Tag Archives | 2013 Artist

Luanne Rimel

Enigma with a Flower by Luanne Rimel

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.

LRimelportrait_150Luanne 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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Pam RuBert’s Space Needle goes to Quilt National

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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.

PRupertsketch1 PRupertsketch2Then 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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Sara Impey’s Book,Text in Textile Art, Published

Impey_960Quilt National artist, Sara Impey‘s book Text in Textile Art is now available in the UK.  This book includes work by other Quilt National artists including Susan Shie and Robin Schwalb.

The book is a practical and inspirational book about the use of text in textile art, illustrated with work from some of the world’s leading textile artists. The publishers are Anova Books Company Limited.

Text in Textile Art is available now online in the UK from BookFellas, and will soon be available from Amazon.com in the U.S. You can pre-order Sara’s book from Amazon by following the links below.

Text
Text in Textile Art
by Sara Impey
List Price: $29.95
Price: $18.68
You Save: $11.27 (38%)

Available for Pre-order

Learn More

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Deidre Adams records her visit to the Quilt National opening

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The Quilt National exhibition is held every two years at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, home of Ohio University. Athens isn’t the easiest place to get to, but the show is phenomenal, and the Quilt National director and staff make all the artists feel very special. It’s worth every minute to see it in person. This year, a flat tire on the rental car notwithstanding, I had a great time there. Seeing old friends and meeting new ones is the best part of it. Read more here

Deidre is preparing for a residency at Vermont Studio Center. She will spend 4 weeks in total art-making immersion, surrounded by creative artists and writers, focusing on her creative practice and expanding a new body of work. The cost for this opportunity is not insignificant, so in order to be able to fund it she is holding a studio sale, offering some of her older work at reduced prices. Please take a look by clicking here.
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