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.

Aullwood 2011 Melani Kane Brewer

Melani Kane Brewer, Awaiting the Tide18.5" x 21.5"  $500.

Melani Kane Brewer "Awaiting the Tide" detail.

 Melani Kane Brewer is another regular at the Aullwood Nature Center.  Melani does a lot of quilts inspired by nature and I love them.  I think because texture is as important to her as it is to me.  Melani is from Cooper City, Florida and I discussed her work last here here.

Melani chose oysters for her subject here.  Here's her label:

"Eastern Oysters are marine organisms that live in intertidal and subtidal areas.  I found the intertidal reefs the most interesting because the reefs are exposed to the air at low tide.  The oysters survive by tightly closing their shells until high tide returns.  Here the exposed reef shows the oyster awaiting the tide's return.   Beginning as a traditional quilter, I realized that it was much too restrictive.  I did a series of abstract works allowing me more freedom with fabric.  I found it interesting, my art being so realistic, that it took the step of creating abstract work to transition to what I do now."


Here, I practically had to stand on my head so that you get see the dimensional work on her quilt. The oyster shells actually stand off from the quilt.  I love how she used various speciality yarns to make the mossy "beards" on the oysters.  Her quilting adds another dimension and even more texture.

She made each oyster individually, cutting the oyster fabric (top and bottom) then making little sandwiches with Warm and Natural. The quilted it, then applied them to the quilt.  

You can see more of Melani's work at her website here.

Melani Kane Brewer "Awaiting the Tide" detail.

Melani Kane Brewer "After the Storm", 27" x 39" $563.00

Melani Kane Brewer, "After the Storm" detail.

Her second piece in the show is called "After the Storm" and it shows a colony of Man-o-war jellyfish.  This particular piece is a little more abstracted in a way than her oysters, although she deftly handles the transluscent quality of the "combs" of the Portugese Man-O-War.  The colors are extremely calming...belying the danger of the Man-O-War which has a viscious sting.

"Having spent many summers at the beach in Florida with my daughter, we are all too familiar with the Portugese man-o-war.  It is actually a colony of jellyfish, not a single creature.  While they are beautiful to look at with their beautiful colors of violet, teal and magenta, they can inflict a very painful sting when you touch them.  Their long and numerous tentacles are hidden underwater when they brush up against unsuspecting swimmers.  They are most visible after one of our numerous storms in the summer, hence the name of the piece. 

I have been a studio artist since 1994.  I have been working on my Earth-Air-Water series for almost thirteen years.  This series incorporates my careers as a biology teacher, anthropologist and artist.  I have been studying nature all my life."


Here you can see a little of how she managed to get the transparent, yet glistening aspect of the Portugese man-o-war.  I'm afraid that the photo doesn't show it as well as I'd like, but in real life, it left three of us art quilters wondering "how did she do that???"  Was it an overlay? We didn't think so. 

I asked Melani how she managed to achieve this perfect effect on her man-o-war.  Here's what she had to say:

"No it's  not an overlay.  It is actually Aquafilm.  I just did not dissolve it.  If you are not familiar with the product it can be used to stitch threads, and yarns together creating objects and then it is dissolved with water.  Generally you use two layers of the Aquafilm and place it in a hoop to stitch on the machine.

In this case I used it as if it were a piece of fabric. In After the Storm the Aquafilm was placed over hand dyed organza to create the colors of the man o' war, a few stitches gave it shape and the bubble effect of them floating on the surface of the water.  I tried a number of ways to create them, including using just the dyed organza but nothing said jellyfish to me.

I was using the Aquafilm for another project and it hit me that it was exactly how the jellyfish look in the water, kind of like a shiny balloon.  So I just started playing with the Aquafilm and it worked.
Threads and yarns were placed along the bottom edge of the jellyfish before stitching the entire man o' war to the background. Just have to hope the Aquafilm never gets wet or that will be the end of the jellyfish."

Amen to that! 

Texture: realism in bird quilts at Aullwood

Tonight, I'm going to share some MORE quilts from the Aullwood Nature Center's "winged messengers" exhibition.

I thought these were particularly fun because of their excellent use of specialty threads which created realistic textures in the quilts.

Melani Kane Brewer from Cooper City, Florida did two of the pieces I'm showing tonight, and Merry Havens of Thornton, Colorado did the others.

Melani's Merlin the Great Horned Owl is an elaborate construction of hand knitted pieces, with strips of torn fabric embellished with eye-lash yarn to give the fluffiness necessary to the feathers, and thread painting. Because she prefers a natural look to her pieces and goes to lengths to recreate it, she calls herself "a naturalist in fiber.



In this detail shot, you can see how successful she is in accomplishing the feathers.










In her Morning Hunt in the Everglades you can see her triptych of the cypress trees in her back yard, with an egret coming for his breakfast.

Again, she used a variety of techniques in order to achieve the textures in nature. Couching, thread painting, applique...and more were put to use in this piece.




She particularly liked how she showed you only a part of the egret. I like the little water plants and the thread work around his beady eye!

Here's Melani's website for more looking!




http://melanibrewer.com









The next two pieces also use heavy threadwork and specialty threads, but they are by Merry Havens. This is her Great Spotted Woodpecker and below is her Quail. Like Melani, Merry also embellished, couched, appliqued and threadpainted. However, in her Quail, she also added beads.