Finally Finished

I have been frantically working on a piece for the last two months. Thankfully, I had some quilt/art retreats in those months that allowed me the concentrated work time to finish it. "Remembrance" was made in response to a call for entry for the regional SAQA exhibition, Dialogues: Contemporary Responses to Marie Webster Quilts to be held at the Indiana Museum of Art early next year.

According to the SAQA website, the following is the exhibition concept: "Artists are asked to submit work that responds to the early 20th century quilts made by Marie Daugherty Webster (1859-1956). Webster’s quilts were inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement and represented a fresh and innovative approach to quilt design. Since then, the world has changed dramatically. Our experiences, perceptions, ideas and art have been influenced by wars and political upheaval, by the changing roles of women, by globalization and environmentalism, and by extraordinary advances in science and technology. We invite you to respond to a single Webster quilt or to the group as a whole – specifically those designed in the early 1900s – with work that reflects the times we live in: how do we, in the early 21st century, express ourselves artistically? Your artist’s statement must cite the connection you are making to a particular Webster quilt or quilts."

I didn't go into the work with anything political, environmental, cultural, or scientific in mind. I looked, primarily, at her style and design sense. Her style and mine could not be more different, so coming up with a design that was influenced by her work and still stayed true to mine proved difficult. I like bold color and bold shapes. She used (primarily) VERY traditional designs, lots of flowers, and pastel colors. The one thing we have in common is the hand quilting. There is NOTHING that gives you the look of hand quilting. I bought her book, researched her quilts, and still struggled to find an inspiration; I kept going back to her Poppy quilt. You can see it here.

The thing I liked the most about it was the "flow" and symmetry of the central poppy medallion. While I am drawn to symmetry (as most people are), I don't like too much of a good thing, and I kept this in mind while making my piece. When you look at mine, you will notice that it is not (intentionally) EXACTLY symmetrical. I'm showing the quilts side by side so (hopefully) you can see how her work inspired my piece.

(The picture above is deceptive--Marie's quilt is a full-size quilt; mine is about the size of her central medallion.) My background is solid white and is HEAVILY hand quilted. I took this photo of my quilt with my phone; I guess I didn't realize there was a big shadow on it till I'm looking at the photo now. (I'm not seeing anyting very well these days; I have to have eye surgery in January--long story.)

In my next post about this piece, I'll tell you how I came upon the name for my quilt and a bit more about the exhibit.

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