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... (-;
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