Art Quilts- The Tofu and Potatoes of what I do!

Here I am on a rare soggy day in Monaco, dreaming, researching and making sketches for my next body of artwork. I promised you some information on "Art Quilts" in the last entry, so here you go!

Quilt National is THE authority on art quilts in America and maybe even the world. (Kind of like the "World Series" in baseball- we're one of the only countries that enjoy a widespread popularity of the sport, so naturally we're the best in the world at it, lol!) Anyway, Quilt National defines "Art Quilts" thus:

The work must possess the basic structural characteristics of a quilt. It must be predominantly fabric or fabric-like material and must be composed of at least two full and distinct layers - a face layer and a backing layer. The face layer may be described by any or a combination of the following terms: pieced, appliqued, whole cloth, stitched/fused to a foundation. The face and backing layers must be held together by hand- or machine-made functional quilting stitches or other elements that pierce all layers and are distributed throughout the surface of the work. At least some of these stitches or elements should be visible on the back of the work. As an alternative, the work may be a modular construction (an assemblage of smaller quilts). Each individual module, however, must meet the above structural criteria.

The above lists the criteria a fiberartist must follow if he / she wants to enter their prestigious Art Quilt competition, also called Quilt National. It's a pretty good definition, but a bit strict. If you want more information about Quilt National, go to http://www.dairybarn.org/quilt/ and have fun clicking around!

Another great definition by the Studio Art Quilt Association is as follows: SAQA defines an art quilt as a contemporary artwork exploring and expressing aesthetic concerns common to the whole range of visual arts: painting, printmaking, photography, graphic design, assemblage and sculpture, which retains, through materials or technique, a clear relationship to the folk art quilt from which it descends.

Now that you understand a bit more about what an art quilt is, here are some examples of my older work, which are all part of a private collection.

This is one of my favorites. It's about 5' x 9' (2m x 3m for those on the metric system). The material used is my own hand-dyed raw silk in a gradation of blues for which I experimented with a new dye bath process all my own. Each piece is unique and stitched with metallic threads and then lightly dusted with metallic foil leafing. The effect you get when it's under proper gallery lighting is that the light reflections move with you as you pass by it - much the way sunlight reflecting off the sea follows you as you drive by... Guess what my inspiration was?

Here is a detail shot to show you exactly what I mean.












This is a detail shot of another piece from the same series. Using various dying processes and raw silk once more, I created these "branches" which I sewed wire onto the back of and then wove them together in a kind of nature-themed "quilt". With these 2 pieces, you can see how I like to play not only with the surface, but also with positive and negative spatial relationships, as well and highlight and shadow, foreground and background. It adds another element of interest and brings people forward to the piece to look at what's behind it.










Here is a different view of the same piece. You can really see the dye patterns in this photo.
















These two are the positive and negative of each other. Again, I used raw silk (one of my favorite textiles for its imperfections and the ease with which I get intense color) with the additional element of tulle. This particular type of tulle has a bit of a sheen to it. So once again, I'm playing with my favorite elements- highlight and shadow, positive and negative spaces, and color.












I hope you enjoyed the information and photos. Now that you know all about the different things I do, I'll be sharing with you the processes I go through to get to my next body of artwork, starting next time with my sketches and research. See you next time! Stay well!

~Holly~

P.S. Yes I'm a vegetarian, hence the "Tofu" and potatoes instead of "Meat" in the title... (-;

Come to Live Art!

Dear readers,

A very good friend of mine and fellow artist, Anouk De Boeck, has started an art exposition concept whereby artists can exhibit and even "perform" their work. As you can see, it's going to be quite a party! Guests will spend only € 25 euros for a meal, and highlights include a live DJ, live entertainment, and an exposition of local artists which is sure to be spectacular! The best part about it is that proceeds from the dinner will go toward building schools for children in Madagascar as part of the Prince Albert II Foundation. So let's recap! By going to this party you are:

1. Doing something great for humanity
2. Supporting local artists
3. Enjoying a great party with live music and artistic entertainment all in one of Monaco's poshest party locations
4. Expanding your horizons

Does it get much better than this? I think NOT! You can check this out and more by joining "Art Anouk"'s facebook page or by going to www.artanouk.com.

Anouk will continuing looking for venues around Europe (and who knows, maybe even the world?). Next stop- BRUSSELS! Mmmm Beautiful Brussels- the land of incredible chocolates, the best waffles on the planet, great beer, that weird peeing boy statue, and the likes of Magritte and Folon... It will be an exposition to remember, so watch this space! (Not to mention that I will most likely be exposing my newest body of artwork there as well!!!)

I hope you've all had a great week and enjoy your weekend to the fullest!

~Holly~

Complex Cloth

Good morning! To illustrate "surface design," which I started telling you about in my last entry, I'm posting some photos of my older work. This series of work is called "Complex Cloth".

Complex Cloth is great! You have to have a vision of where you want the cloth to end up, and then you build layers, starting with the dyed surface. The layers in the pieces below are built using mostly acrylic paints, with some wool yarns in a few, as well as metallic foil leafing. You can even use other fabrics sewn onto the surface to create layers. The result is absolutely gorgeous (if I do say so myself)!








































Here is a detail that shows the layers of dyed surfaces, sewn layers of fabric, and acrylic painting.

Next time we'll talk about "Art Quilts"! See you again soon!

~Holly~

First Day as a Blogger!

So today is my first day as a "blogger". It didn't take 5 minutes to set up like they said it would, but perhaps that's because they expect that bloggers-to-be already find meaning in such things as "tracker scripts", "widgets", and "dashboards"...

This is an important day for me. It marks the first time I will have published any of my pieces on the internet (aside from Facebook if you count that...which I don't). It is a very real jumping off point for me, both professionally and personally, as I have never tried to make it as a professional artist, even though it's been a dream of mine since I was small.

Many of you might be wondering what IS fiberarts? Good question. After having very little luck trying to find a definition on the internet for you, I'd say my first answer would be that it is many things to many different artists. Perhaps a more helpful answer is that it is art, be it 2D or 3D, and covers papermaking, basketry, tapestries, batik, quilting, weaving, textile design and so much more. Fiberart is, in fact, art made with fiber- and as general as that sounds, it means the sky is the limit and I quite like that!

For me personally, fiberart is very much about textiles. I take natural fiber textiles like cotton and silk, dye them with special dyes to my color and visual texture preferences, and then I manipulate them in many different ways, depending on the body of artwork I'm working on at the time. My specific degree was in something called "Surface Design". Again, sounds nebulous, but it means that we learned all sorts of different ways to embellish the surfaces that we chose to work on. So sometimes what I do involves painting, sometimes ripping the fabric into pieces or cutting it into specific shapes. Often I use the sewing machine and different colors and types of threads to "draw" on the surface. Finishing touches can include beadwork or hand embroidery, even foil leafing. Here's some new fabric drying after having been dyed:
If you're still stumped on what the heck I'm banging on about, you can take a look at Fiberarts Magazine- my other bible - and see their featured artists: http://www.fiberarts.com/. In the meantime, check out a few of my pieces:

Detail:

Hope you enjoyed this little intro! Please come and visit again soon!

~Holly~