Should We?
As I said I will very slowly respond to some of the issues brought up in some of the comments on my post Respect (in no particular order).
Pat Dolan wrote an interesting comment with her thoughts on leaving the quilt world behind that are worth thinking about.
My thoughts on her comments…
So if we want to be considered seriously in the art world, we must stop referring to our work as “quilts”
This I absolutely disagree with. You’ll notice I call my work "Contemporary Quilts" on my website, blog, business cards, etc. I do not agree that using this word is bad.
I make quilts - and my work is technically impeccable - I have perfected my skills and I’m not going to do a sloppy job because it makes others uncomfortable that I can make a technically perfect quilt and still believe it is art.
In my opinion some of the bad "art quilts" out there are a result of the makers not having command of their materials (probably true for painting and other mediums as well). Yes it’s not just about technique but if it looks like you don’t know what you are doing then it’s really going to detract from the art in my opinion.
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.
I agree to this to some extent I believe that critique is important for beginning artists to learn how to evaluate their own work.
I’m at a point in my art career where I do not seek out critiques by more than 1 or 2 people that I really respect. And then not very often. I believe in myself and in what I want to say in my work and I am a much harsher critic than anyone else on my work. Learning to look at my own work and figure out what works and what doesn’t is of much more value to me than hearing what someone else thinks. I receive enough positive feedback from people I respect to know I’m on the right track - it’s up to me to keep me there and to push myself further.
Laura Tyler, a painter, makes some very interesting comments about traditional quilts that gave me something to think about this weekend.
I’ve spent many hours in the last two years looking at historical, geometric quilt patterns and find them to be imbued with a tremendous amount of depth, mystery and meaning. I wish more contemporary quilters would look to traditional patterns for inspiration and don’t understand why some quilters find it necessary separate themselves from tradition by defining their work as art quilts.
Laura, I agree with you, traditional quilts are beautiful and they are certainly art. But traditional quilt patterns are patterns - someone else designed them - someone else gave them their meaning. So if I were to take those patterns as is and just make a traditional quilt I would view my activity not too different from doing a paint by numbers painting (although I’d ignore the numbers and paint it my own way - maybe even not stay in the lines). But it is still someone else’s design that I am completing. Is it art - sure - of that I have no doubt. But it’s not the type of art I want to make.
I want to create my own designs with my own meaning. This doesn’t mean I’ve completely thrown out what I know about traditional quilt patterns. The basics like the 9 patch are beautiful designs.
If you look at my quilts Markings#4 and Markings #11 - they are basically a 4-patch quilts with my own interpretation:
So here I sit - the "art quilt" world views my quilts as not "cutting edge" I don’t have any loose threads, no fancy techniques, no surface design, no high tech printing, I’m not pushing the envelope on what one can do with fiber. I’m just pushing myself to make the most interesting and best work I can within a very simple technique that has been around forever.
I suspect if I were to paint my designs I wouldn’t have the stigma of being a quilter, still a dirty word to many in the art world. Crafty girl that I am.
So I do my darn best to ignore all of them - both the art quilters who have more rules than the traditional "quilt police" they detest and those in the art world that have a problem with the craft thing. I do not feel limited by the rules these 2 groups continually bring up because there are plenty of both quilters and other artists that don’t have these problems and accept my work as art.
I have 2 solo shows scheduled for 2008 and my work is accepted just about every where I submit it. I choose not feel limited by my medium of choice.
Posted by Lisa in: Abstract Contemporary Textile Art, Being an Artist
Olga said,
March 12, 2007 @ 11:15 am
Good art is work which shines with the spirit of the artist, and causes the observer to look afresh. The technique and medium used has to be appropriate to the work - that is the only criterion. Thinking about pleasing others distorts the artist’s own values. I loved the story of Jon Scheuler giving a painting to someone who was haggling over the price - he would rather gift the work than devalue it. Really we should all be striving neither to please others, nor ourselves, but to please the work - and thence to satisfy all who matter.
Lisa Call said,
March 12, 2007 @ 11:41 am
Olga - you said much better what I was thinking. Thank you. My brain just wasn’t working this morning but I had a few moments to write.
It is about making the work we want to make - not because someone told you that you had to do X or you couldn’t do Y. But because that is what you are inspired to do.
I very much dislike all the rules out there and at this point I’m very much regretting having drug myself into yet another go no where conversation with quilters. I don’t want rules and I don’t want to make up rules.
So I need to get back to just thinking about my art and what it means to me.
Nellie said,
March 12, 2007 @ 12:25 pm
Lisa,
Olga has an interesting point … strive to please the work. I’ve gotten to that way of working in a round-about way, by getting to the point of being hooked on the dialog that happens between me and the art piece. I don’t preplan my work to the end. A few major decisions are made up front, but I’ve found that one decision leads to another. Often there are possiblities revealed that I would never have thought of if there were a definite detailed plan being followed. I find much joy and little frustration by working this way … relying on my knowledge of color, design, and multiple techniques, as well as years of creative thinking.
I appreciate your getting this dialog going as well as those readers responding to it. Earlier in my life I more keenly felt the frustrations with acceptance of our chosen medium as “real art”. I’m now 65, but since my 50’s I create fiber art only because I feel compelled to make it … not to prove or promote myself nor fiber as art. I realize that my life circumstances, age and not having to make money, makes me a lot less hungry for approval and acceptance. I don’t mean to simplify the complexities of all that’s part of being an artist, but do want to I offer a caution not to loose the joy in creating while waging the battle to find acceptance.
Lisa Call said,
March 12, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
Nellie, I like your description about how you work. It is very improvisational and similar to what I do, although I do almost no preplanning at all and just work.
As to the battle - I agree. I have one more post on this topic then I’m dropping it and getting on with exciting things like binding demo posts.
PaMdora said,
March 13, 2007 @ 5:50 am
It’s funny that we both posted on the same topic of using the word quilt on the same day. I hadn’t read your post before I wrote mine.
shan said,
March 13, 2007 @ 6:13 am
Lisa,
I find the idea of eliminating the word quilt perplexing. A painter wouldn’t stop calling her paintings paintings until they became something else–mixed media perhaps. “Quilt” simply refers to the medium. Well, actually, I don’t think it’s quite that simple. Maybe it should be.
I found your original post on this topic very facinating. It seems important for quilters to get work into the larger art market–shows that are open to all media. At the same time, I find the structure of the traditional art market very limiting and have been working on finding greater context for my own work. I’ve been doing this by focusing on who actually buys my work, as opposed to who talks about it or juries it into a show.
The choices we make as artists all depend on what we want from are own individual careers. It’s a wide open field out there right now.
Laura said,
March 13, 2007 @ 8:50 am
Yes! I see the historical patterns echoed in your contemporary quilts which is exciting to me.
I agree, seeking out the one and two person shows that painters go for seems like a great way to increatse
Laura said,
March 13, 2007 @ 8:54 am
…your profile as an artist and break out of the limits you’re experiencing in the quilt world. Congratulations on nabbing 2 solo shows! I hope at least one of them’s in Colorado as I’d love to go. I’m sure you’ll keep us updated.
cynthia said,
March 13, 2007 @ 3:14 pm
A lot has transpired since I last read your blog. I don’t have much to add to the conversation that hasn’t already been said. The craft/art argument just seems so old to me. We should all try to worry less about what others are doing and instead invest our energy in that about which we are passionate. (not sure if that last bit is grammatically correct.) There’s an audience for both (art/craft), don’t you think?
I do think Olga said it beautifully! I love your work and yes, congratulations on the 2 solo shows.
Natalya said,
March 14, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
Coming out of lurkdom to say - Thank you for this subject and your thoughts on it. And thank you to Olga for saying it so well that i had to write it down.
Paula said,
March 15, 2007 @ 9:14 am
Its interesting to me that your quilts, specifically your example in this post, look like paintings (at least online). And I’m so tired of paintings. But my mind goes there immediately..’oh if that were a painting, why doesn’t she paint that?”. Then I realize I still fight the herd mentality of how canvas and traditional photography is IT. (okay sculptures too). My point is, does it matter the medium? If you are doing something interesting and it so happens to be fiber…quilt if you will, who cares? That does not lessen the creativity. In fact your quilts supercede the ‘norm’. Makes me almost wonder if you were to call it something else people might take it more seriously? What constitutes a quilt? I don’t know, its not a world I know about. All I know is I find it extremely pleasing to look at your work. It stimulates my own creativity. You have such high standards it sounds for your work, that in and of itself stands for itself. Classifications are so meaningless in the scheme of things, I hope you find a way to bypass the stigmas in your ‘field’. Of course the question still remains, at least in my mind, do we have to ‘make it’ in the art world, have solo shows etc etc. in order to be taken seriously? If at some point I have 100’s of pieces of my work filling homes across America but never had a solo show does that make me LESS of an artist? I don’t think so.