Structures #67 and Pieced Together
Structures #67 ©2007 33"x38"
Just as I was starting to get focused on my art again I came down with a nasty cold this last weekend. Ugh. The end is in sight but the last 4-5 days have not been enjoyable.
I did get this piece completed and photographed and sent my images to the curator, Michelle Stitzlein, for the show in Ohio. She selected this piece to be one of my three pieces for the show.
The show, Pieced Together, runs April 28 through September 2, 2007 at the Decorative Arts Center in Lancaster, Ohio. They now have a little blurb about the show on their website here.
The show will include 7 contemporary quilters:Katherine Allen, Sue Benner, Myself, Nancy Crow, Eleanor McCain, Jeanne Williamson Ostroff and Joan Schulze and three 3-D Fiber Artists: Lindsay Ketterer Gates, Amy Lipshie and Donna Rhae Marder. It is quite an honor to have been invited to show my work with this group of very talented artists.
I mentioned in my post about size that I was having a hard time getting excited about Structures #67 because it is so small (for me). I can see making this piece larger - adding more sections and adding on to the feeling of being disconnected. I think it would have more impact. I always think bigger will have more impact.
But the more I’ve looked at this piece the more I like it. I think it has a lot of interesting tension in the proportions and the way the lines stop and end. That’s my new thing these days - connecting the different sections of my work in subtle ways. Sometimes with quilting lines that extend the fabric lines (like in Structures #60) and sometimes like this where the lines connect across an open space.
My work has always been about fences and walls and about how people use physical and emotional boundaries to protect and separate themselves. But as I have worked more with the thin, fluid, lyrical lines I find myself thinking about connections in addition to boundaries.
Can fences be used to improve a relationship between 2 people? Robert Frost’s well known poem, Mending Wall, addresses this issue. Do good fences make good neighbors? This wikipedia article is a quick intro to the poem mentioning the paradox of fences and humans. We want a wall, a barrier to protect ourselves from others, but also need that wall to break down so we can interact with others.
Detail of quilting:
Posted by Lisa in: Abstract Contemporary Textile Art, Art Exhibits
Gerrie said,
February 1, 2007 @ 11:00 pm
That is, indeed, a powerhouse of quilting luminaries!! Congratulations.
Kim said,
February 2, 2007 @ 10:06 am
Congratulations on the new show!
I keep coming back to look at that close-up of your quilting. It’s so incredible — and you machine-quilt, right? I recall reading about your machine quilting process but now I can’t find it. It really looks like meticulous hand-quilting and I’d love to know how you achieve that (if it is indeed machine stitching).
Lisa Call said,
February 2, 2007 @ 10:17 am
Thanks Gerrie.
Kim - yes - it is machine quilting. I do it with the feeddogs up. I have never done a full post about how I quilt but I will some day. And thanks :)
tracy said,
February 2, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
Congrats Lisa!
Do you have to make up the other two, or do you you have them ready as well? Will the other pieces have the same theme?
Lisa Call said,
February 2, 2007 @ 1:16 pm
Thanks Tracy. I sent in 6 images - she picked 3 of them. This quilt and 2 others similar - Structures #59 and I think #56. I had hoped to do all new work for this show but didn’t quite work that way - although 2 of the 3 pieces are new.
Nellie said,
February 4, 2007 @ 9:43 am
It’s amazing how much simple lines and shapes can say. Your art speaks to me.
Charmaine said,
February 5, 2007 @ 8:25 am
The detail is so amazing. What are the widths between your stiching? It’s hard to tell from the photo.
Lisa Call said,
February 5, 2007 @ 8:28 am
The lines are about 1/8" to 3/16" apart - but rarely more than 1/4".
cynthia said,
February 5, 2007 @ 11:15 am
It looks like you are in good company, congratulations!
As to size, even your small work would be a large work for me! It could be that my current studio space is small; therefore I work smaller.
My house is situated on a very small city lot in Denver, only 3160 square feet total (that’s the size of some people’s houses). If we didn’t have a fence in the back yard, there would be no privacy what so ever. It’s an easy truce between our neighbors and ourselves. We can still say hello over the fence and enjoy our backyard solo.
So, in our case, I say yes fences do make good neighbors. But, we all have front porches that are used and are very social in the warmer months. I sometimes dream of living in the country side where we wouldn’t need a fence, but then we probably wouldn’t know our neighbors either because they’d be too far away.
Olga said,
February 7, 2007 @ 2:23 am
It looks to be a beautifully chosen group of artists, and your work fits right in there. I hope that it leads to other interesting outcomes.
Boundaries, edge-markers, make a fascinating subject: positive/negative, inclusion/exclusion, strength/crack, and safety/danger as in the children’s game or obsession about not standing on lines. I find that your designs work so well as colour fields, even at monitor scale and without seeing the stitching - and then elicit gasps of delight when the pattern of the stitching is discernable. There is always something to engage the eye, and I can only imagine what a physical presence they have.