To me art is one of the great resources of my life. I feel that it enriches the spiritual life and makes one more sane and sympathetic, more observant and understanding, as well as being good for one's nerves. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, January 7, 1928
Those are my feelings exactly with the addition of and quilting next to art in the first sentence.
My education began in a one-room country school. I lived for art on Friday afternoon. The need to express myself in color caused me to miss more than one recess. I had a hard time with the "busy" papers, color the square blue, the circle green and the triangle red. I vaguely recall telling my teacher I didn't feel like using those colors. Oh well....Later I could follow the directions to the letter sewing a Vogue pattern in high school and it fit perfectly. My mother taught me to sew and I honed my skills in 4-H. I majored in art in college.
I like sewing traditional quilt patterns. I think there is a timeless quality about traditional quilts. I like making scrap quilts but I enjoy working in many color palates from earthy to brights to pastels. The first scrap quilts I made were busy and chaotic. I tried to use too many fabrics well maybe not too many fabrics but too many dissimilar prints. I had large and small florals, large and small geometrics, high contrast fabrics and novelty prints all sewn together. It looked like clutter but the children loved their quilts and that was all that mattered. In the past 20 years of quilting I have learned to exercise some control in choosing a palate of fabric for a quilt. I have learned about color, value and pattern and how to bring order out of the chaos and create visual movement in a quilt.
Other art mediums which I have worked over the years: pottery, weaving, calligraphy, bookbinding, fabric dying, smocking, needlepoint, sketching and watercolor. Most recently wood carving. And always the culinary arts much underrated but the most appreciated.
Influential quotes:
Less is more. Meis VanDerRohe
Form follows function. Louis Sullivan
Something important might happen. And if it doesn't, then I must
learn to make important the little things that happen every day. Sarah Tracy from
Sarah's Ground by Ann Rinaldi
It's not for 4-H. Just enjoy the process. Ann Foster Douglas
Just the facts: Married to a great guy for 36 some years.
Three grown children who are all taxpayers!
Graduate SDSU art education
