Studio Art Quilt Associates - 2002 Conference Keynote Speech

Quilt Shows - Art Shows
I’ve gone to a lot of quilt shows and craft shows and art shows. And there is a difference in them.

The quilt shows only have quilts and maybe some quilted garments, the craft shows have every craft medium from clay to fiber, but no paintings or drawings, and the art shows may have everything - from clay and fiber, to video, installations, paintings, drawings, photography and sculpture, and could have quilts but I haven’t seen many there. It’s appropriate that the quilt shows have quilts; there is a place for medium defined shows.

It’s appropriate that the craft shows have crafts and art made from many mediums - but the art shows should have more fiber and more quilts in them. I can’t really say why there is this lack. . . I can just give some hints as to why I think this is so and some personal opinions on how we can get more quilts into art shows.

And why do we want to do this? I would venture and, think many people would agree, that it is to: further our careers as exhibiting artists, and as teachers, and to show the public that art quilts exist and show what they can do, and to find more collectors who may not know about this new medium.

Three Keys
I want to suggest a few items to be thinking about when you are making your art and thinking of showing, so we can accomplish these goals of having our work in more art shows.

Most of us know about the big national quilt shows like Visions and Quilt National and enter them. But, there are thousands of art shows around the country in urban and rural areas, from major museums to small art centers. I say, enter non-defined art or fiber shows on a regional and national level in addition to entering guild, and large and small quilt shows. Get a local arts newspaper (I read Art Week, based in San Jose, but it covers the West Coast), to read reviews and find the competitions.

We will not be in art shows if we do not enter them!

The competitions are defined by three things: the region that can enter, the title of the show, and the media. The region that can enter can range from International to a very local area. You can enter shows in the international, national, your state, a designated area, your county, or your town designations.

Then, look at the titles: here are some titles of show competitions from the recent Artweek: “It’s A Small World (this could be anything small), Abstraction 2003 (anything abstract), Normal/Abnormal: Bodies and Minds. These are just three titles that could easily have quilts in them. For the media, they will almost never say quilts, but if they say multimedia, that’s a go, if they say textiles or fiber, that’s a go, if they say almost everything and list 6+ mediums, that’s a go.

They’re never going to say art quilts because that’s too specific within the fiber medium, unless, of course, it is specifically just a quilt show. So, if it seems remotely close, and the title is close to what you do, enter it. You are going to send your slides and they maybe won’t know that they are quilts. That’s OK; your piece will have to get in on its own qualities in competition with everything else. It will have to stand up as a visual statement.

Also, investigate the showing venues if you can. There is usually a web site with the listing where you find out a lot about the site. Visit the galleries, museums and art centers. There are some that you won’t want to show in and many that you will. And what is your work about, what are the ideas? Enter the art shows dealing with those issues.

Again, those three items to think about are the region, the title of the show, and the media for the show.

Ideas First
What is important to us as artists when we are doing our work? Or, what are some things we can do for our work that would allow it to become more art mainstream and more in line with what might get shown in galleries and museums?

I say, give your ideas free reign - ideas first, techniques later. Your idea may be better presented using dance, film, painting, sculpture. Is it best represented and portrayed through the quilt? Why? You can ask that of each piece you make. Quilts may become just one of your mediums. We are here to applaud the quilt but we need to allow ourselves to feel that we are not wedded to it. This can be a frightening thought because quilts are so comforting. Your ideas should come first, media or mode of presentation second.

Feedback
Graduate school is a fine, wonderful experience where one can focus and develop, but we cannot all go there and do not need to. The feedback for our work is what we want and need. Join a group of artists besides a quilt/textile group. Men, women, young adults or a combination of all, all pursuing art and enjoying the camaraderie and feedback of interaction, art dialogue and being with others who produce art for his or her own needs. They may be painters, sculptors, weavers, etc.

Have a show with these art friends in your community - it may just be in the corner coffeehouse - that’s OK now. They won’t be interested in your techniques too much or what quilt or fiber workshop you went to; they will be responding to your images.

The important thing is that you get feedback from people outside the art quilt world - that is what’s unique. Then you will be hearing about the real substance of your work - a substance that transcends technique and medium. I am presently in a five person art group - all women, but two are painters, one is in mixed media, one in fiber and myself. We meet irregularly at each other’s studios, don’t have any rules but are together to give each other productive feedback.

Expand Awareness
Take art, drawing, design, composition, art history, and gallery classes in community colleges and universities, not just classes at quilt symposiums, guilds and workshops, or sewing and quilting stores - those are of value too. You will now be relating to art through the window of the art world and art history.

Be leery of “quilt challenges” or planned shows in advance where there is a theme. Is this really what you want to do or will you be griping and complaining about it until you figure it out that you’ve taken yourself away from what you really wanted to be doing? Or, it might be a fine experience, and lead to shows of the work and a catalogue and will have been a very fulfilling experience. Just know that you can choose and say no if it doesn’t feel right. I think it’s easier to do your own work and then look for shows in venues that will suit your needs.

Be Proactive
If you want to gather a group of quiltmakers and their work and approach a museum or art center or gallery with your work, do you have a common thematic bond beyond the fact of the medium? Perhaps the quilts are all landscapes, or figurative, or abstract? If you have a statement written up as to why you want to show together you will go a long way in scheduling a show. Who is the curator in a show like this? Is the work uneven or cohesive?

In a town near mine a quilt group created vagina quilts to go along with the play The Vagina Monologues. These were shown in local stores during the play so that you could drive by and see them from the streets and then they ended up in a well-received show at the Community College Gallery.

You will have a better chance of landing a show if it’s obvious why all of this work is together beyond just the fiber connection. Of course, having a curatorial statement ready, and PR, and publicity shots will make it even more valuable and attractive.

Read “Art In America”, “Art News”, and “Art Forum” (for just a few), not only quilt and fiber magazines. And better yet, if you are really evolved, don’t read any of the art magazines or fiber magazines so that you will not become contaminated by any one else’s images. I am not there yet and always have way too many piles of reading material around.

Trust Your Vision
Much has been said in the past about doing your own work. It is frustrating when jurying a show, or viewing one to know that the work has been so heavily influenced by some one else’s work. It is difficult to even look at that work. Develop and trust your own vision. Follow your own interests in imagery. What are you truly interested in? Is it landscapes, politics, geometry, gender issues, water, abstraction, etc.

Whatever it is, and it could be many things, take those interests and stick with them, develop them, pursue all aspects, follow the trails of interest and excitement. How can you express what you feel in the medium of the quilt? How else can you express these feelings? No one is you, no one has experienced what you are experiencing now, no one feels what you feel and knows how good and special it is. Go there and experience that uniqueness and create a record. I would suggest that that is your art.

I had the good fortune to win the Quilts Japan Prize from the Quilt National 20‘01 and this September I went to Japan and taught for two days and stayed for one week. It was a lovely, wonderful experience and I was treated like a queen, a working queen. I loved the Japanese food and they fed me well. I taught one day in Tokyo at the Japan Handicrafts Instructors’ Association - a school of handicrafts where one can receive a certificate to become a teacher in whatever craft skill one studies. I taught another day in Osaka and then had a two day vacation in Kyoto - a wonderful city. Mr. Seto, the head of Nihon Vogue and the provider of the award, and his colleagues were extremely welcoming, and generous. The students were very diligent and nice.

Whatever the Quilt Needs
What they were most surprised by in my work was the fact that I mainly hand quilted. They thought that since my images were so contemporary that I would, of course, machine quilt, that machine quilting was contemporary and hand quilting was not. They wanted to know why I still hand quilted. I said that "whatever the quilt needs for the best presentation is what it should have."

I want the quilting to accentuate the design and the image. The image and message come first. I don’t want quilting to be a distraction but an addition. If the accuracy of hand quilting is what is needed then that is what I will do - if it is a machine line, then that is what I will do, if it needs nothing then that is what it will get.

The trend now is machine quilting, and lots of it all over the fabric, some done in a thoughtful way and some done in a rote pattern with no concern for the image or pattern. One wonders if it is just the fastest way to finish that quilt and get on to the next one, or are the artists really planning the design, and are they happy with the result? I wonder. Time should not be the issue here. The image first and the method of production must serve this focus.

About My Work
One question I regularly get asked besides the ever present question of "How many hours did it take to make this quilt" --a question that can’t be answered - is "Why don’t you just paint on canvas in oils or acrylics? Why not just be a painter?"

It is a good question because my work is so pictorial now and not at all concerned with largeness or a repeat format - two items that are connected to traditional quilts and where I did start with my artwork and many other people did also. I don’t even sew pieces of fabric together anymore.

But, I can only look at where I am now, painting on fabric and turning them into quilts, and know where I came from to know that I am in the right place and that my work has developed in imagery at the same time it has developed in technique - they have developed together. Also, I am not as skilled in oil painting or acrylic painting as I could be. I would have to study those skills and devote time to their development for my work to be strong. I will leave my choice of medium open though, as my work continues to develop. One thing that is so superior, is how easily they can be rolled and shipped through the mail!

What I want to do now is show you how I have developed in my work from early pieces, just a few, to my work in the 90’s and to today. My work has changed quite a bit. One juror, from a national show, said to me “we were so surprised when we read the names of those juried in because we didn’t recognize this piece to be yours when we were jurying the show.” It made me wonder that if they had known by looking at it, if it was mine, if it would have gotten in? But I think what it is really about, is keeping your work fresh, which might mean different and new and perhaps, out of context, wouldn’t seem like yours - that’s OK.

I Follow My Interests
I have tried to follow my interests, which you will see. I started with a theme and when that was no longer of interest, I shifted my attention on to new topics. Many themes is OK. Many themes at the same time is OK. It is up to you to decide what your work is. It is the honesty of what you are doing that is important. You must change if that feels right, or you must stay pursuing the seemingly same but probably very fresh ideas if that feels right.

Graduate school did change my art. I became very focused and I will tell you about it when we get to those slides.

I always wanted to feel that I “owned” everything in my artwork. Therefore, I could not conceive of using printed fabric for I had not created that print. I only have used prints in two quilts, my very first one, a deco-like fabric bought at Sprouse Reitz, and the other was some interesting printed grays in gradations from Lunn Fabrics. But, in the early days of the 70’s and 80’s, I bought solid colors, like a palette of paints from a tube, wherever I could get them, then, I got into dyeing my own, and now I start with white fabric, whole cloth and paint my images using textile paints.

My Background
A quick statement about my background: In the late 60’s I was a painting major at San Francisco State University (SFSU) I saw weaving looms in the next room and was very curious about what was happening in the textiles section of the art department. I had knitted, tatted, and sewed when I was young, but I never thought it was anything that could be studied in school.

I took fiber classes (there were no quilt classes), I wove, did some needlework, and then following the “Turn on, Tune in, and Drop out” philosophy of my generation, my artist husband and I moved to the wilds of Mendocino County and lived without electricity, in a cabin for a few years. I wove and realized it was not the medium that I was looking for.

I wanted images and patterns and I remembered my family quilts and decided to use the form and my patterns, find fabric and put them together. I didn’t know of anyone else making quilts except for traditional ones. I used store-bought fabric; they were not true art pieces, but it was very exciting.

I got serious in the late 70’s and gave up painting but still kept drawing. Drawing is the basis for my quilts and how I work out my ideas. What was also happening was that a lot of people were bouncing off of the textile/weaving movement of the 60’s and starting to make quilts, not knowing that other people were making them too. People were also growing their own food, spinning wool, and chopping wood for their wood stoves. Quilts were part of this, they were large then because quilts always had been. Even though I never used these early quilts on beds, my quilts had to be big.

One thing I’m very happy about is that this Spring semester (2003) I’ll be teaching a quiltmaking class at SFSU in the art department in the same room where I took my first fiber class. I have been lucky in that as soon as I became serious about quilts there were showing venues for them. A good percentage of them have been in shows, some being shown over and over, some of my quilts are in museums, and some are in private quilt collections and collected by individuals, and a lot of them are just rolled up in storage in my house.

Keynote Speech
Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA)
Nov. 1-2, 2002 Conference - Oceanside, CA

by Linda MacDonald

Keynote Speech Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) Nov. 1-2, 2002 Conference - Oceanside, CA

by Linda MacDonald

Keynote Speech
Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA)
Nov. 1-2, 2002 Conference - Oceanside, CA