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We've invited three of our quilt artists featured in the Here Comes the Sun exhibit to talk about their quilts. Find out what inspired them to create their designs and how orange found its way into their creations.
Heidi Parkes
In my work, I create a scaffolding of fabric, piecing, and quilting that allows me to reference many ideas on a single plane. The raw materials are textiles from domestic culture, fashion, family heirlooms, and scavenged prints. I integrate them with fabrics that I have embroidered, stained, dyed, or designed. These materials are pieced together to create the main imagery of the quilt, like a collage. This cloth is then beset with hand stitches, evocative of the slow process involved in construction, and functioning as a layer of ‘drawing’ on the quilt's surface.
Like so many women before her, my maternal grandmother planned a collaborative quilt to celebrate my birth and introduced me to the art of quilting. My work continues a family tradition, but congruently incorporates new information from varied quilting traditions and my multidisciplinary training in art. Often inspired by painters, I feel an artistic connection with Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter, Mark Bradford, Julie Mehretu, Cy Twombly, Agnes Martin, William Kentridge, El Anatsui, Do Ho Suh, the quilts of Gee’s Bend, and the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi.
Sarah Nishiura
Sarah grew up in Detroit and now lives in Chicago, where she uses traditional techniques to craft one-of-a-kind quilts from her own designs. Sarah learned to sew from her mother and learned to love geometry from her father. From her grandparents, who were great builders, painters, stitchers, weavers and gardeners, she learned that making things is one of the greatest imperatives, privileges and pleasures in life.
Sarah's quilts are all pieced from 100% cotton recycled and vintage materials, backed with new yardage, and then hand quilted. It can take up to 4 months to complete a quilt, but the result is strong, durable, and suitable for warmth or display.
Sherri Lynn Wood
Ever since Sherri Lynn Wood unwittingly defied the sexist dress code at Wiley Junior High School with a modest sundress of her own creation, she experienced sewing as a source of creative expression, subversive resistance, and personal empowerment. Currently based in Cincinnati, OH, Wood is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant and numerous artist residencies, including Recology San Francisco, where she undertook the task of presenting a body of work made completely from materials scavenged from the city dump. She holds a Masters in Fine Arts from Bard College and in Theological Studies from Emory University. She has been improvising quilts as a creative life practice for 30 years. Her best selling publication The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting & Living Courageously (Abrams, 2015) provides scores, or frameworks, for flexible patterns and creative exploration, along with practical instruction in stitching techniques and intuitive color.
Join us on Tuesday, January 4 at noon CT to learn more about these amazing quilt artists.
Q&A With Quilt Artists From Here Comes the Sun Exhibit
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
12:00 PM CST
Thank you for purchasing a ticket to the Q&A With Quilt Artists From Here Comes the Sun Exhibit!
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Topic: Q&A with Quilt Artists from Here Comes the Sun Exhibit
Time: Jan 4, 2022 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87478420320?pwd=anNmaUVLbXBTS0tqSStXTFg5ZkVTdz09
Meeting ID: 874 7842 0320
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