Cindy Grisdela ~ art quilter

I’ve added some new art quilts to my website this week. This one is called “Building Blocks” and you can see it in the Small Art Quilts gallery. This piece grew out of my explorations with the improvisational solid quilts. I used some of my favorite batik fabrics in bright clear colors. I cut and pieced the central panel and the vertical and horizontal strips randomly, then heavily machine quilted the block panel and blue background areas with five different free motion motifs in variegated thread. The image at right is a detail of the quilting, which was a lot of fun.

This piece is small, measuring about 19″h x15″w. I took it to the SAQA conference in Athens last weekend and showed it to a critique group workshop. I wasn’t sure what reception it would get, because it’s a fairly simple design and it probably falls more to the “contemporary” rather than the “art” side of the quilting world. The group was very positive about it, however, especially the quilting. The most intriguing suggestion I got was to make it much bigger, so the pieced panel is smaller in relation to the whole and set more off center than it is now. The group also thought it would be interesting to vary the size and scale of the blocks in the central section so they don’t read as similar sizes. I definitely think I’ll pursue this.

It was interesting to try this improvisational technique with patterned fabrics. It has a much different feel than the quilts made from solid color fabrics, but I’d like to explore the idea further. Going to the SAQA conference and the Quilt National show gave me lots of new insights to ponder, but that’s another post.

I’m just back from Athens, Ohio and my first visit to Quilt National and the Studio Art Quilt Associates conference. It was an amazing weekend, full of information and inspiration. I met lots of interesting people and was thrilled to be at the opening for Quilt National 2009 on Friday night. My husband had generously bought the QN catalog for me ahead of time, so I had some time to look at the images before I went to the exhibit. As always, I was amazed at how the quilts were so much more vibrant in person than they are in photographs, although the catalog is very well done. The photos just can’t capture the dimensional quality of the work, which is so important in fiber art. Click on the link http://www.dairybarn.org/quilt/index.php?section=226&page=281 to see the winning quilts from this year’s show.

Last Saturday, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting piece on Quilt National and other upcoming shows this summer.  It’s great to see fiber art getting some positive national press. Here’s the link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574175704270154992.html

At the SAQA conference, I was fortunate to attend a panel discussion by this year’s QN jurors, Sue Benner, Katie Pasquini Masopust and Ned Wert, who gave insights into the jury process for this prestigious show. I didn’t enter this time, but I came away from the talk with a much better idea of what I need to do to enter for the next show in 2011. Quilt National is a celebration of innovation and it’s exciting to see all the different directions fiber artists are pursuing. Of course, some are more appealing than others to me, but I think that the challenge  is to explore new ideas that speak me as an artist and then try to express my unique voice and vision through my work. So I’m off to the studio!

Now that I’ve finished with my shows and most of my travel for the spring, I’m back to working in the studio. I’ve got several of these improvisational pieces made out of solids either on the design wall or in my head. “Hint of Lime” shown right is the latest. There’s something about working in this style that really appeals to me right now, but I’m conflicted about it because it’s different from my other work and I’m not sure that it really “works” on a design level. I enjoy the process of deciding what color palette I’m going to work with and then just diving into cutting and sewing without much of a preconceived plan. In many ways the piece creates itself as one design decision leads to another and it’s this intuitive process that is exciting to me. Does it matter if it appeals to anyone else? Or should I just follow this trail where it leads?

I’ve been entering or curating quite a few shows recently and while I enjoy doing that, it has definitely meant less time just working on new ideas and letting things percolate. As a result, I’m finding that I’m focusing more on the finished product than on the process. The process is where creativity comes from, I think. So I’m back to the studio to play!

I curated an all media show of Great Falls Studios artists at the Fairfax County Government Center last weekend. We have 14 artists exhibiting 53 works of art ranging from painting to photography to sculpture to fiber in a curved first floor hallway of the office building. The exhibit is part of the Fairfax County Arts Council’s Arts in the Workplace program which showcases a rotating group of artists in different office venues around the county. It will be up until July 10, 2009 and you can see it during normal business hours Monday-Friday.

Shown left is Jonathan Fisher’s wood relief sculpture and Jan Bender’s black and white photographs. At right is my “Fire and Ice” piece, which I’ve recently had mounted onto stretcher bars with a black linen background. I’m happy with the result. The background really makes the bright design pop, I think. It’s recently been photographed and I’ll have it up in the gallery as soon as I get the pictures back from the photographer.

Curating this show was  a real experience for me, since it’s the group’s first major exhibit outside of Great Falls. We hope to get some exposure to people who might not have seen our work before. I’m grateful to those members of Great Falls Studios who participated in the exhibit and helped to hang it last Saturday.