Earthworks--Art Quilts at the Carnegie Center

I had the opportunity to attend a program at the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana, (201 East Spring Street, New Albany, IN) called "Textiles in Contemporary Art." Before and after the program, I took in the current exhibit called Earthworks--an exhibit of art quilts made by Pat DaRif, Joanne Weis, and Valerie White. The artists were kind enough to give me permission to take some pictures of their work. The exhibit is on display from October 30-December 30, 2009. Along with the exhibit, the Carnegie will be hosting other accompanying programs about sustainability and climate change. The Carnegie Center is a local museum and contemporary art gallery. It offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy art works in a variety of media and to learn more about the process of creative expression. It is housed in the historic 1904 Carnegie Library building. Check out the Carnegie website for more information--www.carnegiecenter.org.

Valerie White, one of the artists with work on display at the Carnegie, has been creating quilts for almost twenty years. She shares her passion for textiles by teaching and presenting lectures nationally. Her work appears in several publications and is widely exhibited. This is a picture of Valerie beside her Radishes by Moonlight which is a whole-cloth quilt created using chlorine and thiox discharge and thermo fax screen. It measures 24" X 36".

Six Feet Under was made in 2007. It was pieced with commercial fabric and uses textile paint and chlorine bleach discharge. It was quilted by Valerie and measures 39" X 35".Valerie's Blemish is a whole-cloth quilt that was made in 2008. She used thickened dyes, soy wax, fabric markers, and textile paint. This quilt was also quilted by Valerie and measures 28" X 33 1/2".

Valerie calls this whole-cloth quilt Beta Vulgaris; Big Ass Beet. Thickened dyes, soy wax, and textile paint were also used in this quilt. It was quilted by the artist and measures 58" X 26 1/2".Pat DaRif uses many techniques to create her work. She has taken an abstract, somewhat minimalist, approach in preparing the work for this exhibit. She says that she hopes to have evoked the beauty and fragility of nature and, by extension, a sense of our responsibility to safeguard and preserve it.

This is Pat with her quilt, Natural Elements II: Lake Shore, 2009. The quilt consists of hand-dyed silk which has been fused and machine quilted.

Pat's quilt, Water's Edge, 2007, measures 53" X 37 1/2". It uses hand-dyed and commercial silks and is machine quilted. The blue piece of silk on the bottom of the piece flutters with the slightest breeze artfully simulating the movement of water.Fire Storm (2009) uses hand-dyed silks and cotton fabrics. It is machine quilted and measures 42 1/2" X 32 1/2".Joanne Weis is a mixed media textile artist whose work can be found in private collections around the country. She is President of the Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists and actively juries and curates shows and promotes appreciation of fiber and textile art within the community.

Joanne poses here with her quilt entitled A Time to Reap from the Seed Series, 2008. It utilizes silk that has been hand dyed, screened, and embroidered. The quilt measures 24" X 19".Osprey Nest uses hand-dyed, appliqued, and embroidered silk. Joanne says about this piece, "On the southern New England coast, development and agricultural run-off seriously endangered the native osprey population. Through significant efforts on a local, state, and federal level, nesting habitats are being established and protected resulting in a return of the coastal osprey."I'd like to thank the Carnegie Center (http://www.carnegiecenter.org/) for some of the information used for this blog installment. Please visit this exhibit if you get a chance.