Dormant Dreams
I was thinking yesterday after posting my drawing of the plant that I made a tree quilt several years ago. So I got out the pictures and thought I’d post them for comparison. This quilt was a bit easier to draw than the plant as it was winter and so no leaves!
I started this quilt during a workshop with Pauline Burbidge in 1999. I can’t recall the assignment at this point but it was the second major piece we worked on after doing some still life work.
I made this quilt not long after joining my first critique group and I was seriously intimidated. I made only 2 or 3 quilts the entire year as I was so overwhelmed and feeling very insufficient. So the artist statement is quite genuine. It reads:
During winter branches are barren but the trees are not dead. They are preparing for spring when they will bloom into life again. I have encountered dormant periods in which it appears I’m not producing anything of value but it’s during these quiet restful periods that I must remind myself to relax, renew my energy and dream of the wonderful things to come.
Materials: Commercial cotton fabric, paint, cotton batting, cotton thread.
Techniques used: Fuse appliqued, machine embroidered, hand painted, machine quilted.
I used the paint to cover the sky. The original background I had used was too bright and it ruined the feel of the piece. It was rather tedious to paint over it but in the end I think it was worth it.
Dormant Dreams ©1999 36″ x 14″
Detail:
This quilt was displayed at Images of Parker in 1999 and again in 2000 in a show my critique group had called The New Year of the Trees: Tu B’Shvat held at the Oregon Jewish Museum in Portland, Oregon.
The quilt sold during the show in Oregon, my first “real” sale of my artwork. While we all dislike writing artist statements, I believe that it is what sold this work.
Posted by Lisa in: Quilts - Older Work
I like your artist statement very much. It is very profound and should be inscribed visibly for every artist to see in time of need. We all go through dormant periods; either voluntarily or involuntarily!
What a wonderful sentiment in your artist statement. I need to print that and post it where I can see it during the falllow times. Nice quilt too!!
WOW!! A GLORIOUS quilt to honor a tree!!! FANTASTIC!!!!
Your artist statement is great, but the quilt sold itself. It really is very striking. There is something poetic about the bare branches of winter trees. You captured that in fabric very well. Congrats on the sale. It was well deserved.
This is amazing. It’s wonderful how you’ve taken 3 different views of the tree and lined them up so that they don’t quite match, but give the sense of a progression – from close up to distant shot, but also as if panning up the trunk. It really is a work of art.
Lisa,
This is beautiful…as is your statement…I’m not surprised it sold.
Thanks everyone.
Sometimes I think we can get so wrapped in producing it can be a bad thing. Course given my huge lists of goals I’m hardly one to talk. But it is good to remember to relax sometimes. (just as soon as I get these 3 quilts done – maybe)