Embroidered Collage

I went to see this exhibit when it was at the New Hope branch of the Michener Museum, but never wrote about it because I wasn't quite sure what to say.  It emphasized the abstract nature of quilts and how individuals made interesting changes and innovations from the traditional patterns over the last 200 years.  Most of the pieces on display were still what we would probably call traditional quilts, but there were a couple of stunningly done modern pieces that fit more into the art quilt realm.

The feel of viewing the quilts in the hushed and open spaces of the museum setting was very different than the dull roar and backing curtains of a quilt show, whether small or large.  The setting emphasized each piece, as you would expect, but then the placards mentioned the stitch count per inch.  So were the exhibit's original curator deliberately ignoring the perception of an art/craft boundary or were they being confused about what they were doing?

But then I noticed that the Doylestown library had acquired the exhibit book, Wild by Design: Two Hundred Years of Innovation and Artistry in American Quilts by Janet Catherine Berlo and Patricia Cox Crewe.  After I read it my memories of the exhibit sprang to life.  The introduction was interesting, explaining about how improvisation and a quest for deliberate effects must have been used in a number of different quilts, based on the fabrics and patterns in them and how they differed from a perfectly standard example.  But the best part was the facing page to the quilt image, which was done in dialogue or interview format, each person adding a few insights to the understanding of that particular piece.  Only about half of the quilts in the book were in the exhibit at New Hope, about an even mix of the ones I really wanted to see and the ones I cared less about.

The people who brought this exhibit together wanted to emphasize design, whether it was executed in perfect craft or with merely adequate skills.  Many of these quilts would be passed over by the judges at a quilt show today.  I was better able to appreciate the design that went into them, knowing more about the back drop that the women were working in.  I'd like to go see the exhibit again, now, but am not sure I'll get up there before it closes on June 3. 

I enjoyed it the first time, but think I'd appreciate it more this time.  I find it ironic that of all the exhibits I would be dissatisfied by with less preparation, the first one that I remember having this feeling for is a quilt exhibit.  Maybe because I do know more background in general, or because I'm closer to it, I'm more critical of it?  That it was harder to just look and accept like I can do when I know very little?  Perhaps.

  The tent bands on display at the National Textile Museum were fascinating examples of pattern variation.  I loved the color scheme of red, with accents, on ivory, which was inspired by the available natural dyes.  It was interesting to see how the museum was able to display the very long and skinny pieces, folded in "U"s in some places or wrapped around the walls of the room in others.  Many of the motifs were definitely in the same family with the designs on oriental rugs.  One display had a model of a tent so you could see how the embroidered bands, the carpets, and many other textiles would all fit together in a home.

I had a little time to sketch, but not an extensive amount as I was with family members, and did capture some of the typical shapes.  The third page was drawn later, to capture a bit I'd sketched roughly in a larger and clearer format.  I really like the imagery and might pick up some more pattern sources from books to incorporate the aesthetic into my own work.

The second exhibit was "Red" and it was interesting to walk through but didn't capture my imagination in the same way.  One piece that did intrigue me was an intricately patterned scarf.  It was woven in white on white with two different fibers and you couldn't make out the pattern, but then it would be dyed when its owner married, and the dye would only take on one of the fibers, sliding right off the other.  I can imagine how exciting it must have been to pull the cloth from the dye bath and see the pattern emerge.

There was also a nice textile study room with a number of "touch" stations and good information.  I wanted to take home the entire set of books from the gift store, but I didn't get  a chance to look in the actual library.  I look forward to going back by myself some time, hopefully during another intriguing exhibit, when I can have more time to study the materials and maybe even attend a lecture.  But I enjoyed this brief visit very much.

Unfortunately, the strongest memory that I carried away from this exhibit at the Franklin Institute was the press of people.  There was a line.  And then there was another line.  There were crowd controlling corral points along the path.  There were people bumping into each other and crammed against the cases.  UGGH.  Although I do wonder how I could express that feeling in a piece of art, of having a new crowd every time you turn a corner.

My best memory is of carefully viewing an inlaid pectoral necklace.  The chain portion was interlinking squares, about 1" square, each inlaid with a scene.  The line of them was framed by a line of small beads in blue and orange and then a line of larger beads in blue and orange and gold.  There was a huge main pendant at the front and a smaller at the back.  Both showed intricate scenes.

All throughout the exhibit it was wonderful to look at the inlay work and see the little bits of stone set into metal.  The colors were consistant, the most beautiful turquise blues and the orange-reds of carnelion, always with the glint of gold.  In some places there was the dark blue-purple stone and occasionally a hint of green.  The painted wood items echoed the inlay items in their color use. 

I was able to see why the Egyptian imagery and color can so capture the imagination, although I am unlikely to use it in my own art.  Because of the rarity of this exhibit traveling, it was definitely worth seeing, but oh, how I wish I'd gone on a weekday, surely it would have been less crowded then....

I stopped to pick up a few books at the Doylestown library and almost immediately reverting back to an excited teenager.  They have an Art-O-Mat!  That is just so darn cool.  I'd been aware of them, but this was the first time I'd actually seen one.  It hadn't been there during my last visit.  I told the librarian this while getting my token - since I just had to buy something.  She wasn't particularly impressed.  Ah, well, I'm sure other people will think it's cool.

  It was very hard choosing what to buy.  I settled on a box by Michelle Cutler, since it said fabric art and jewelry and I was intrigued to see if it was the former.  I ended up with the latter - the cute little box to the side enclosing a metal pendant with a polymer clay bead strung to it.  Simple, but nice.

I want to go back!  I want one of the little books and an abstract and and and... There was just something horribly cool about pulling the knob and having the little box drop down and needing to get into it to see what hand-made piece of originality that I had acquired. 

One of the pre-birthday party events was a trolley ride through historic Edenton, where my grandmother has lived for the last couple decades.  I must admit I chuckled a bit at the very idea, but it turned out to be quite interesting.  I'd never known that this little town on the coast of North Carolina had been an important colonial port, home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and remained active until the canal bypassed it in the 1800s.  My husband, mother, and I went back to the waterfront area to take a few more pictures before we headed back to the hotel to change for the party.  The image above is my absolute favorite.

It was interesting to go through the resulting images after I returned home and look at them as sketches and not as photographs.  On their own the left-hand photograph is rather boring and the light on the right-hand photograph is oddly distracting.  For example, if I created an artwork to take advantage of the repetition of the poles, then I would base the overall composition on the left-hand photo, but include the bird on the right.  I might also shift the relationship of the pier to the pole line, separating them further into completely different elements. 

My husband spent his time focusing on the birds and captured a few really nice ones.  I squared off my two favorites to make it easier to think about them as structures for Footsteps.  The colors of the ducks overlaid on the three background textures intrigue me.  I might shift the lower duck/green spot over to the right a bit though, so there's less of a straight line.  I like the out of focus background compared to the sharply in focus and detailed bird in the foreground.  There's also the subject matter echo of the background bird to the foreground bird.  I probably wouldn't interpret this one as anything resembling a bird, but instead use the abstract principles underlying it.

As my mother and I were looking up at this communications satellite she commented that it looked like something I would do in my art, which was just what I'd been thinking.  My husband had brought the nice camera and took some pictures for me.  I can imagine how the forms would turn into textures in my work.

The entire visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum was visually stunning.  It is housed in an airline hanger just off of Dulles airport, so you walk into this huge open space filled with planes of all sizes and right in front of you is a large sleek black spy plane, just beyond which you can catch a glimpse of white and black of the space shuttle Enterprise in the side hanger.  The entire place is well-laid out so you can walk among the planes on the ground or take stairs or elevator up to an elevated walkway where you can look down on some planes or else straight on at the ones that are suspended in the air.

I'd like to go back and sketch someday.  I would probably spend the most time with the engines.  There are a couple rows of cleaned and gleaming machinery that powered a variety of planes and they have such interesting patterns formed by the necessity of their functions.  My husband took a few pictures and this is my favorite.