Color Choices

One important aspect of any work of art is color.  We respond to the hues selected (red, blue, etc.) and their values (pale, dark, or something between).  Many books have been written on color choices in art and we all have preferred colors for our clothes and our homes. This month, our gallery theme was Van Gogh's painting of irises.  Many of the members who responded to the theme did so by using the colors of the painting rather than the actual image of an iris.

Janet Stollnitz told me "I looked at Van Gogh’s painting, “Irises,” a number of times.  I liked the colors, but was unsure of what I could weave that would relate to the painting. Since most loom-controlled weaving does not easily lend itself to pictorial images as the interlacement of the yarns is horizontal­ (the weft­) and vertical­ (the warp), I thought in terms of color, texture, and structure of the cloth rather than representational images. In the midst preparing hand-dyed yarns for sale at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, I noticed a skein of hand-dyed Tencel that reminded me of the colors in the painting.  The yarn had shades of purple, green, blue, and a little yellow­–perfect!  A woven scarf would require more yarn than I had in the single skein.  Looking through my stash of commercially dyed yarns I spotted a cone of yarn that was a beautiful blue–sky.  I also found some hand-dyed purple and green silk yarns­–more irises.  I decided to “feature” the variegated yarn by not only making it a wide stripe, but also using a textured weave structure.  The additional silk yarns were narrower stripes woven as different twills. Wanting to emphasize the purple of the irises, I used a solid color purple silk for the weft.  Although my scarf doesn’t say Van Gogh’s “Irises,” it definitely was influenced by the painting."

Janet Stollnitz, scarf (detail)

Janet Stollnitz, scarf

Another artist who worked from the colors of the painting was Masha Kosmos, who submitted a bolero.  Though Masha often does pictorial work, in this case she used the colors of irises rather than their image.

Masha Kosmos, bolero
Photograph by Alexander Fedin

I also asked members of our gallery how they choose colors for their nonrepresentational work, which could be in any colors of the rainbow, when there isn't a theme that suggests particular colors.  Here is Janet Stollnitz's response to that question:

"Floris asked how I usually decide on colors for my scarves­, my procedure when there isn’t a theme.  Do I go my yarn stash and pull some colors that I like together?  Do I start with an inspiration such as a picture or a flower?  Do I start with the color wheel?  Working backwards, it is extremely rare that I look at the color wheel. Sometimes I am inspired by a picture or a flower.  Sometimes I look at my yarn stash and put together a collection of yarns that I think would work together.  More often my color selection is a combination of inspiration from an exhibit and what yarns are available in my stash.  However, my stash is easily changed as I often dye my yarns."

In my own work, art quilts, I sometimes start with a fabric I love and pull other fabrics from my stash of hand-dyes to complement it.  An example of this is "Spring View," which began with the mottled rosy fabric in the "windows."

Floris Flam, Spring View

In other cases, I begin with a painting I like and choose colors from my stash that echo those in the painting, though not necessarily in the same proportions.  For my collage, "Wind Dance," I started with a Rothko painting (Untitled, 1949) and chose fabrics in many textures–hand-dyed cotton and silk organza, painted cheesecloth, Lutradur®, and Gossamer–in the colors of the painting. 

Floris Flam, Wind Dance

Choosing in this way sometimes leads me to colors and combinations outside my usual palette.

Conferences and why we go to them

As artists we spend a lot of time alone in our studios.  We all love what we do but the reality is that much of our time is spent by ourselves.  As humans we also like to spend time with like minded individuals and groups.  This is where conferences come into the picture.  Equate going to a conference to being in the best play group in the world where you get candy all the time and no one takes your crayons.  You get to talk all day about what interests you the most and no one is bored by your conversations.  Then there is the aspect that all of your new found friends are full of ideas and want to hear your ideas.   What could be more fun than that.  You come home full of new ideas and way more plans than any sane person could carry out in a reasonable time.  But some of those ideas become reality and that's the best part of all.

Here are two pictures that Floris Flam took when she attended the Quilt/Surface design symposium.  The first is the design that Floris chose when the teacher said that each person should choose a neutral three or four letter word and the second is what happened to the letters "CITY" when they were modified by the hand and mind of the artist.

 

Many of the chosen fabrics were hand dyed by Floris and some of them were done by a technique using oatmeal as a resist.  More about that later.

Juror’s Recognition #2

Another piece that received Jurors' Recognition this month is Floris Flam’s art quilt, Through a Japanese Window.

Here’s what Floris says about her inspiration and process:

“ I started Through a Japanese Window in a workshop with Roberta Horton where the focus was on the improvisational use of large pieces of ethnic fabric. I brought mostly Japanese fabrics to the class, though I added some coordinating prints and solids from my stash. I came away from the workshop with several large pieces of fabric pinned together, but it took some time to decide how to fill in the rest. I wanted to stay with the asymmetric balance one often finds in Japanese art and kept trying ideas on my design wall until I was happy with the result.

“The wall hanging is machine-pieced and the butterfly and circular shapes machine appliqued. One example of problem-solving that pleased me is that the motifs in the lower left weren't strong enough for the design on their own, so I appliqued them to purple circles, which I appliqued to the quilt. Similarly, the flat piping above the right side of the bottom border lent a needed linear element and visual weight to that section of the quilt, helping to balance the bowl of flowers and the butterfly at the upper left. I machine quilted using traditional Japanese sashiko patterns in several of the large areas and free motion quilted following the lines of the print in other areas.”

In another few days I’ll post about the third piece that won Juror’s Recognition this month.

February Jury: “Mix It Up”

For the first three blog posts of this month, I’ve been writing about the jury process in our gallery. All of the photos I used as illustrations came from our January 10, 2011 jury day. At the end of the last post, I said, “And guess what? We’ll do it all over again next month!” Sure enough, we did.

Tuesday, February 15, was jury day again in our gallery. The show theme, “Mix It Up,” encouraged gallery members to use two or more different fiber techniques in their work.

After each jurying, the jurors select “Jurors’ Choice” items. We don’t have prizes, but we do put a nice, shiny gold sticker on the wall next to each selected piece.

Here are the Jurors’ Choice awardees for the Mix It Up show:

This fabulous vest (above) is a made in a technique called "freeform crochet." It would look terrific on any model in the Fashion Week shows in New York City this week. The artist is Elida de Souza Moore.

Artist Floris Flam uses monoprinting and stitching to create this softly meditative wall quilt (left), entitled “Blue Hills.” It would be perfect for a nice yoga corner in someone’s home.

Paige Garber is the artist who created this eye-popping wall hanging (right), “Cosmic Confluence,” which incorporates felt-making, stitching, applique, and other techniques. Put it in the entrance hall to your home to give your guests a warm welcome.

In addition to selecting Jurors’ Choice pieces, the jurors for each show write a statement about the show as a whole. Here’s what jurors Ann Liddle and Carol Holmes wrote about “Mix It Up”:

“This was both a difficult and easy theme. Using a variety of fibers and techniques is common among our members. Even so, some lovely examples of mixed techniques and fibers were submitted. We especially liked the color and stitch explosion of Elida's vest, the monoprinting and stitching techniques in Floris' quilt, and the lively but delicately balanced felting and stitching in Paige's wall hanging.”

Jurying vs. Judging

The question has arisen as to what is the difference between jurying and judging. Some artistic disciplines use the terms interchangeably. Others, for example in the world of art quilts, maintain a careful distinction. “Jurying” is the process of deciding whether a piece is admitted to a given show. “Judging” is reserved for deciding which pieces in a given show should be given awards.

To take our gallery’s February show, Mix It Up, as an example: all of the pieces submitted for the show were juried. Most were accepted; a few were rejected. The three pieces pictured above were selected (judged) from all of the theme pieces to be awarded Jurors’ Choice recognition.

Next Post

For my final February post (before I turn the blog over to Larry for March), I’ll be writing about the Travels of a Fiber Lover: how I go about finding fiber shops, what kinds of interesting fiber art I see in other countries, and how the work of other cultures influences what I do.

Scale drawings, thumbnail sketches, or no plan at all

Quilters vary widely in how much planning they do before they start cutting fabrics for a quilt. Sometimes a quilter who doesn't like to do detailed plans will depart from her preferred way of working to do a commission or a quilt that has strict constraints.

Our Gallery president, Eileen Doughty, has done a number of public art projects. These usually require lots of planning and coordination with the commissioning agency. For example, Eileen did a commission for the neonatal wing of a large hospital. They requested that the artwork have the four seasons, trees, lots of colors, and fit in a 5 x 14 foot niche. The glass to cover the niche was limited to a four foot width, and so the join lines had to be considered when developing the design. The room decor has 12 hues, around the color wheel. (And there was an extremely tight deadline.) Here is how the finished artwork looks in its location at the hospital:


Eileen discusses her design process for this quilt here.

I (Floris Flam) was commissioned to make a quilt for a residence. It was to hang over the breakfast table and needed to bridge the colors of the kitchen and those of the nearby sitting room. My client and I decided the appropriate size of the quilt and discussed colors that would be used, including the blues of the sitting room and the beiges of the kitchen cabinets. I visited with a collection of blue and beige hand-dyed fabrics and we picked those that were closest to those in her rooms.She didn't give me any other design constraints, so I decided to use as my starting point a collage of magazine illustrations I made some time before as a quick design exercise. Here is my paper collage:

And here is the finished quilt:


You can see that it bears only the most general resemblance to the collage, but having the collage helped me get started, often the hardest part of making any work of art.

Most often, I work without a sketch. I start by selecting colors and fabrics from my stash and begin cutting pieces and pinning them up on my design wall, a felt-covered pinable board. Here is a photo of Autumn View as I was designing it:


I've cut strips and rectangles of fabric and pinned them on my design board (I was at a quilt retreat and was working on a portable board with my pile of fabric on the table in front of it). I added and removed strips of various colors and changed their sizes as I worked, trying as each piece was added to see what seemed to be the necessary next step. When I was pleased with the design, I started sewing everything together. Here is the final quilt:


I've enjoyed this month as your blog editor and am passing the baton to Ruth Blau for the month of February. I'll talk to you again in May.

Quilting the quilt

Traditionally, a quilt is defined as having three layers held together by stitching. While some contemporary quilts veer from this tradition, perhaps using only two layers or using something other than thread to hold them together (for example, staples were required for one challenge on the Quiltart e-list), most art quilts follow this format. After the quilter assembles her quilt top, whether by applique, piecing, or fusing, she adds batting and a backing fabric and uses thread to hold the layers together. Most of the quilters in our gallery use a domestic sewing machine to quilt their work, though we do currently have a hand-quilted textile by Cindy Grisdela in the gallery. Here is a detail shot of her quilt, Hint of Lime. You can see her quilting stitches.


The quilting stitches may form a general all-over pattern that is intended to hold the quilt together without distracting from the patterns formed by the fabrics. One commonly used approach is stippling or meandering. Here is an example from a quilt by Ann Graham, Waiting for Spring, where there is an all-over scribble of stitching, much as one might doodle with a pencil:


Cindy often uses more regular stitching patterns on her quilts. Her stitching can be so regular that viewers sometimes mistakenly think that the pattern is controlled by the sewing machine rather than by the experienced hands of the quilter. She says that she quilts freehand, without any marking, using her needle to draw the designs she wants to create with thread. Here is a detail of Red Totem that shows both the patterns of her stitches and the resulting texture:


I (Floris Flam) use several of these approaches in my quilts. Sometimes, like Cindy, I use freehand geometric patterns. Sometimes I combine straight lines of stitching with freehand patterns to create a play of textures and perhaps a sense of depth. I try to have my stitches follow the patterns in the fabric if the fabric lends itself to this approach, as it did when quilting the multicolored snow-dyed fabric I used in Autumn View:


You can see that approaches to quilting can be as varied as approaches to quilt design. We are lucky to have a broad range of quilting styles represented in our gallery. Please stop by and see our current show's array of quilts.

Beyond Cotton: Using Unusual Materials in Art Quilts

The general wisdom is that quilts need to be made from 100% cotton fabrics. While this may be good advice for a bed quilt that will need to be washed frequently, quilts for the wall can incorporate a wide range of fabrics and other materials.

One of our Gallery members, Lynda Prioleau, has used unusual items in her quilts to make her point. One example is Are We There Yet? This piece is her tribute to some of the travel that she has taken over the years. It's composed of a worn out inner sole, photo transfers of subway tickets, maps and tokens. Also included are upholstery fabrics, old ties and hand-dyed fabrics.


Lynda incorporated her love of unusual materials in her Shack series. This grouping reflects her love of old, dilapidated buildings. They were created with a photo transfer to fabric of a shack that used to sit where the Gaylord National Hotel is now. She climbed a fence to take the shot and the next day the shack was flattened. These quilts incorporate roofing tiles as well as more common materials such as upholstery fabrics, old ties, hand-dyed fabrics, and buttons. Here is Shack 1:


Another Gallery member, Eileen Doughty, used painted organza woven into hardware cloth in Element. This detail shows her use of these materials:


In Meteor Shower, Eileen used curtain lining material with colored pencil for the umbrellas. Each umbrella is from a country's flag that has a star in the design. She used Angelina, a very fine reflective fiber, to create the sparkle of the meteors.

Another material that can be used on quilts for special effect is painted fusible web (Wonder Under is a common product). In Zen Garden, I used this for the rock at the far left and for the wispy area at the lower right.


This has just scratched the surface of the materials one can find used in art quilts today, but I hope it gives you an idea of the range of possibilities.

This week marks the end of the holiday show at the Gallery. Next Monday, we will jury our new show, Hot Tropics: Warmth in Winter's Freeze. I'll be back with photos after that. In the meantime, stay warm.

Art Quilt Inspirations

Hello, I am Floris Flam, our Gallery's blogger for the month of January. I am an art quilter specializing in small wall hangings. I dye most of the fabrics used in my quilts and also dye and paint silk scarves. This month, I plan to have several discussions of current art quilt trends and techniques as exemplified by the work of our Gallery members.

We are often asked about our inspiration, the source of the idea or image behind a quilt. Often a quilt is inspired by a photograph taken by the artist. The photo may be translated into fabric following the original very closely, as seen in a quilt I based on a photo I took of an art nouveau doorway in Palermo, Sicily.

Sometimes a quilt may start with a photo inspiration, but look nothing like the original photo. I took a photo on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in Houston because I liked the angles of the buildings. I traced my photo, sliced the tracing into vertical segments, rearranged them, then based my quilt on a section of the new drawing.



On the other hand, a quilt may be based on something as commonplace as the pattern on the bottom of a foam hamburger container. Several years ago, I did a series of quilts using the geometric shapes on one of these for a series of quilts. Here's one of these:

Sometimes a quilt may be entirely nonrepresentational, with the artist working from a group of fabrics she has chosen and without a plan. I often work this way. Here's an example of this kind of quilt:

Betty Ford, another quilter in our Gallery, says that her inspiration usually springs from nature, especially remembered images from early childhood on their farm in Kentucky. Her quilts begin with a sketch, photo — her own or others' — or a painting. She collects art and photography books for this purpose and has shoe boxes full of postcards from art museums and galleries. She also makes thumbnail sketches while watching TV, clips ads that she glues in a sketch book, saves any image that appeals to her, such as napkins and greeting cards. She constantly reviews this material because some appeal one day and others another. She uses primarily hand-dyed fabric, her own and those of some other dyers. Frequently ideas come from the fabrics themselves. This quilt, Winter, was inspired by the photo of a shower curtain Betty saw in a home furnishings catalog.