What is also true, however, is that serious artists who work with quilting techniques can sometimes make a living in the world of quilt artists/ art quilters. So while they are quietly moving to gallery representation and solo shows, they still teach and show up at the popular quilt/art quilt venues.

I really don’t think this is a controversial issue — it’s a matter of growth, and growth that seems natural within the medium that we work. Because of the democratization of art and the more easily entered art quilting world, newbies come in who may not understand the process. But I find none of my contemporaries and peers thinking that they can rest easily within the quilt art world.

1. The quilt guild challenge and state fair exhibit
2. The Paducah and Houston quilt shows
3. Art quilt shows
4. All-media art exhibitions
5. Solo exhibits and gallery representation
6. Worldwide acclaim as an “important artist”

I’ve just started work on Stage 5 and I’m only entering selected juried shows as a way to keep my work out there until a gallery says yes. It’s taken me about 14 years to get to this point, but when I consider how far I’ve come, I’m amazed I’ve been able to adapt my mindset so rapidly. I suspect that many other art quilters get stuck at Stage 2 or 3, because it’s a comfortable place to be. Others, like Lisa and June, are ready for Stage 6, but know they need to go through #5 first. The problem is leaving the quilt-related baggage behind. I’m having trouble doing it myself, but I know it’s ultimately necessary.

For me, quilting is a technique of expression - my medium of choice at this particular time in my life. I spent 20 years as a transparent watercolorist and loved that until it became too predictable/boring for me to continue. I had met all my own personal challenges for growth with the medium and longed for something I could not define at the time. Now I know what I was seeking - depth, texture, a richness of layers that is minimal, at best, with watercolor. Mind you, this is simply my perspective - I do not speak for other artists in any medium.

So if we want to be considered seriously in the art world, we must stop referring to our work as “quilts” - art or otherwise. That one word puts a definition on our work that is limiting and not authentic. Yes, quilting has been the basis for the development of our art, but we do not make quilts, per se. Quilts, by most authoritative sources, are bed coverings. We make art and use fibers, fabric, threads and more to create our works of art.

It is my belief that artists, if they want to mature as artists, must actively seek out good critiques by their fellow artists or art educators. Critiques, when done properly, speak to the work itself: does it hold together, does it have good balance/harmony/tension/etc., does your eye travel the surface and come full circle to encompass the entire composition, is there a good focal point, do the colors work well or would the introduction or subtraction of a color be beneficial to the whole, do you feel you accomplished what you set out to create in this piece, and so on. With thought provoking questions such as these, artists are encouraged to consider their work from many different perspectives. They are invited to step back from their work and view it differently and learn from that experience. Is that difficult? Of course! Our creations are, in many ways, our offspring and we are rarely impartial about either. Yet learning to be objective is vitally important if we wish to improve either as artists or as parents (or anything else, for that matter).

Interestingly enough, even as as a watercolorist with a large body of work and plenty of local sales, was too timid to even consider approaching galleries with my work. Back then, I lived in rural America and couldn’t imagine going to the “big city” with my work. Now we lived between New York and Philadelphia and I’m still somewhat timid about approaching city galleries. But it has nothing to do with my medium of choice - it is my own level of insecurities that stands in my way. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if that wasn’t the main reason why many artists haven’t moved to a higher professional standing - low self-esteem.

So onward and upward. Keep on writing, challenging, questioning. It’s good for all of us and I, for one, am most grateful for the discussion.

Lisa, I know you know I lurk often, and I love what you’re trying to do (usually very successfully IMO) in your work.

Rather than post on the Ragged Cloth Cafe site, since I am far more a stranger there than here, wanted to share something that struck me.

One of the bits in the post that triggered your response fired me up:
“The art that sticks in our minds is the art that has something to say.” The example given was Picasso’s Guernica.

Oh my goodness. Art as polemic, art as political commentary, is the implied best, and what needs to be done to merit respect and “elevate” quilting?

What about the Zen calligraphic tradition? Matisse’s beautifully-realized philosophy of “Luxe, calme et volupté”? Klee? Translations of Rumi (I love Coleman Barks’ versions) and other mystic poets? And, for that matter, certain silk prayer rugs? Sand paintings?

Isn’t providing a transportive magic carpet also worthy of respect?

*sigh*

Shows and how they’re organized may foster weak work, but I suspect the greater issue is how any of us can create work with transportive power that reaches beyond our moment in culture and time, power to dissolve our small self into some other larger Moment. And I also suspect few in any medium and any tradition will succeed — but it’s worth the attempt.

When I first read your post, I thought you meant for more ’statement’ quilts—to me, most of the ones I have seen that express some sort of political or social commentary are too sentimental in their approach—and without that statement and implied response are not particularly well designed or executed.

Perhaps a good place to start would be a request to have quilt shows ‘judged’ by a non-quilter artist. A small step but nonetheless—a step.