Book Review: Art Quilt Portfolio: The Natural World

A couple of weeks ago, I got a surprise in the mail.  Lark Books had sent me a copy of Art Quilt Portfolio:  The Natural World:  Profiles of Major Artists Galleries of Inspiring Works by Martha Sielman to review.  (ISBN 978-1-60059-928-6).  192 pages.

Wow.  Just one word...WOW!  Martha did a wonderful job on this book.  The book is divided into 9 sections by topic:  Flowers, Birds, Water, Animals, Leaves, insects, Flowers II, Trees and Textures.  Each section begins with an in-depth introduction to two or three artists, then goes into a gallery where many artists works are shown, just as if it were in an exhibition with labels identifying artist, title, date, size and method.  The book is well indexed with the table of contents guiding you to the featured artists and the subject matter, as well as a featured artist index and gallery artist index at the back of the book.

Martha's introduction is a must read as it gives you insights into the book as well as includes some information on the artists not repeated elsewhere.

Each of the featured artists described their method of work and were asked questions.  Everyone was asked "Why fiber?"  and the responses were quite telling.  Asking ourselves this, I think is an important activity.  Why DO we work in fiber or textiles? Why don't we stop at taking a photograph, rendering a drawing, or whatever.   Reading  each of the featured artist's answers was illuminating as well as one which pleased me as I think it is important for us as artists to consider as well as enabling the general public to understand where fiber/textile artists are coming from.  In addition, Martha queried them on technique when she thought that that was important.

When I first came to Ohio from Connecticut in 2005, I hadn't been exposed to large doses of textile art.  I had been to a few shows which had some art quilts in them (The Odyssey show) and the Shoreline Quilter's Guild and Clamshell Quilters (one of which Barbara Barrick McKie belonged to), but I hadn't been exposed to work by many art quilters.   Moving to Ohio opened my eyes.  I will never forget visiting the Fitton Art Center in Hamilton, Ohio and seeing Katherine K. Allen's work.  I was enamored.  I haven't been able to see a lot of her pieces, but she was one of the featured artists, along with Dominie Nash....and to top it off, many artists whose work I had seen either at the Aullwood Nature Center show in Englewood, Ohio or online with the groups I belong to--such as Melani Kane Brewer, Ginny Eckley and Nancy Cook are also among the featured artists.

Martha once again laid out the book as if it were an exhibition.  The images flow nicely with each other and leave you inspired and wanting to return again and again to look more closely at the images.   I read the book from cover to cover in a matter of three hours, and will probably re-read it.  I did laugh at myself... Nancy Erickson's "Easter Cougar" made me wonder if there had been a typographical error...I enjoy Nancy's work which bears resemblance to cave art, and I suspected that this particular piece, one of a series of "cut out" works she's been doing was named as a joke ("Easter" rather than "Eastern") as the colors were bright and included some dashes of blue, aqua as well as yellow ochre and red.  Just to make sure, I contacted Nancy and she verified that she did indeed name "Easter Cougar" that because of the colors.  Nancy did say that the image came out much darker than the actual piece is.

In addition to the featured artists and the general gallery, Martha included the Fiber Artist's Coalition (FAC) themed exhibition "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird."  I hadn't heard of this group, but was interested to see how they handled the common theme.

Lark included a list of the featured artists as well as links to their websites here.

I can see myself turning to this book again and again for insight, inspiration as well as to share with other quilters and explain the world of art quilts based on nature.  Definitely, this book is a keeper.

Publishers' suggested retail price:  $24.95 US/Can $29.95.

I've just not had the time to write this review earlier....and I know that Elizabeth Barton reviewed it as well....I've assiduously avoided reading her review because I think so highly of her writing and insight that I didn't want what she had written to influence me...now I can go and read it! You can too, right here.

Photos, Quilting, and Art

Recently, there's been quite a bit of talk on the Art Quilt list about art and quilting.  Several of the people talking about it were commenting that they didn't like "photo realism" in quilts.  They weren't talking about  quilts done in the manner of artist Chuck Close who does what is sometimes called "hyper realism) but they were talking about people who used photographs in their quilts.

Gloria Hansen and Wen Redmond, two artists who use photographs in their quilts, were accepted as artists and their quilts as art.  Others, no names named, were dismissed as making works which were merely "paint by number,"  People who took photographs and then did thread work and quilting with them turning them into art quilts.

The first person who came to mind was Barbara Barrick McKie.  Barbara lives in Lyme, Connecticut and it was her work which I first saw that included photographic images in her quilting...ages ago...in the early 1990s I think.  At the time, digital photography was in its babyhood and Barbara used photo transfers.  She now manipulates photographs through Photoshop and creates works....which are then quilted.

Pamela Allen is quick to point out that she wants to see the "hand of the artist."  To that end, she has her students freely cut out shapes in her classes to make the quilts...with scissors...not rotary cutters.  She feels that the scissors give the artist's imprint in much the same way as an artist's brush strokes are indiviualized.

To take a photograph, perhaps manipulate it in Photoshop and use it in a quilt, adding threads and dimension through quilting  seems to me to still be art.  The photograph is the work of the quilter, only unlike Alfred Stieglitz, we don't stop with the photograph.  The motion of the quilting adds texture, and just as the scissors or paintbrush are unique to each individual, I offer that the quilting is unique to the individual as well.

I think part of the problem may stem from the fact that just as in the world of fine art (paintings) there is good and bad art and even more mediocre art, there are pieces which are produced in this manner which are mediocre as well.  The tenents of design apply here just as much as in painting or in photography and the importance of taking care in our creating....meaning workmanship must be high as well.

I admit, I'm not fond of Chuck Close's early work, and other than using a photograph printed on fabric to practice quilting on before I go to my own piece, I am unlikely to quilt a piece which is a straight photographic print...in the style of Barbara McKie.  I can tell you what I like and WHY I like it or don't like it.  However, I accept that Chuck Close's early work IS art even if it isn't a style I would use or would purchase.

I do find the subject bittersweet....I feel that fiber artists/quilt artists should spend more time honing our work and accepting the work of people who work in a style unlike our own but in the same medium rather than fighting among ourselves saying what is and what isn't art.  I would suggest that perhaps we should spend more time promoting art quilts rather than making and exclusive type of artwork more exclusive (meaning it's hard enough to be accepted in the art world without excluding people who work with fabric/fiber/textiles).