Love Letters

 

This post is about the beautiful catalogue for the exhibition In the Middle of the World, featuring the hand stitched work of Canadian artists Penny Berens and Judith E Martin, with a scholarly essay by Miranda Bouchard, curator.   All images are from the catalogue, all text is from the final paragraphs of Miranda's essay. 

As testimonials to their processes, experiences, labours, and love, the works of Berens and Martin communicate uniquely and bravely about what it is to be human and alive in this world.

During a talk delivered in March 2020, Martin expressed,  "I believe that the results of our work will be felt and understood by new generations, some not yet born.  They will feel the love held in our stitches.  All of us, all of you, who make hand-made objects, have this belief.

We believe that our work will be understood and appreciated in the future.  In this way, our work is life-affirming and full of hope."  The works are love letters to people and planet that help us look simultaneously inwards at ourselves and to reflect outwards at and onto the world.

For years, the artists have pressed beyond the limits, expectations, and norms they've been confronted with to make their marks and do their work.  Throughout the development of In The Middle of the World, they've courageously stretched, testing the frontiers of their creative practices to make and share, keeping their notions of truth in sight.

The slow nurturance of the work reflects the value in moving ever onwards, in spite of time and fear, at an intuitive pace that privileges real relationships.  

These works invite us to consider the importance of caring for the Earth as lovingly and attentively as we care for our bodies, and of sharing stories and skills so they can be cherished now and into the future.

They dare us to be courageously vulnerable amidst all the mending that needs doing in the world.

Penny Berens and Judy Martin offer poignant reminders that creation is ongoing and never static, as are the living processes of relating to our true selves, to each other, and the worlds we find ourselves in as time continues to pass. 

This work is never - nor should it ever - be done.

The artists and curator acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council during the long haul of preparing the exhibition and this publication.  

The complete catalogue can be viewed as a PDF, click here.  The soft cover book is 125 pages and is available for purchase.  Click here for more information.  

crazy busy September

3-D Expression
a SAQA global exhibition at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
Grand Rapids Michigan, September 23 until November 3 2019
These two photos were sent to me to show Not To Know But To Go On being installed
in the museum's lobby

There is a gorgeous printed catalogue with all the artists represented with photos and statements.
In the above photo, my work is in the background,
in the foreground is Saint Anastasia by Susan Lenz.

All Stitched Up
an exhibition of books that use stitch
My book Power of Red - is included.  It quotes William Wordsworth's text.
Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma Washington
There is a printed catalogue available for purchase.
September 3 - Decemember 11 2019

Hard Twist 14: Entwined
My red catalogne is included, a safety blanket for the interior world.
notes, lists, thoughts, dreams and phone call doodles on paper, red thread, rescued linen tablecloth
A complete online catalogue is available with all artists and statements

Every year, curators Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell organize this exhibition
of conceptual textile art and mount it in the hallways of the 3rd and 4th floor of
the Gladstone Hotel.   September 5 2019 - January 7 2020

Craft Ontario 19
Ontario Craft Gallery 1106 Queen St West Toronto
My stitched 9-patch made from sketches I made with found cloth and acdrylic paint is included
title:  How Much I Tried Not To Worry (Best of North award)
September 5 - October 12, 2019

There is a beautiful online catalogue for this exhibition also, click here.  

Abstract and Geometric

SYO 69  2013  39 x 53 inches by Harue Konishi

"In SYO 69 the design is extremely simplified in black on white with just two patches of coloured fabric for accents.  The squares are indicated by just two sides and the off-set shapes are also square. For this work I used white silk and navy blue striped silk.   My recent works, including this one, employ a process where I finish the whole thing in the first stage and then rotate shapes by cutting them out, changing their angles, and embedding them back into the original piece."   Harue Konishi

Memory's Playground  2014  found tablecloth machine quilted 27 x 54 inches by Paula Kovarik

 "Memory's playground is a study of the way we remember things and the way we imagine them.  I chose this tablecloth for its wavy edging and playful form.  I stitched a puzzle of odd images that connect in mysterious ways, just as our brains connect experiences and ideas.  The threads hop from one item to the next and are also tied to each other with small hand tied knots just as we try to lock in our memories and ideas."  Paula Kovarik

Quilt Drawing 16  2012  51 by 50 inches  by Daphne Taylor

 "All of my quilts are hand quilted.  Hand quilting is essential to me because it gives the fabric surface the mark of the hand, a human presence that cannot easily be achieved by machine.  The process slows one down and teaches one much about being in the moment with each thread and stitch, easily redoing each part until it is right but never knowing what the final visual presence will be.  Hand quilting is its own meditation, which I value.  It gives me the time to think about my work in a different way - slowly pullling out an image that takes months to achieve."  Daphne Taylor

Hope is the Anchor of the Sould Mt. Lebanon #3  2010  93 x 86 inches by Denyse Schmidt

 "I particularly love antique quilts that are spare or restrained.  It is much more difficult to keep to a simple palette or pattern, and it's very easy to give in to the desire to add more, to use that as a crutch.  So I have great respect for those makers who had or have the courage or discipline to stay the course, to let a single idea shine instead of throwing it all in at once."  Denyse Schmidt

Play of Lines XXIII  2010  45 x 18 inches by Uta Lenk

"When my son started discovering pens and pencils and making lines at age 2 and a half,  I watched how he chose the different colour and how he drew the lines.  It wasn't just scribbling; he seemed to be making deliberate choices about what he was going to do.
I decided that I would like to try to interpret in fabric what he was drawing.  It was the beginning of a large series, but only some of the pieces in the series are based on my son's drawings."   Uta Lenk

crazed 8: Incarceration 2010 82 x 79 inches by Kathleen Loomis

"I think the number of people who are working with elaborate piecing - that is, piecing using a bazillion seams and a fair amount of obsessive construction - is getting smaller all the time.  I feel an almost moral obligation to keep doing it, to help keep this skill alive, and keep this art form in the public eye.  I want my reputation as a quiltmakier to be as a fine machine piecer."  Kathleen Loomis

cover quilt by Pat Pauly, Mummy Bags Influence  2011  73 x 80 inches

This post highlights just six of the 29 featured artists in this new book by Martha Sielman, Art Quilts International: Abstract and Geometric.   Besides these, Martha also chose quilts for an exhuberant gallery from a further 97 artists.  In the introduction she says that she chose the quilts that 'stuck in her head" and that "it has been a real privlege for me to be offered this glimpse into the artists' lives and creative process".  I am proud that Martha Sielman wrote about my work and process and I have put her article about me online here and here.   Her questions were insightful and it was a pleasure and a challenge to be interviewed by her.  Thank you Martha Sielman.

news

the yellow wall paper, 1988  hand made paper, cotton, fuzing and stitch,
typed text from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story 

I have a lot of news.
I am putting it into this single post.
All illustrations are stitched paper pieces I made when I was 32 or so. (sorry,they are scanned from slides and some are fuzzy}

"I kept still and watched the moonlight on that undulating wall paper until I felt creepy"

I am still experiencing a lot of pain and lameness in my left leg.  (bad news )

section of diptych Woman is Nurture  watercolour on paper, stitched to velvet, found text 1987

I am preparing a solo show for a commercial gallery in Toronto for this coming October.  The gallery is the David Kaye Gallery.  (good news)
I am making new work for it.  (more good news)

Grandmother's Paper Garden 1987, women's magazine papers stitched to cotton

I am included in a new book about the history of the art quilt.  The quilt that will represent me is from the 80's  here and here  I'm very thrilled to be included among such important quilt artists as Nancy Crow, Dorothy Caldwell, Yvonne Porcella, Chungie Lee, Michaael James, Yoshiko Jinzenji...on and on.  here is the entire list.  (good news)

The Mother The Child 1988 cut up watercolour painting and family photographs stitched to damask,
overlayed with ink drawing on sheer organza 

That reminds me that Martha Sileman's International Art Quilts: Abstract and Geometric came out last month.  (here)

the mother the child detail ( nine-patches made from photos of my childhood and paintings of tree branches)

 I saved the best news for last.

the mother the child 1988 stitched paper on damask , a self portrait

We have a new baby in our family.  Maia was born Thursday January 19, a little sister for Aili.

500 Traditional Quilts

You know, when I made this quilt eleven years ago, I didn't think of it as traditional.  I thought it was art.   Art that came directly from my insides and I was thankful that I could use the firm ground of pattern handed down to me by women artists of an earlier time.  By making this red quilt and appliqueing my own hand not holding those four flying shapes I was able to express how I felt during the time my nest was emptying and my parents were aging.  It was a poem.

There is a new book coming out this September from Lark - 500 Traditional Quilts  by Karey  Patterson Breshenhan, director emeritus of the International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas. 

Two of my quilts have been selected to be in the book.
The first is Flesh and Blood (shown above).  Made in 2003 from cotton, wool and sheer polyester,   pieced with a sewing machine and then appliqued, embroidered and quilted by hand, 90" square.  The traditional pattern's name? Ocean Waves.  Click here to see Flesh and Blood on my website.

The second quilt that will be in the book is entitled Something More Magical Than It Ever Was.  It was made over twenty years ago in 1991 from recycled family clothing and new silk fabrics in a traditional Log Cabin pattern with some variation.  It's not included in this post but you can see it on the website as well, here.  That quilt was about memory and how we adjust our memories as time goes on.  I thought it was art too when I made it.  I felt that I was using a woman's art medium.

An exhibition of the 500 quilts will be in Houston this fall to celebrate the ruby anniversary of the quilt festival.  This exhibition will tour to Chicago in May 2015.  Both quilts have been invited to participate.

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Flesh and Blood is in private collection but the owners loaned it back to me so it could go on exhibition. 

I do want my work to be seen.  I offered them the quilt shown above as a replacement while Flesh and Blood is on tour.

Protection Blanket, 2005, hand dyed rayon, machine pieced then hand quilted and embellished with couched rayon ribbon and sequins, 80" square.  The traditional pattern here is an Amish one, usually made with somber or deep toned fabrics.   Diamond in a Square.   (to view on website click here)
I had recently learned that in order to keep their children safe, many mothers in eastern cultures sewed shiny things onto their children's clothing to reflect the bad energy.  I sewed sequins onto the central diamond - making it into a shield that would protect the sleeper.

I drew on this quilt,  pleased to have the spaces and symbolism of traditional pattern under my intuitive gestures.    I made this piece nearly ten years ago and it is nice for me to examine the couching again.

It's fascinating.

grounded by tradition