Art Quilts and Textiles

“ROYAL GALA: BLOOM”

SIZE: 57 “(144cms) x 58 “(147cms)

MATERIALS and TECHNIQUES:

Acrylic Painting, Dye Sublimation/Fabric Printing, Machine Quilting, Satin Stitch Embroidery.

Artist Statement: Hidden in the details of my painting practice are compositional seeds. These are visual points of departure that give my compositions energy and help to move the viewer’s eye around a 2D surface. In my “Apples from Oranges” Quilt series I developed these minor players into star performers. This new perspective allowed small wonders, to literally bloom. I then used the quilted line as a drawing tool to enhance the expressive quality of the brushstroke on fabric.

“RED DELICIOUS”, 58 “(146cms) x c.58 “(148cms), Completed: 2009

MATERIALS: Duchess Satin, Acrylic Painting “Shrinking Violets”, 2008, Dye Sublimation/Fabric Printing.

In this twist on the whole cloth quilt the quilted line was used as a drawing tool to enhance the expressive quality of the brushstroke on fabric.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

This quilt was one of the first I produced with the support of a Manitoba Arts Council grant. The goal was to examine commercial reprographic processes and their suitability for transferring the expressive quality of a brushstroke from my painting practice to fabric for use in my experimental art quilts. At the intersection of fine art, traditional craft and technology the negative space in one composition became the focus of another. This body of work was clearly lived in the details.

The “Apples from Oranges” quilt series was successfully able to marry the duel passions of my studio practice as Painter and Fiber Artist.

“LEMON ZEST”, Completed April 2012, 57” x 79”

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Lemon Zest” is a testament to process; a merger of disciplines and ideas. The quilt was a gift I made for myself, the product of a healing journey celebrating renewal after an accident. The process provided both focus and challenge. It taught me about yes I can, when previously, I could not. It was color therapy in its purest sense; a little joy caught up in a casual spring bouquet.

Beginning with a small acrylic painting on canvas exploring complimentary pairs, “Lemon Zest” evolved through commercial reprographic processes and major changes in scale and media. The quilted line in the background was done by machine to enhance the gestural quality of brushstrokes present in the original image. The basting stitch was retained as a feature and reminder that the beginning of the journey, the process, need not be erased at the destination.

“GARDENING GIRLS FROLIC”

112cms (44”) x 102cms (40”),

Techniques: Silk, dye, machine quilting and embroidery, opaque and translucent overlays, applique.

Inspired by the visual gluttony of my sister in law’s summer garden, a single piece of silk charmeuse became my canvas. What to a watercolorist would be a nightmare on a vertical surface for me became a speedy game against gravity. This dye painted background formed the foundation of a multi layered silk surface for machine: appliqué, quilting and embroidery.

“GRANNY SMITH’S SILVER LINING”, 57 “(146cms) x 58“(149cms)

Completed: 2009

MATERIALS: Duchess Satin, Acrylic Painting on panel “Shrinking Violets” 2008, Dye Sublimation/Fabric Printing.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

In my painting practice consecutive layers of colour build an image. It is an evolving process where the remnants of past actions combine with new additions on the surface and it is here I often discover compositions within compositions. By moving these negative spaces through changes in scale and media our perception of them changes and the negative literally becomes a positive. These small wonders can then really bloom.

I used the quilted line as a drawing tool to enhance the expressive quality of the brushstroke transferred to fabric.

“FLOURISH”, 51” x 51”, Completed: 2004

MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Hand painted and commercial silks were pieced and layers and appliquéd to form a fabric interpretation of a series of paintings. Machine embroidery, machine quilting.

ARTIST STATEMENT: “Flourish” combines my dual passions of painting and quilting. Flourish was inspired by the discordant abundance of the hardy perennials in my midsummer garden. The poppy, a personal favorite, personifies play, joy, and community. It flamboyantly announces its fortitude on every continent of the earth. Here I have painted it with a flourish in warp and weft. “Flourish” was the first quilt I entered into any competition. It won an honorable mention award as a finalist in the Husqvarna Viking International Gallery of Quilt Art 2004. It was exhibited internationally through the US and Europe from Fall 2004- August 2006

“BLOSSOM” 2010, c.55” x 57”,

The quilt “BLOSSOM” represents the intersection of technology and tradition. A modern take on the whole cloth quilt, it is hand quilted with the basting stitch where the labor of assembly remains to perform utilitarian and aesthetic functions. It honors the traditional concept of the handmade despite the fact that the image itself was harvested from “Shrinking Violets” (12” x 13”, Acrylic on Board) of my “Trespassing Series”, 2008 and exists beyond generally accepted standards of the printing industry.

This merger of Fine Art, Craft and Technology reminds me to look within, to take some time to reevaluate from a different perspective and most importantly to know that the true jewels are often already present, if we only take the time to be open to them.

“Bishops Grand View”, 51” x 51”, 2005

Techniques: Hand painting, dying of silks

Machine piecing, applique and quilting

ARTIST STATEMENT: A single piece of silk dupioni provided a base for painting directly with dye onto fabric. The collage of painting details was printed using my home computer then appliqued using satin stitch and machine quilted.

“RHYTHM AND BLUES”, 2006, 63” x 49”

Hand painted and dyes silk, machine pieced, applique, stain stich embroidery.

Statement: “Rhythm and Blues” grew out of my “Municipalities” quilt series where single scraps of colour paired then partnered, established families, then communities. The process developed into a fabric discussion of tolerance, unity, harmony and discord. Individual colours spurred action and reaction as a consequence of proximity and proportion. My role became that of an adjudicator, threading together, piecing, placing, collating and coaxing out these relationships. This quilt represents the footprint of a journey, my journey and any journey where the only constant is change. It journeyed to the UK on exhibition where the contemporary and challenging unbordered edge was not tolerated by traditionalists at that time. It remains one of my favorite early art quilts that also exhibited in the Manitoba Craft council juried show.

THE CONDUCTOR HAS NEW SHOES”

March 2008

Size: 62” (w) x 65 1/2” (h)

Materials and Techniques: Silk was hand painted with dye and pieced into sections along with commercial silk solids. Compositional seeds of my acrylic paintings, printed onto silk, provided indirect painterly details.

ARTIST STATEMENT: Pathways of energy are aligned in rows of towers that step over hills and valleys into the countryside and swing from eaves to streetlight on residential streets. Everywhere, webs of wires lunge between conductors to keep us connected one thread at a time. This quilt was inspired by an unintentional urban greenspace where towers of energy stand opposite a busy suburban mall. The cosmopolitan girls in the quilt shoulder the energy that unites us but not before they have been to that mall to pick up just one more pair of shoes.

“SHRINKING VIOLET”

Fall 2008

39 “(98cms) x Length: 39” (98cms)

Techniques: Acrylic paint on board, digital scan, dye sublimation, whole cloth machine quilting.

ARTIST STATEMENT: In this modern twist on the whole cloth quilt the dye sublimation process formed the foundation that allowed me to take a detail from my painting practice, make changes in scale and media, and use the quilted line to enhance the gestural quality of my brushstroke. Marks made in the pursuit of expression carry a creative signature unique to the artist and specific to media. The experimental processes used in this body of work allowed me to transfer details from one arm of my studio practice for use in another.

“SINGING THE BLUES”

Fall 2008, 38 “(98cms) x 41” (105.5cms)

Techniques: Acrylic painting on panel, digital scan, Dye sublimation, and whole cloth machine quilting.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

As a painter my painterly signature evolves out of the media I choose and the way that media reacts with a surface. The dye sublimation process has allowed me to transfer my painterly signature to fabric without compromising the materiality of paint or the malleability of the fabric surface. This quilt was an early example of experiments with reprographic processes made possible by the award of a Manitoba Arts Council production grant.

Panel #2

“Where Fairies Frolic”

Manitoba Prairie, the present, 19 ¾” (w) x 39 ½” (h)

This piece was commercially printed using the dye sublimation process. The image was taken from an acrylic painting, “Inbound Prairie”, 2003. It was machine quilted as a whole cloth quilt with minimal appliqué.

Grounded in the quilt making tradition this diptych meanders along tangents to represent the duel nature of my reality. It is a fabric discussion of landscape, citizenship, art practice. My home is complex yet simple; a product of my beginnings, my journey and the physical space I inhabit.

“I am home where the horizon levels my gaze”

Panel #1

“Where Ocean Pools Rest”, South coast NSW, the past, 23” (w) x 39 ½” (h)

This piece is a collaged assortment of hand -painted and commercial silk fabrics, tulle, sheer polyester and cottons pieced and machine quilted in sections.

Grounded in the quilt making tradition this diptych meanders along tangents to represent the duel nature of my reality. It is a fabric discussion of landscape, citizenship, art practice. My home is complex yet simple; a product of my beginnings, my journey and the physical space I inhabit.

“I am home where the horizon levels my gaze”