Center for the Quilt Interview

When I introduced myself to the Quiltart community, Karen Musgrave emailed me to say that she was interested in interviewing me for Quilters'
S.O.S. - Save Our Stories, a project of The Alliance for American Quilts (www.centerforthequilt.org). Other than job interviews, I don't think that I've ever been interviewed before. I wholeheartedly said yes!

The interview took place via email over a handful of days, with Karen sending me one question at a time. This surprised me because I had expected a questionnaire, but Karen's approach was much better. It flowed like an in-person dialogue. I thought about each question and answered it thoroughly. Karen thought about my answer and shaped the next question from it.

Another surprise was discovering the strength of my opinions. When she asked me about color, design, etc., there was no pondering and trying to understand how I felt about these subjects. I delivered a prompt answer with conviction. Working on my own, I can see how I've spent a great deal of time thinking about these issues and forming an opinion, but without the benefit of community exchange, I've had no place to voice these opinions. Here's the full interview.

Connected to Quiltart

Recently I stumbled into a site (www.quiltart.com) that offered a mailing list forum for art quilters. It sounded good so I signed up. What ensued was an avalanche of emails carrying a variety of information about quilting techniques and materials, deadlines for entering juried shows, how to transition quilting from hobby to business, celebratory notices about work completed, angst-ridden missives describing rough patches, encouragements, congratulations, heated discussions on the nature of art quilts: is it art?

I was overwhelmed and overjoyed. So much information to process, and yet, here is a community addressing the very issues I think about on my own. Denise (wildthreadstudio.blogspot.com/), a member of Quiltart, encapsulated this world of art quilting best when she wrote: "I think we are on the cusp of a very exciting time in the art world. The attraction of art quilts extends to people of all ages, genders and socio-economic backgrounds. Both a 73 yr old retired truck driver & a 22 yr old college student are equally fascinated with this art form. Lucky, lucky us...."

I sent out an email introducing myself to the forum and received a warm welcome. And now, for the first time in my quilting life, I feel connected.

Two Turtles

Here's one of the quilts that I exhibited at Maufe Gallery last month. I'd designed a panel with the two turtles thinking that I'd make a big quilt with various panels of sea creatures. The big quilt never came to be, but I still wanted to complete the two turtles for the show. The panel sat unfinished on my design wall while I worked on the various other pieces. I'd look at it every day wondering what to do with it. It sat there for 2 months until I was able to devote to it some undivided attention.
I knew it wanted a vibrant border, but what exactly, I couldn't decipher. I don't think that I ever had an "a ha!" moment with this one. The border just sort of happened, and then the quilting inside, and then it was finished. I like this quilt but I don't have a complete feeling about it. Actually, it's not a complete feeling about the quilt, but about the turtles. I've always seen myself making a whole series of turtle quilts. And now that I'm writing about it here I understand that this incomplete feeling comes from the turtles because they are not done with me yet!

The Business of Art

In my other life as a marketing and business consultant, I help my clients focus their goals into a cohesive plan of action via a business plan. There's usually some resistance to the idea because the process seems daunting, but no matter how simple or elaborate a plan, the results are always rewarding. I experienced the same daunting feelings when I put myself through the task of writing my own business plan for Calypso Art Quilts these past few weeks.

After the rush of creating all the pieces I needed for my first solo show, I switched gears and got into thinking mode. I spent hours at the computer doing research, considering all the venues through which I could sell my quilts, and with so many possibilities I could feel myself going into information overload. I exacted of myself the same questions I would ask of any business owner and finally condensed my ideas into a few basic strategies to follow.

It was a great feeling when I finally got my thoughts in order on paper. And although this is just the beginning, the jumble of ideas now have a home that I can go visit whenever I'm ready for them, rather than having them all knocking about in my brain. I've got the plan organized into main categories (inventory, website exposure, local market exposure, etc.), and now comes the job of distilling each category down to a series of to-dos for each week. These to-do's are going to be bite-size pieces, small enough steps to trick the brain from thinking that building a business from scratch has to be difficult or labor-intensive.

Post-Maufe

Sorry, folks, for taking so very long to get back to my blog. My internet access was down for a while and it slowed things down quite a bit.

The Maufe opening reception was a great experience. My husband Bob and I got to the gallery half hour before the showing and were just beginning to set up the wine/snack table when the first visitor arrived. A string of people followed and for most of the night, the place was packed. Some were my dear friends; others were there as part of the Art Thursday gallery walk through Christiansted, and yet others were there exclusively because they saw an article (read it here) about me in the local paper and were very curious about my work. I loved seeing that both men and women equally enjoyed the pieces.

There wasn't enough time for me to talk to everyone, but I did connect with a few interesting people, such as a documentary filmmaker. She was the last person to come in at the end of the night, and told me she rushed over after a friend, who'd been there earlier, called her and told her she must come and see the exhibit. A couple from Maine enjoyed my lemon squares and so we got to talking about tea houses in Maine and the lack of one in St. Croix, and it made me wish I had all the time/energy/resources in the world to go to the St. George Botanical Gardens and offer to open a tea house there.


A couple of days later I happened to meet a woman who was on her way to lunch with a friend and then to see my exhibit. She called me afterwards and told me that they were at the gallery for hours studying the quilts and trying to figure out how I created the pieces.

Overall, the opening of this exhibit was a fabulous experience. Each quilt looked good in its place, and the spot lights brought out the colors in the way that I had envisioned them when I first created the pieces. My friend Adele told me later that she enjoyed simply watching the people react to the quilts, and noticed that people picked a different favorite.(see follow-up article here)

The exhibit will continue until April 28. I haven't been back to the gallery, but I'll stop in soon to see how it's been going. For now, I've been home engaged in much-needed spring cleaning and brief jaunts to the beach.

Ready for Maufe

Tonight is the opening reception for my first solo exhibit at Maufe Gallery, located in downtown Christiansted. The reception is part of a monthly event called Art Thursday, where you can walk through historic downtown visiting the art galleries and meeting the artists.

The Gallery is ready. Bob and I spent Tuesday afternoon hanging 14 quilts, ranging in size from 9"X12" to 72"X62". When everything was hung, I stood back and looked at the walls full of my work, and I had two thoughts. One: it's been one busy season! Two: here it is, one dream come true. This last thought made me smile. I've been working towards this moment for a very, very long time. Not just the time it took to make the quilts, but the years it took for me to sort myself out until I could call myself an artist.

And here's how I'm spending my time between now and the reception this afternoon: I'm cooking and blogging. Today is simply the perfect day to enjoy the three things that I love best: writing, quilting and cooking. Therese, the gallery owner, is providing wine and cheese and fruit for the reception. But I always cook for my own parties, so it was unthinkable for me not to cook for my own reception. So I'm bringing the sweets: brownies, lemon squares and cranberry-pineapple squares.

The bougainvillea are in full bloom and I plan to make a little bouquet for the table. And I'm bringing the music I quilt to: The sweet saxophone of Paul Desmond, the sultry sounds of Bossa Nova and some French lounge music. And lastly, I'll bring a bottle of Champaign to toast to a dream come true.

To Frame or Not to Frame

As anticipated, the art show at the Botanical Garden this past weekend proved to have great Public Relations exposure. The Art in Bloom exhibit was well received and I got a lot of great feedback. And this morning I found out that a picture of my quilt was featured in The Daily News (one of the local papers).

One surprising bit of feedback I received came from a fellow exhibiting artist. She suggested that I frame my quilts. Her reasoning was that most people think "bedspread" with the word quilt, and therefore, framing my work would let people know instantly that it is art. I've given her suggestion a bit of thought and even went out to buy a frame to test the idea. The result was a more traditional art look, but putting my quilt inside a box took away the textural element that gives quilts in general such sensorial appeal. And this appeal is a major reason why I chose to quilt rather than paint.

This whole exercise reminded me how new the concept of an art quilt really is. As far as I can tell, I'm the only artist actively creating art quilts here in St. Croix, and possibly in all of the Virgin Islands. Across the county, those of us creating art quilts are still a very small group of misfits. We are not yet fully recognized by the traditional art world (although many museums are discovering that quilt exhibits draw large crowds), and we don't exactly fit or follow all the established conventions of traditional quilters. It's alright in the end. I don't mind having to swim against the current because the pleasure of creating art quilts makes it all worthwhile.

Art in Bloom!

Last night was the opening reception for the Flower and Fine Art Festival at the St. George Botanical Garden and I was happy to be there for my second exhibit. For this show I created 2 new pieces with a botanical theme: Century at Sunset and Unfurling (check them out at my new website: www.calypsoartquilts.com).

But what really made my heart sing last night was my participation in the Art in Bloom exhibit. Here floral designers interpret the work of select artists. My big quilt, Poseidon's Garden was interpreted by Beatrice Ramos, owner of Wild Orchid. There was another fabric piece by my friend Cindy Male and interpreted by Carole Pappas. There was also work by the late Maria Henle, interpreted by David Hamada (Horticultural Director at the Botanical Garden). And Judy Smith interpreted her own work. Here are pictures (in the order just mentioned) of the Art in Bloom exhibit:

Switching Gears

I am now preparing for my next art exhibit, this time at the St. George Botanical Garden here in St. Croix on March 9-11. For this exhibit I am working on two small quilts about ferns and agave plants. This is a change from the sea life theme that's been my focus thus far. However, plants are not an entirely new subject. Here's a closeup of my first art quilt, "A Walk in the Woods":

But switching gears this time has proven more challenging than I've expected. There's a freedom of expression that I find working with sea life that I have yet to find with plant life. I know it's there, beneath the surface, but my movements thus far when working with the fabrics/colors/composition still feel rigid, almost clumsy. Maybe it's simply a matter of time, like getting reacquainted with an old friend you haven't seen in a while. I plan to spend the rest of the week at the studio lost in the world of ferns and succulents, and I know that my love for these wonderful plants will help me to find the flow again.

Good Hope Exhibit

Last Friday night we attended the opening reception for the Good Hope Art Exhibit. It was a new experience for me as this was my very first exhibit. We arrived to a line that snaked out the door, and inside the place was packed. A fellow exhibiter had told me earlier that she found it agonizing to have her art out on display for critique. "You're bearing your soul!"

For me, the experience was more abstract. I felt detached from my work. It was as if the act of hanging them up for display released any attachments I had to these pieces. What I kept was the excitement I felt when I created them; the pleasure of hours at the studio immersed in my work while listening to great music or a fine audible book.

I did receive very encouraging feedback from the audience. But for me, the most rewarding feedback was when the director of the program told me that my quilts were a big hit with the Good Hope students. I love it that the kids got it, so next year I'll be doing a demo for the kids, and I'm thoroughly looking forward to it.

Here's a picture of the exhibit space:

A Big Exhale

Today I gave myself the pleasure of sleeping in, having a slow morning and cooking a hot lunch. It feels utterly luxurious to be doing this after weeks of working under pressure of a deadline, but I'm happy to say I've done it!

I finished the big quilt and everything else that I had to complete for the Good Hope School Art Exhibit. Yesterday Bob and I hung the quilts at the exhibit hall and in the afternoon I finished sewing the last of the mini wallets to be sold at the gift shop. Last night when I left the studio I declared myself on vacation.

This afternoon Olga and I will drive to the school to deliver the mini wallets and then we'll head over to Frederiksted (just a few minutes away from the school) to enjoy a celebratory drink. She's been sacrificing her own free time to help me and I'm eternally grateful for her support and her good company.

Tomorrow night is the opening reception. Bob and I will be there to celebrate. For those of you who can't join us, here's a peek at the big quilt, officially titled "Poseidon's Garden." I'll be posting more photos of the exhibit, etc. in the coming days.

The All-Consuming Quilt

When I said that I planned to hibernate at the studio for the winter I didn't realize the extent to which this idea was going to be true. Now that our visitors are gone, I've been spending every day, all day at the studio. I've managed to squeeze in cooking dinner every night and I've kept up our daily morning walks with Bob, but there is little time or energy left for anything else. This is because the last quilt I began, the one about the corals, has turned into a massive project, both in size and scope. And I'm so excited about it that I simply cannot leave it out of the upcoming exhibit at Good Hope. So I'm working as fast as I can to finish it in time. I'm tired physically from leaning over the sewing machine for hours at a time. And the mental and emotional effort it takes to stay focused is all-consuming. I'll post pictures when it's complete. And when it is all finished (the quilt and the exhibit) I'm going to take a mini-vacation on the beach, under a palm tree, reading one of the novels from a pile currently sitting unnoticed in a corner of our apartment.

Turtles

Here's a close up of a turtle I've been working on. Turtles are one of my favorite subjects to quilt. This one is maybe 20 inches long, but I see a very large turtle quilt in my future.

Corals

My time at the studio this weekend has paid off in a great way. I've been itching to make a quilt about corals but I've found them daunting at best. Corals are a fabulous riot of shapes and colors, a true feast to the eye. In this sense they are a perfect subject for a vibrant quilt. But distilling these amazing structures into simple two-dimensional forms without sacrificing their essence was a challenge that kept me awake at night.

This weekend I skipped happy hour and stayed home to study corals. I went online and looked at hundreds of images of reefs, in broad landscapes and in captivating close-ups, tying to understand something new about them. I didn't know what it was that I needed to understand, but I allowed my intuition to guide me until I knew I'd gotten it, even if it was a feeling that couldn't be vocalized.

I went to the studio on Sunday and willfully emptied my head of all the colorful coral images in my head so that I could cut out simple shapes. The image on the left is what I came up with.

Then I went to my fabric stash and found the perfect fabrics to begin building my own coral reef. Here's the stash, and the riot of color can now begin.

Birthing a Quilt

Birthing a quilt is a traditional method of finishing the edges of a quilt without using a binding strip around the border. In effect you layer together the quilt top, the batting and the back so that they are inside out. Then you sew the edges together leaving an opening big enough to stick in your fingers, grab the corners and turn the quilt right sides out.

But for me, "birthing a quilt" better describes my experience at the studio yesterday. A new quilt idea began brewing in my head sometime last week. I could see flashes in my mind of what it might look like, but the picture wasn't complete. It was like watching a movie preview without understanding a coherent plot for the story.

It was a busy weekend with responsibilities that kept me away from the studio for a few days, but the fleeting images kept flashing. Finally yesterday I was able to spend the day at the studio and I couldn't get there fast enough. I still hadn't gotten the whole picture, but I knew it would come if I just sat there in my creative space for a little while.

It took all morning. I leafed through some diving magazines with photos of sea life waiting for some image to trigger the ideas in my head. Then I saw my sketch book and leafed through that, and that's when it happened. An old sketch came to life and coalesced with all the images I'd been seeing on the magazines, and I had the plot for my new quilt.

Olga and Jellyfish

Here's a photo of me (seated) and Olga at the studio. Olga took the picture because she's been telling her sister about her work with me, but it's pretty hard to describe it if you've never seen an art quilt before. A picture being worth a thousand words applies here.

On the other hand, I've found that pictures of quilts never do justice to the real thing. There's something powerful about being up close to the fabric and the quilting patterns, and the quality of light on the colors that creates the experience of enjoying an art quilt. These things get lost in the photos somehow. Having said that, below is a photo of the jellyfish quilt that I've been working on. There is some hand stitching still to be done on the border and Olga is helping me with that.

Mini Wallet/Biz Card Holder

Here is the promised photo of the mini wallet/business card holder that I've been creating with Olga's help. It's small enough to fit in the back pocket of your jeans when you don't want to carry a handbag, or it goes in your handbag as a nifty place for your business cards. It can fit business cards, credit cards or folded bills. When you pull on the little ribbon tag, the contents slide up for easy access. The photo shows the front and back sides.

I've designed it, created the prototype and selected all the fabrics to be used for this project. Olga has helped me to cut all the materials and now they are waiting for me to begin sewing it all up. My goal is to begin selling these at the Good Hope Art Exhibit in February. If they sell, then I'll try to sell them at gift boutiques around the island.

Jellyfish Gestation

Last week I began working on an idea for a quilt about jellyfish. My first attempt flopped before too long. A second try suffered the same fate. The problem was the organza that I wanted to incorporate into the design. This sheer fabric has a luxurious glow and airiness that makes it the ideal candidate for any textile rendering of jellyfish. But its silky texture also makes it tricky to handle. The week ended with me thinking that I should simply give up on that jellyfish quilt for now and attempt it some other time.

Friday afternoon found me waiting for two-hours at the doctor's office. Fortunately I'd brought with me Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project ("a compendium of more than 400 quilts, each 8 1/2" x 11", culled from the nearly 6,000 Quilt Pages made by 918 artists who participated in The Journal Quilt Project over five years"). So busy was I feasting my eyes on these wonderful quilts that I didn't notice the lengthy wait. By the time I left the doctor's office I had some thoughts brewing on how to rescue my jellyfish quilt.

I returned to the studio today after a five-day absence. I hadn't given the jellyfish ideas much thought during the weekend but they popped right back into my head as soon as I put my focus on the quilt. I was thrilled to see that my time away was not wasted. All those random ideas had a few days to simmer and today they coalesced into a quick, easy and coherent approach for my quilt. I had to tear myself away from the studio this evening, and I can't wait to return in the morning to finish this project. I'm bringing my camera tomorrow so that I can take a picture. Stay tuned...

Creative Overload?

My friend Olga has volunteered to come to the studio in the afternoons and help out. Her offer came just as I was planning to create a line of quilted wallets and purses to sell at the Good Hope Art Exhibit in February. With Olga's assistance the idea has blossomed into a full-blown operation and we began by producing mini wallets/business card holders (I'll bring one home to photograph and post.).

Now I'm dividing my time between making art quilts on my own, and then working with Olga on these smaller items. This new arrangement brings forth a whole new array of ideas and decisions to be made. And I'm beginning to feel on creative overload.

Running the gamut of ideas through my mind is like window shopping, everything looks good, everything is a possibility. But selecting a single idea and committing to it requires a mental and emotional shift if it is to be successfully brought to fruition. So today I'm going to the studio and I will take a deep breath and sit for a while until I work out which idea has the strongest emotional pull to become my next project.

Fabrics

Today I received a package of fabrics from my mother. She sent an assortment of cottons with African motifs. The fabrics are very cool and will work very well together. I think that there's a quilt in that mix waiting for me.

The array of fabrics available to quilters in the US is staggering. Mainstay calico prints now compete for shelf space with increasingly sophisticated collections of fabrics sporting the most ingenious designs and wonderful colors, enough to spin the head of any quilter with all the possibilities these fabrics present. Unfortunately, here in the Virgin Islands, these fabrics are hard to come by. In St. Croix there are three fabric stores, one of which carries no cottons (to my total disbelief), and the other two have very limited selections.

I get the bulk of my fabrics from NJ. When I travel back I make certain to take a trip to the fabric store, and in between trips, my best friend John W. (who enjoys selecting colorful fabrics) goes to a couple of great shops near him and sends me what I need. Now my mom is having fun shopping on my behalf and I'm feeling very fortunate to have this level of support. It's great to open the box and look through the colors and textures of each fabric, knowing that each one is full of potential and somewhere down the road, in the middle of a yet-unforeseen project, I will put it to good use.