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.

Ginny Eckley Redux

Ginny Eckley kindly sent me these images when she read that I was snarling about the quality of my images.

I've decided that part of my fascination with this piece is because of the luminous quality of the pillars, and that largely this is from the slight yellow cast in part of the pillars.

The variation in the background color and Ginny's quilting designs also adds shadow to this which gives definition. It still is a little dark, I'm thinking that this is just one of those quilts which doesn't want to co-operate with photography.





This isn't one of Ginny's pictures, it's one of mine, but again, there's a hint of warmth in the sky color and I think that the ironwork is particularly fine.
















Here are Ginny's images of her carmine birds.

The quilting and threadwork here are wonderful.

I didn't think much about it, and I was embarassed to realize that Ginny is the author of Quilted Sea Tapestries. It's long out of print (it came out in 1995) but it is still available used on Amazon.


I've always enjoyed that book, but her present style is so different than what she was showing in the book that I didn't realize that she was one and the same. I also wasn't aware of the book until last year when I bought a copy as part of a quilting book lot.

It's no wonder that Ginny's website is

http://www.fabricpainting.com/

and

www.photoezsilkscreen.com


Hope you don't mind a little repeat...although a little better I hope!

Ohhhhh! I think these are my favorites: Ruth Powers and Ginny Eckley

Without a doubt, my absolute favorite pieces from this show were by Ruth Powers and Ginny Eckley.

Here's Ruth Power's Oriole. Ruth has orioles visit her every year, and here she depicts them with the leaves and berries of the Porcelain berry vine (amalopsis), but she took artistic license and changed the porcelain berries from their improbable but actual colors of lavender and cobalt blue (unripe and ripe colors) to orange.

I just love the crispness of this piece, and of course the way that the oriole pops from the blue background. It is bound in orange which also gives it extra "pop" as well as contains the image. Without that orange binding, the piece wouldn't be what it is, but the eye would run off the edge of the quilt.

Ruth tells me that the director of the Aullwood nature center purchased this piece. Ruth lives in Carbondale, KS and usually works on nature themes. Ruth works with commercially printed fabric, which is becoming unusual in the world of art quilts these days. Many art quilters prefer to dye their own fabrics to get exactly what they want.

I've been contemplating ripping out my variegated porcelain berry vine, and Ruth's piece almost makes me think I should keep it....

Ruth's second entry in the show is "Raven Brings Light to the World." Raven figures prominently in the stories of the native tribes of the pacific Northwest Coast. He is a trickster, as well as the great benefactor for causing the sun to be brought to the world.

Ruth's depiction was done for challenge of mythologically based quilts.


Look at the wonderful use of beads! Sometimes I think that beads are gratuitously used, not in this case! I also love how the pieced background gives such movement and luminosity to the piece.

Ruth's website is:

http://www.ruthpowersartquilts.com

and is well worth a look!




The other piece which is among my favorites is by Ginny Eckley of Kingwood, Texas. Now, I'm going to give you a teaser...









Ginny uses painted images on her quilts and also silkscreens. Here's Carmine Trio, which I like, but it isn't the one which knocks my socks off.

I do like this, again partly because of the orange reds, yellow ochres and raw siennas....I just love those colors, and yes, I'm a color junkie.

It's also sort of sweet how the birds are feeding their babies....no matter HOW big they have grown...sort of like us, I suppose...



Here's a detail. You can see better on this detail the other reason I like this piece. Look at the borders.... they are pieced from a sari-like border print, and another piece which is reminiscent of a border print on a particular type of paisley shawl which was popular in the 1820s. The light wasn't very good, and I didn't want to use flash, so I apologize for the darkness of the shots.














This is my favorite piece of Ginny's, and I'm hard pressed to chose it over Ruth's. It is called City Birds. It's a subtle piece, working in a very neutral palette, yet it just glows for me.

I loused up the shot I took of the wrought iron fence, but it is fabulous! The control and detail she has achieved, and the wonderful texture she has given this piece makes me wish I could sit and talk to her to find out exactly how she did this.

I'm not fond of starlings....but in this case, I'll make a huge exception.


Ginny's websites are as follows:


http://www.fabricpainting.com/

www.photoezsilkscreen.com

I hope you enjoy these two artists' works as much as I do. I wish they were nearby....or maybe, if I'm lucky, they'll be teaching in the area sometime soon.