Archive | September, 2013

Luanne Rimel

on September 28, 2013 in Artist Profile, Quilt National Artist, Quilts

Enigma with a Flower by Luanne Rimel

The elusive quality of time has been the focus of my artwork for the past 25 years. Through photography and cloth, I have explored the mystery of waves in the ocean, flowers blooming and fading, momentary shadows, and weathered stones. I have painted, printed, dyed, layered and stitched cloth for many years. I only began quilting the entire surface of the cloth about five years ago. In my current body of work, hand quilted textile photographs; I explore images of cloth and figures carved in stone from historic sites and cemeteries.

I have lived all my life in St. Louis, Missouri. Many of the cemeteries in this city are historical gems with statues and monuments dedicated to some of the most famous business and community leaders of the past. The names of those honored, etched into the stones, are recognized as the names of streets, parks, businesses and landmarks of this community. Enigma with a Flower, currently traveling with Quilt National 2013, is a photograph of a statue from the Mount Sinai cemetery in St. Louis. I am drawn to these sculptures that stand as guardians of human history and photograph details and elements to incorporate into my quilts, imbuing each statue with mysterious significance.

I am interested in the intersection of domestic ritual and contemporary technology and use repurposed flour-sack cloth dishtowels as the vehicle for my images, printing the photographs onto the cotton fabric with a wide format ink-jet printer. Detailed sections of the image are created and layered, collaged and hand stitched onto the cloth, referencing earlier domestic practices of mending and repair, reuse and repurposing. The delicate, repetitive hand quilting across the surface creates shadows and textures and alludes to the marking of time. Each piece quietly takes its own shape beyond the original square format as the threads are gently drawn and pulled through the cloth.

Luanne Rimel is an artist, curator, teacher and currently the Director of Education Programs at Craft Alliance Art Center in St. Louis, MO. Her photographic imagery and textile work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including in Japan, China and Korea, and is in many private and corporate collections. Exhibitions include Quilt National 2011 and Quilt National 2013, the 2012 and 2013 Smithsonian Craft Show, a solo exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Art Quilt Elements, Fiber Arts International, and Material Difference:A Collector’s Exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center. Rimel received an MFA in fibers from Southern Illinois University and has lectured and taught workshops and classes around the country. See more of Luanne’s work at LuanneRimel.com

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Barbara Schneider to speak about her art on October 13

on September 27, 2013 in Events, Quilt National Artist, Quilts

Forest Floor, Var. 2, by Barbara Schneider

Barbara Schneider will make a presentation at the St. Louis University Museum of Art on October 13, 2013 at 12 noon. Admission is free. Her presentation will be about the development of the Leaves series, including inspiration found in nature as well as the process of creating Forest Floor, var. 2 (Quilt National 2013). She will cover some of the material that is available on her DVD, Three Dimensional Fiber Art (available for Interweave Press).

Barbara’s on-going interest in the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi, finding beauty in things that are imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete is at the core of all of her art work. She likes to capture the essence of images made of light and movement, images that are infinitely variable. What does the eye see? What does the camera see? What does the mind see?

The Reflections series explores the concept of reflection and how to capture the images that are not physically there, images made of light and movement, images that change.

The Leaves series is an exploration and interpretation of natural images by enlarging and reshaping them. She collects leaves, pods, flowers, grasses
and looks closely at their structure and shape. The play of light upon surfaces, and shaping the pieces introduces a new element – light and shadow interacting with the undulating surfaces.

The newest series, Line Dance: Tree Ring Patterns is an extension of this exploration of natural objects. The patterns in tree rings and the additional patterns created by overlapping and fragmenting imagery creates another way of looking at the world.

Reflection is Barbara’s theme throughout the work process as well as what she hopes viewers do as they look at the completed work.

Barbara Schneider

Barbara began quilting in 1996 and discovered the pleasure of working with cloth, paint, dye, and thread. Her interest in the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi strongly influences the work. She has an extensive background in surface design and teaching as well as exhibiting her work nationally and internationally. Quilt National 2013 is her 5th exhibition with Quilt National. Her artwork is in both private and public collections. Her studio is located at The Starline Gallery in Harvard, IL.

Barbara Schneider
www.barbaraschneider-artist.com
www.barbaraschneider-artist.blogspot.com
www.artclothnetwork.com
www.saqa.com

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Pam RuBert’s Space Needle goes to Quilt National

on September 26, 2013 in Artist Profile, Quilt National Artist, Quilts

Wish You Were Hair by Pam RuBert

Long ago a pun popped in my head, “I wish you were hair.” Not sure why, but often these types of play on words rumble around in my head, gaining momentum and gathering other disassociated ideas and images – kind of like a rolling tumbleweed.

Playing with pens and paints can be as fun as playing with words, and I began a series of sketches that morphed famous world monuments into crazy hairstyles.

Before there was email and Instagram, people used to mail postcards with pictures from well-known vacation spots, writing “wish you were here” to their family and friends from great places they visited.

World monuments have always fascinated me — for their diversity and artistic vision — but also I associate them with an individuality of place.

While there are still incredible differences around the world, in some ways, cities are becoming more alike as chain stores and restaurants pop up and some iconic landmarks and landscapes disappear. I feel a kind of nostalgia for some of these places as they disappear.

If the analogy of sending postcards holds up, it seemed appropriate to send one about sewing to Quilt National. In my quilt, a giant pixie woman with Seattle Space Needle hair is threading a needle, sitting cross-legged between colorful spools of thread that in the distance becomes the skyscape of Seattle.

To come up with ideas for my Wish You Were Hair series, I play around with ink and watercolor paints to create quick sketches in a relaxed or vacation place in an attempt to merge memory, imagination and bizarre associations.

Then I work to translate that sketch into fabric and thread, but also attempting to keep a kind of fresh spontaneity. Quilt making is such a long process, and it is difficult to keep from becoming stifled or over-working the process.

I was happy that my quilt Seattle: Wish You Where Hair turned out colorful and playful, and that it was selected for the Quilt National 2013 exhibition. But when I visited the opening of the exhibition at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, I remembered something that I knew from previous exhibitions.

Every artist in Quilt National is a master at presenting a fresh exploration and approach to the medium and creating vibrant works of art, and I’m honored to be part of the exhibition.

You can see my three-minute artist talk at the Quilt National 2013 opening weekend on YouTube by clicking here.

Click here to see more of Pam RuBert’s work.

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Art & Antiques magazine features Quilt National artists

on September 21, 2013 in Publications, Quilts

“SpringField” by Brooke Atherton

Now available on-line, Art & Antiques Magazine’s article, Fiber Optics, provides an in-depth look at quilts as fine art, and emphasizes the import of Quilt National as a “major proving ground for quilt art”. Author Barbara Wysocki interviewed art historians, museum curators, gallery owners, collectors, jurors and artists to document the rising acceptance of quilts as fine art.

With new techniques and materials available, quilters are creating ambitious fabric art works that can hang next to any painting.

An abundance of Quilt National artists are featured in the article including Nancy Crow, Michael James, Miriam Nathan-Roberts, Caryl Bryer Faller-Gentry, Marilyn Henrion, Brooke Atherton and many others.

Two large works currently on view in Quilt National 2013, Katherine Knaur’s Solar and Mary Ann Tipple’s The Conversation, are featured in the article’s photo gallery.

Today a widening circle of viewers celebrate quilts as art.

Also available in the September 2013 issue of Art and Antiques magazine, Wysoki’s article makes a strong case for the value of art quilts as collectables as well as providing a window into the current ecosystem of this vital emerging art form.

Read the full article on the Art & Antiques website .