so evident you feel a chill on the warmest day.

I find an all over pattern much less interesting to look at – I think oh nice! But feel I have quickly “got it” and am ready to move on…it’s a much more difficult to be successful in this mode.  Harmony yes, repetition yes….but always with some variety, repetition of the same note gets very boring….vary the height, or width, or angle, or sinuosity of the shape…slightly. Much more interesting!!! That’s why the African American quilts drew everyone’s eye when they first saw them. Think of all the variety and movement in Rosie Lee Tompkins work.

I find it hard to understand why some folk keep on making the same bland repetitive work when there are so many ways of keeping people interested. Areas can be brought to life by the use of contrast – of hue, of value, of intensity, of detail - is a monotonous regularity enough??  Having said that,  ignoring this guideline can work if your theme – is “look how many of these there are!” – in which case you have to keep the scale large so that the viewer can be lost in the immensity of it.

High contrast will make an area appear more important; therefore the reverse is also true. But several pieces had their areas of highest contrast away from the most important element…and it wasn’t till I read the statement that I caught the meaning of the piece.  Avoiding this isn’t too difficult if you can stand back and say to yourself “okay what am I really wanting to convey here?” – how exactly am I doing that? the answer shouldn’t be in the statement but in the piece itself! Use contrast! Of any element.

I also like to see a piece that includes a variety of  density of details…whether a landscape or a geometric. If you’re showcasing squares with interesting things going on inside them, have some that are quiet, and some that are really busy. Several people accomplished this and it makes their pieces much more exciting.

It’s important to keep me (the viewer) in the picture! And this can be done by nudging me back if my eyes start to stray…e.g. don’t have lines that lead me out of the picture, but rather lines that pull me back in. Include some mystery…so I’m leaning forward to look more closely. Slow me down with curved paths, rather than straight lines that zoom in…then out. Remember Hundertwasser’s opinion of straight lines: "The rigid, straight line is fundamentally alien to humanity, life and the whole of creation".  How right!

Allow me to saunter through your piece … to take a slow visual walk. Don’t block my journey with a barred fence across the way, or a door or window you can’t see through. Windows that give a hint of what’s inside – or outside – are much more interesting.  It’s even better if I’m invited to try to solve a mystery….this is especially true with narrative pieces – just what is happening here, what is around that corner?  You don’t have to spell out all the details…a person will keep looking longer if they have to complete some of the information… It’s not necessary to indicate every leaf on a tree…unless you are aiming for a hyper-realistic effect. A few will convey the idea. …hyper realism doesn’t work as well in a quilt (or a painting for that matter) as does softness and suggestion.

I think it’s also important not to have strange things happening that don’t relate to the theme…towers that grow out of heads, or people with half bodies – even the bust of Beethoven had a little stand!  Things like that distract one visually away from the main idea.

I find I’m attracted to pieces that have a lot of movement. These are quilts that include vertical, horizontal and diagonal elements. Rhythm and movement activate the eye and brain as well as the body! And it’s more interesting if the geometric shape isn’t completely spelled out..but rather is slightly hidden or disguised. This is where Paula Nadelstern’s work is so very clever – your eye is fooled constantly by her hidden edges!! (Paula wasn’t in the ’09 QN show, she was preparing for her solo at the Museum of Folk Art, NYC – a show well worth seeing!).

It’s difficult in quilts to avoid the cut out, pasted on look…..the nature of appliqué whether by hand, machine or gluepot..puts one at risk. But there are ways to get around it: overlapping, cutting through (there were some marvelous cut through pieces in the show) and losing the edges into the surrounding background by equalizing values.

Varying values is so important: light and shade can indicate mood and drama. The most successful pieces used this well. A piece made of overall mid values is more difficult to see, especially when so many QN viewers are looking at the catalogue and not the actual show. When you’re designing a piece, squint, or put the camera out of focus (or reduce the pixels) and you can get a better sense of where the values are…and develop a more interesting composition

Shapes should intertwine, not just stop when one ends and another begins…much less interesting and also less harmonious. Again this is why Nadelstern’s work is so strong. She keeps your eye flowing onto the next shape by clever use of a consistent element – like an underlying color or form.

Balance is another key factor. There shouldn’t be that much difference of mass on any of the four areas (right, left, top, or bottom). This will make it feel like it's leaning or top heavy and a few pieces were guilty of that. It’s fine to do this, however, if it relates to the central idea.

Well I didn’t even get to colour!! This is already too long…but you can see just how much you can learn and appreciate from the perusal of a good catalogue! Run out and get the Quilt National one today!!

If you have been, thanks for reading!! I look forward to your comments!

Elizabeth

The preliminary sketch – to do or not to do…

 

Sometimes I think maybe I’m just lazy or indecisive when I spend days messing around with little sketches, making tiny adjustments, cropping, resizing, altering the ratio (landscape to portrait – wide wide? or long and skinny?), trying different values – a night sky?, light from the right or the left? Keep that building in place, or lose it? Blend the colours of various objects, or make them very distinctive?......well you see how my mind goes! I end up with piles of paper lying across the study floor..(I do try to reuse the reverse side!! And then eventually shred it for the compost pile, so hopefully I’m not being too environmentally insensitive)….sooner or later, however, I find one image stands out. I’m looking for the one that best fits my original idea, and is the strongest and most interesting visually.

I think it is very worthwhile to make these sketches, though I notice few others do (or at least they deny it when I ask them – like people used to deny studying before an exam!! Even when they’d swotted all night!) . Away from denial and back to rough sketches: I would never try to go anywhere without a map, and I think trying out ideas on paper is really helpful. For me it’s not time wasting. There are always so many judgments to be made in making a piece anyway – and getting up and down to the design wall, pinning, standing back, “oh, ghastly!”, rushing to the wall, unpinning, flinging that piece of fabric aside!! Or worse yet, having cut a hole in the middle of a favorite bit of fabric the exact right size, deciding no….the value is wrong, should have cut it from the other side! That wastes time, energy and fabric!!

Working some of the main problems out on paper ahead of time means that when you come to actually blocking the piece out on the design wall, the big decisions are made…and now you can address the little ones more easily. You know what values go where, the placement of the big shapes and the overall colour scheme. Never try to solve the details before you’ve got the main bones in place!!
“What type of doorknocker will we have?”
“But we havn’t decided if it’s going to be a castle or a chalet yet!”

                                  I find I can get into a much more meditative mood when blocking out the piece on the design wall, if I’ve done the more distractible (let’s try this! How about that? What if I…?) casting around for possibilities on paper ahead of time and have a working plan to base the piece upon.

This method doesn’t mean that I lose spontaneity, in fact I think I probably gain it. I have the main idea, the general structure of the piece already in mind, and so, as I glance at the sketch and cut and place those big pieces on the wall, I can make little ad hoc adjustments, serendipitous additions of colour, or soften the lines as I go along. I don’t like blowing a sketch upto full size and cutting templates, by the way, that does tend to make a piece look a little rigid and forced.

 

Another advantage of doing sketches ahead of time is that with a pencil and paper you can allow yourself to be more experimental. The time and the fabric involved are minimal! What if you cut it into 3 pieces and rearrange it?? This is easy with a pencil drawing…a little daunting with a large piece of fabric!!

It’s also helpful when it comes to working out machine quilting ideas…at this point I’ll make some copies of the sketch so I can try out different possibilities.

So, take out your pencil and paper! We’re going to make a quilt!

 

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

PS – after my blog on dyeing a couple of folk asked if I do dye and screen printing workshops here in my studio – answer: yes! If you’re interested email me..best scenario is a small group of 3 or 4 friends who come together – that way you can share the travel costs, double up in hotel rooms, and enjoy being together. Cost? $100 a day per person (for 2009) which includes all chemicals (fabric is extra). I provide just about everything! Including a simple lunch in our beautiful terrace garden!