Labels, Statements, Intent and Understanding

Perhaps the title to this post should be "How much or how little?"  Historically, art galleries have minimally used labels on the work they exhibit.  Usually, just the title and the name of the artist...perhaps the medium, but not always, perhaps the date.

"War Sucks" by Kristin LaFlamme

As I have mentioned before, in my previous life, I was a museum curator in historical museums.  I went the other way.  We identified the piece, we put it in its cultural context.  I viewed exhibition text/labels to be written like an outline.  The big headings, smaller parts, and once you got down the the label, the really fine bones of the work.  My viewpoint was, don't put a book on the wall, but provide the information if someone wants to take the time to read the individual object labels.  I thought that people would scan what they wanted and if they wanted to read more deeply, they'd go beyond the object name, date and materials.  If they didn't, they wouldn't.  Yes, in the case of the Artist Village at IQF, I would have welcomed something to identify each of the artist's works...instead of making me ferret, guess and deliberate....

I had been contemplating writing about labels and interpretation and had mentally been framing the discussion when Vivien Zepf wrote a really interesting blog post on understanding art included in Fiber Philadelphia as explained to her by Frank Hopson at the Snyderman Works Gallery.  If you haven't read the post, you may find it here.  Vivien was wondering why some of the pieces were included in a fiber show, even though they weren't made of fiber.  Frank ably led her to some new understandings and thoughtful considerations about art.

Which brings me to the above piece.   This is Kristin LaFlamme's work, "War Sucks" which is included in the Art Quilt Elements exhibition at the Wayne Art Center.  One of the people at the opening who was standing next to me took one look at the quilt and said "I don't like it."  Not being someone who easily keeps her mouth shut, I started talking to her about it, and what Kristin was communicating.  First, Kristin is an army wife married to a really neat guy, Art, who has seen I think 7 deployments as he is career Army.  This is part of a series that Kristin has been working on, or rather is related to a series called "The Army Wife" and reflects the observations of one who is up-close and personal with her subject matter.  I pointed out the chamoflage fabric taken from Art's old uniforms, the raw edges, because war is raw on every level.  The stuffed and unbound edges...the fact that the "batting" was an old army blanket.....and the choice of commercial fabrics, the patriotic ones contrasted with small floral prints...and the rawness of the slashing of the words across the "homey" aspect of a quilt.   Not all quilts are pretty.  Some quilts talk....loudly, but it is up to us to be able to listen and in this case, "knowing" Kristin and her work helped as there was little interpretation there (you had to be able to make it to the book which had the artists statements-- themselves  limited to 100 words-- in the opening crowd.

The quilt suddenly became something more...While it "spoke" it needed an interpreter who had some more information to make it understandable on more than a superficial level.  Kristin's blog goes more deeply into the piece and you may read it here.

"I Feel Free," Brooke Atherton, 

Across the room, hung Brooke Atherton's "I Feel Free".  While there was a brief explanation (again the 100 words or less) in the book, a couple of people were perplexed..."Where would this hang? Who would make such a long quilt, and why???  Too bad it had to be folded."  Well, I'm a little familiar with Brooke's work and explained that her work often came off the wall and flowed onto pillars.  I also explained a little of her method as you could see the wonderful "burned shibori" on this....which if you don't know Brooke's work again could be easily missed....Again, a docent or another interpreter brought (I hope) a deeper understanding of the piece....

But then again, recently on either the Quiltart or the SAQA Yahoo group someone shared her understanding of a piece which was on exhibition at the Crane Building for Fiber Philadelphia.  It was a large installation which the person saw as being Hijabs....and it spoke to her as to what she connected with.  She studied it for a long time...and the artist, who happened to be standing nearby came over and spoke to her about it since she had been looking at it for so long.  She explained what it meant to her....which wasn't the artist's intent at all....and then the artist explained what he was communicating, which she also understood.

In some cases with art, we don't have the knowledge of what the artist intended to communicate....we just have our own reaction and interpretation.  This understanding is valid and certainly a personal resonance is part of fully interacting with art....

Somehow, in the best of all possible worlds we would have the combination of the two...the opportunity to look at a piece and form our own opinions and understanding, then to go to a fuller explanation of the artist's intent.

Random thoughts...

 It has been a really tough day.  My shoulder continues to be painful and I strongly suspect that it is more bone metastasis.  I've been trying to convince my oncologist, but he always brushes it off....and it feels very much like my pelvis did before it broke because of the cancer in it back in 2009.  This is one of the most maddening things about getting treatment in Ohio....My tumor markers have risen, and I'm going to get a P.E.T. scan on Tuesday and will start chemo again on the following Tuesday.  Not good, but it is the life of a stage IV cancer patient. I just keep on hoping that maybe somehow, I can kick it back like I did back in 1998 after finishing the treatment for my initial stage IV diagnosis.

At left is Adela Aker's Luminosity.  Adela had several pieces exhibited in Fiber Philadelphia, most with horse hair like this one. I was fascinated by the texture and reflective quality her pieces had.   This particular piece is exhibited at the Snyderman Gallery, which I felt was a magical place.

Just outside the Snyderman is this decrepit building which intregued me.  One can hope that someone sometime will be able to take and rehab it.   I loved it that Vivien Zepf photographed the same building and put it on her blog.  You can see it here.

I am extremely fatigued today, which may be because of the pain.  It was wonderful having my daughter home for Easter.  I had hoped to get back to work on finishing a couple of quilts for a local show and working on the piece I started in Philadelphia...but not tonight.

Here's hugs and wishes for your own personal miracles during this season in which two faiths recollect miracles, and the miracle of spring continues to amaze us.

Liebster Awards

Circle of Ravens, wool felt, felted specialty yarns, machine quilted.  Lisa Quintana

Ok...so I'm a little behind the times.  The other day, Lisa Ellis nominated me for a Liebster award.  Ordinarily, I'd hop right in and post right away...OK, so I'm fooling myself....I usually give things like this a lot of thought....Not because I'm a procrastinator, and I know I am and I'm working on that, but that I don't really take things like this lightly.

So...if you don't want to read on and find out my thoughts about internet memes, here's the deal:

This award is given to bloggers that inspire you and have less than 200 followers.  I admit, I had to look up the ones I first thought of and see how many followers they had...a few, I was very surprised to see that they didn't have MORE followers.  I love the name as Liebster has the connotation of an object of love.   

Here are the particulars:

As part of the tradition it is passed along to 5 bloggers that have motivated and inspired.
To accept the award you must:
1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them.
2. Post the award to your blog.
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you appreciate and value.
4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have been offered this award.

1.  Sherrie Spangler from Sherrie Loves Color  Sherrie is a quilter from Gig Harbor, WA and like me, she DOES love color.  She also loves nature and she posts interesting things and photographs from her poking around Puget Sound.  I'd love to go tidal pool wading with her because I love those kind of things too.  In addition, if you have never been to the Pacific Northwest, you get a pretty good feel for it from her blog.  I do know the PNW as I often go out there to visit my sister.  She and her guild also have made gajillions of quilts for cancer patients...and they are really cool ones, not the dogs that no one could figure out what to do with.

2.  Del Thomas at Del Quilts.  If you follow my blog, you'll know Del.  She sometimes comments, but earlier this year I wrote a blog post about her.  Del is a great photographer and art quilter, but best of all, she has a heart of gold and has done a tremendous amount to further art quilting.  She has a collection of art quilts and she highlights them on  her blog as well as with photographs and observations she makes...particularly with her canine friend, Corky the Poodle Prince who borrows Del every once in a while to take on adventures. I quite frankly couldn't believe that Del didn't have more than 200 followers.

3.  Elizabeth Barton at Art, Quilts and Cogitations thereon.  Elizabeth is one of the best writers about design, theory and art quilting in general.  She is concise, thoughtful, and you can tell she's brilliant.  I really love her art quilts... Like Del, I was dumbfounded when I realized that she hadn't hit the 200 mark for followers.

4.  Terry Jarrard-Diamond at Studio 24-7.  Terry is another person who tips in at 174, but I thought surely would have more followers.  Terry offers great examples in art quilting, both from her own hand as well as shows she has frequented and people she knows.  She is very giving with evaluations of materials and in gathering information and disseminating it.  Thanks to her, I encouraged a friend to buy a Kalorik Steam center, and now I own one too.  Lots of good information and just good reading. 

5.  Vivien Zepf is a great person with a wonderful eye and she combines those in to some pretty cool art quilts and photographs.  Because she serves as an editor for the Studio Art Quilt Associates Journal, and is a busy mother to three kids, sometimes she's a little sporadic in her posts, but her blog Seven Pines Designs is one I really enjoy.  Sometimes I giggle as it sometimes seems like we lead parallel lives. 

6.  And I give you a bonus as I couldn't leave him out.  Mark Nofsinger has a blog called Shady Character. I've "known" Mark a long time....He is one of my buddies from the Orchid Forum on garden web.  Mark is an avid gardener and foodie who lives in Wisconsin....Mark shares thoughts on growing things, birding, and great recipes.  In addition, he's either a landscape designer, or a landscape architect....I forget which!  

I took a while to do this as I actually went through my whole list of blogs that I follow..considering all of them.  In addition, I remember someone once saying to me "I don't do memes."  Ok...I admit it, I didn't know what a meme was...and I was afraid it was Me! Me!...But, being the inveterate researcher, I looked it up.  

The Liebster Award, and other blog awards, are great examples of meme (pronounced "meem" ).  A meme is (according to wiki-pedia)  "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."^[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.^[3]

I think that's a pretty cool idea...and I can't really find a problem with it.  In fact....I think it has great potential for a series of art quilts!

Hope you enjoy...I have to get back to putting my sewing room back to rights after emptying it and re-furbishing it from top to bottom....and it has to be done ASAP as dear daughter needs her room back this Friday.  YIKES!

Doing the Work

 Because I admire Elizabeth Barton's work and her blog, I decided to take her class "Inspired to Design" on Quilt University (an online resource).

The most important thing, to my mind, is to do the work.  She was having us take photographs that we liked, and trace the images (rather than draw them free hand) and crop them....I've been doing this.  Lots.

I'm not happy with any of them.  I keep on reminding myself something that the wise Vivien Zepf said to me....when a child is drawing, he makes  picture after picture after picture...some of them are good, most of them aren't...but it doesn't matter.

I have to admit....my enjoyment level is way down...as in non-existant...I'm working, but so far I don't see anything I like....even the photographs I DO like....I don't like what they're turning into....

She had us crop pieces and then put them together as a 4-patch.....here is the detail I took out of this one....this is an elevator at a quarry nearby.....similar to the grain elevators, but not.  One of the odd things is that there is a tree growing in the roof on the opposite side!  I don't know if it is still in use....the quarry, however, is going great guns.

The drawings? BLECH.


Don't forget, you have until Jan. 25th at 11:00 EST to leave a comment on my Master's Art Quilts post in order to be included in the drawing for the book....one comment per person please....I actually have deleted some which were dups. The post is yesterday's post...Jan. 18.