Critical Reviews of Art Quilts
Until this morning I was a member of a large email list of artquilters. The list generates a large amount of off topic chatter and rarely digresses into discussions I find interesting. Having been a member on and off since the lists inception in 1995 I’ve struggled the last few years to maintain my subscription due to the overwhelming waste of time the list has become. This morning I finally gave up and unsubscribed. I simply don’t have time to read thousands of emails a month in the hopes of finding the 5 or 6 gems that are posted.
Over the summer I did try to engage the list in some more serious discussions and I must say I was pleased with the outcome. The list has potential, if they could stop talking about television and other unrelated topics.
One of my lasts posts to the list a week before I left on vacation included this pondering in response to someone commenting on a positive review posted in the Studio Art Quilt Association (SAQA) Journal:
While I know it’s wonderful to get rave reviews doesn’t it seem like that is about all the quilt world has to say about itself?
Where are the critical reviews to challenge us and to make us think honestly about our craft and our art? Are we afraid to look under the hood for fear of hurting someone’s feelings? How do we as a collective whole get better if we don’t challenge ourselves with our shortfalls?
When I’ve attended quilt shows lately the artists have plenty of not so positive things to say about some of the work and the shows in general. Yet some how when all this translates into a written review in the SAQA journal it’s all sunshine and happiness. Why is that?
What would happen if someone were to seriously review all these group quilt shows? I’m sorry but there is a lot of bad work out there - and I think as there are more opportunities to show work I see more mediocre work being shown.
I read a blog, Thinking About Art, written by a DC artist. Among other things he goes out and reviews many of the DC area shows and many times he’s pretty hard on the art he sees. He seems to have quite a following.
What do you all think would happen if one of us went out and critically reviewed quilt shows on our blog? We know we think it - we discuss it in small private groups - but to actually go public with what doesn’t work about specific artists work! Would this person be ostracized for being “mean” or would this person be embraced and respected by the community?
The resulting conversation was quite lively and interesting with many folks confirming that quilters don’t like anything negative and anyone that would dare to make such comments in public would not be accepted.
But the end result of that conversation was that a handful of artists, who are passionate about our art and want to see it taken seriously and believe that critical writing about our artform is seriously lacking, decided it was time to do something about it.
The result is a new blog - ArtQuiltReviews.wordpress.com - dedicated to furthering the understanding of art quilts and their place within the general art community.
We are new and are just pulling things together but I think we are off to a great start and I’m excited about the possibilities of this endeavor. Please join us. I am working on getting a feedblitz subscription set up for the blog so look for that soon if you don’t use an rss reader.
Posted by Lisa in: Musings
KJ said,
August 22, 2006 @ 4:37 pm
Good luck with the review blog, looks like you’re off to a great start. I’m a painter with a background in needle arts including quilting and admire what is being done with art quilts today. A slight shift in the cards and I could have been one of you. I also tired of a chatty paint list in spite of the many good friends made over the years. I skim for interesting subject matter, but most everything has be said… many times over. Reading art blogs means I can pick and choose what suits me at my stage of development. It’s like a library of facinating subject matter with new ones appearing all the time.
Felicity said,
August 23, 2006 @ 12:22 am
The review blog is a great idea - a bit of reality in the quilting world that seems to be missing. That sentence about quilters not liking anything negative is so telling. I’ve always thought QA had more potential but the same few people keep on posting as if they are obsessed - how can they be creating when they spend this amount of time replying day after day and where is the space in their heads for creative thoughts and ’seeing’? It muddys the waters and doesn’t do those professional artists with something to say any good to be associated with it.
Would it be sexist to say that I think there is an imbalance of male and female energy in quilting?
Omega said,
August 23, 2006 @ 12:29 am
This is really good. I signed up to QA, and then unsigned on the same day after reading /skimming through / despairing of the time wasted on the comments. I must say that the desperation I feel about my own work, and the search for mentoring workshops is simply because I want hard-headed critical appraisal. I believe that we need it to grow, so I hope that Art Quilt Reviews blossoms.
Patty Altier said,
August 23, 2006 @ 4:44 am
I think the new blog is a great idea. I feel quite isolated from the quilt community so everything I learn is through blogs and websites. I try to critque (sp?) my own work with what I see, but need some guidance as to what is good and not so good in the art quilt world. I would rather have the honest truth about my work so I could impove, then keep going in the wrong direction.
JulieZS said,
August 23, 2006 @ 2:07 pm
I think the new blog is off to a great start. Looking at our art critically is definitely worth the time it will take. I look forward to contributing the next time I see an art quilt exhibit.
Brenda said,
August 24, 2006 @ 3:14 am
Since blogging has become more prevalent, I find myself participating in online quilting lists less and less. I love the friendships I’ve made in the quilting community but blogging and blog-surfing is proving to be more rewarding than the chitter-chatter of lists.
Lisa Call said,
August 26, 2006 @ 12:13 pm
I agree with those of you that mentioned that blogs are more rewarding than the lists. We can be more selective this way and read what we want to read when we want to read it. I think the wonderful community in blogosphere was a major factor in my decision to finally leave quiltart for good.
And thanks for all the encouragement on the critique blog. I’m both excited and a bit nervous about how this will go. Is the art quilt world really ready for some hard hitting critiques in public? Felicity I fear your comment about the community being mostly women could be a fairly important indicator on how this will be received. But we strongly believe in what we are doing and we’ll continue on as I believe it is vitally important to take our art to the next level.
Lisa Hunter said,
September 7, 2006 @ 9:53 am
Thanks for the post. I look forward to increasing my quilt connoisseurship.