Virginia A. Spiegel

Venetian Fire
Fenella Davies
All photos provided by Lark Craft

I just went back and read what I had to say in my review of Masters Art Quilts, Vol. 1 and perhaps I could just say,”Ditto, buy it, buy it now.”  I won’t feel badly if you just go here and buy this second volume featuring forty artists who both pioneered and are pioneering exactly what the potential of an art quilt can be.

Martha Sielman, Executive Director of Studio Art Quilt Associates, has once again done a superb job of distilling in ten pages the who, what, and why of each of the forty artists. Sielman notes in her introduction that she tries to keep her curatorial comments concise, but artists often spoke to her of incidents in their lives that resonate in their work.

I say bring on more of those stories, Martha!  I have Leslie Gabrielse’s book, but I either whipped by it or didn’t focus on his itinerant childhood that may be reflected in the often wistful expressions of the people in his artwork.

The forty artists are from around the world with just over half from the U.S.  I was most intrigued, in general, by the work from artists not in the U.S.  But, hey, blame that on seeing works from artists such as Tim Harding, Jane Dunnewold, Elizabeth Busch, etc. covered extensively and over a number of years in the U.S.

Landscape in Gray
Shulamit Liss

Often books about art quilts veer from featuring dark artworks such as those from Shulamit Liss featuring, “A brooding palette that includes ocher, black, gray, and brown. . . .”  Well, kudos to Martha for writing that lovely sentence and knowing that although the artwork may be somewhat difficult to see in a printed format, it is work that deserves to be seen and appreciated on its own terms.  I would have loved to have seen bigger and more detail shots of almost all the artwork and darker artwork always benefits the most from this important feature.

Le Mantra III: Missing Messages
Mirjam Pet-Jacobs

As in Vol. 1, these are pure quibbles compared to the delight and edification to be found in this volume. I was intrigued by artwork by almost all the artists, but three of my favs’ artwork (Mirjam Pet-Jacobs, Pamela Fitzsimons and Finella Davies) are featured throughout this review. These artists have a very personal vision which they are rendering in cloth in new and unusual ways.

Skin/Earth
Pamela Fitzsimons

You will have your own favorites as there is such an abundance and variety of artwork.  People often misunderstand the motivation of a good juror or curator.  It is not to choose artwork that is personally appealing, but to choose artwork by an artist that clearly shows a mature and developed point of view and expresses that point of view in a way that will make the viewer pause and perhaps re-consider what they know about the world or the medium.  Martha has succeeded for an amazing second time and I look forward to Vol. 3 of this series.

“Twelve by Twelve:  The International Art Quilt Challenge” is officially available March 1 in bookstores, but it already available online here at a very good price.

Two word summary of this review:  Buy it.

I have had the book here awhile, thanks to Lark sending a preview copy, but it has taken this long to work my way through it.  That’s a good thing!  Twelve artists from around the world challenged each other every other month to create a 12×12” art quilt with a theme chosen by one of the members of the group.

Sure the whole group challenge thing has been done before, but what makes this group and their art stand out is the joy and camaraderie revealed in this book.  Each chapter features one of the twelve artworks almost full-page sized and the artist of that artwork writes the chapter.  Running along the bottom half of each page of the chapter is one of the other artworks with a short artist statement.

Either (or maybe I should say either/or) these are twelve of the best artist/writers around or they had a superlative editor in Valerie Van Arsdale Shrader.  Each chapter is unique, personal, useful, engaging, and just down right interesting. I kept being distracted by the other artworks on the bottom half of the pages until I finally worked out a system.

First I went to the back of the book and read all the artists’ biographies.  Then I read all twelve small sidebars listed in the back. The sidebars are full of useful stuff such as Demystifying the Thermofax, On Sketchbook and Journals, and Twelve Reasons to Blog.

THEN I looked at and read about all twelve art quilts for each theme and THEN finally I read the chapter by the one featured artist straight through.  That’s why I gave such a hearty thumbs-up to this book; it’s just full of interesting information and insight.

The chapter written by each featured artist clearly points out both the why and how of working in many different styles.  Some artists looked to traditional patterns, some researched word associations, and some looked to contemporary and historical issues related to the theme for inspiration.  Each chapter points out the richness and detail of the featured artwork that might have escaped our first perusal.

At first glance you might think some of the artwork is a bit traditional to be called art quilts. But it is so disarming to read the artists’ own critiques of their artworks and to see how artists progressed throughout the challenges.  I think Terri Stegmiller said it best, “A major benefit I have gained … is the drive to try and push myself beyond my normal limitations.”

I hear again and again that people just want how-to books.  I beg to differ.  I think many readers delight in insights about how fiber artists work, what their studios look like, how they came to be artists, and their joys and challenges in life and in the studio.  I felt as though I came to know each of these artists through their sharing this two-year-long online collaboration.

Visit the Twelve by Twelve artists’ group website here and their blog here for more information about the group and the twelve artists that include Deborah Boschert, Gerrie Congdon, Helen L. Conway, Kirsten Duncan, Terry Grant, Diane Perin Hock (founder of the group), Francoise Jamart, Kristin La Flamme, Karen Rips, Brenda Gael Smith, Terri Stegmiller, and Nikki Wheeler.

Cover artwork by Nancy Murty

I know it is somewhat awkward reviewing a book that includes my own artwork, but Lark Books sent me an extra copy.  So I’m going to do a little review and then give the extra copy away to one lucky reader.

But first, let’s look at the book.  The 500 Art Quilts’ editor is Ray Hemachandra and the juror was Karey Bresenhan. The 8×8″ book fits my great-to-look-at-in-bed criteria (not too big to hold up to peruse while reclining gracefully) and most of the art quilts are shown one per page. Each artwork is featured with the name of the artist, title, date, size (in inches and centimeters – a nice touch), materials and techniques. A lot of thought was obviously given to the placement of facing art quilts for maximum compatibility.

The subtitle of 500 Art Quilts is An Inspiring Collection of Contemporary Work. This IS a great book for those seeking inspiration; it is almost overwhelming seeing so many art quilts. 500 Art Quilts the kind of book to keep at hand and peruse just a few pages at a time; there would always be something new and interesting with each turn of the page.

I did notice, whether due to the technical demands of printing or just as a sign of the times, that almost all of the artwork is in very saturated colors.  The dates for the art quilts go back to at least 1989.  I don’t think art quilts from more than ten years ago are intrinsically more or less interesting than those made in the last two or three years, but I would have liked to have seen newer work from all the artists.

This book is part of the 500 Series by Lark Books focusing on, well, what Lark Books focuses so well:  fine craft.  So on one hand, I say BRAVO that art quilts are receiving some much needed exposure in such an upscale format.  On the other hand, I do think we need to give a little more thought to what exactly we want art quilts to be known as – art or fine craft.  I did notice the little suggestion for bookstore shelving on the back cover is ART/QUILTING, so that gives me hope.

But the comments above should be read as mere quibbles beside the fact that such a fine survey book that can only bring more exposure to our art form. Beautifully designed and beautifully printed, 500 Art Quilts will definitely entice those unfamiliar with art quilts to learn more, inspire those new to art quilting, and be a must-have addition to the library shelves of any fiber art enthusiast. The book is available at your local bookseller, Amazon, and B&N.  Topping out at 432 pages, 500 Art Quilts is an uber-bargain with retail around $25.

There are always those artists who are pushing the art quilt form in new and interesting directions.  Leave a comment with the url of an artist or a specific art quilt that recently intrigued you and you will be entered to win my extra copy of  500 Art Quilts.  Deadline to post a comment midnight (CST), March 25.

Don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear right away.  I have a spam filter in place and may need to approve your comment before it appears.

It’s very seldom (make that never) that a computer book arrives at my house and makes my heart go pitter-patter.  But I was genuinely excited when Gloria Hansen’s Digital Essentials arrived.

The book is subtitled, “The quilt makers’ must-have guide to images, files, and more!”  That just about says it all, except that I would delete quilt. All artists can use this book because if you are an artist today, you must know about printing, scanning, photography, and using the web.  

So many of us use these tools without a good grasp of their capabilities and limitations and thus do not present the images of our artwork as well as we could.

Gloria Hansen, co-founder of GloDerWorks (a full service Web company with offices in the US and UK), is an expert in the easiest and most efficient ways to use digital tools in making and presenting our art.  

Gloria has always been uber generous in sharing that knowledge. If you subscribe to any online groups of which Gloria is a member, you probably have a file like mine marked “Info from Gloria.”

Well, delete that file because now we have the one-stop book. Have I ever calibrated my monitor?  Nope. Knew or understood the “canvas” part of an image?  Oh, oh, no.  Have I ever removed a piece of art from its background?  Big no.  Understood exactly what it was those entry forms were asking? Sort of.  Now you know why my heart went pitter-patter.

The book starts with the basics (files, resolution, color) and builds from there.  Step-by-step directions and screen views are given for all procedures for both PCs and Macs. “Working with images” and “Saving for the web” are the following chapters.  

The Reference section includes a clever guide based on questions. For example:  How can I size images and make thumbnails for them in sections? Following are a discussion of the various image-editing programs available, how to put a pdf on your web site, a glossary of terms, and an index.  

I’m very seldom so effusive about a book, but a book has so very seldom seen a need and met it in such a cogent and useful way.

Digital Essentials is available directly from Gloria’s website as well as the usual book outlets.

Masters: Art Quilts is part of a series published by Lark Books under the premise of featuring major works by forty leading artists in a specific medium. To date, the series includes, in addition to this volume, Beadweaving, Gemstones, Glass Beads and Porcelain.

Having started this way to indicate that the emphasis is perhaps greater on craft than art in their selection of media, I must continue by saying this gorgeous, gorgeous book needs (yes, needs) to grace your desk, coffee table or bedside reading pile.

I guess that pretty much gives away the general tenor of this review, but, more specifically, this is a much-needed volume if you are an artist who tires of explaining the ART in art quilt or who enjoys reading about the why, rather than the how, of artists.

If you are a collector of art quilts or a general art aficionada, Masters: Art Quilts will help you understand this medium (why fabric???) and provide hours of delighted perusal.

The emphasis on only forty artists, dictated by the constraints of the series, was undoubtedly a cruel hardship to the editor and curator, Martha Sielman. Sielman is the Executive Director of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), an organization dedicated to the promotion of art quilts and their makers.

Each of the forty artists receives a small essay by Sielman, space for personal comments about their artwork, and, of course, several (up to ten or twelve, including details) photos of their artwork over eight pages.

The small essays by Sielman are sparkling. Nothing is harder than to study the work of a diverse cross-section of artists and render their work sensible and in a perceptive light in a very short essay.

Editor essays are usually the least valuable part of a survey, but Sielman has added to the considerable worth of this volume by sharing what is important about each artist, what themes the artist has explored and placing their work in the context of the art quilt movement.

The comments by the artists are necessarily short and, I assume, selected and edited by Sielman. Again, the comments are seldom gratuitous and often a revelation. I completely reassessed my viewpoint of the work of Jane Sassaman after reading this: Plants are my metaphor. A plant travels the same cycle as a human: fertility, birth, maturity, death and rebirth.

The format of the book is one of its strong points. There are 414 pages in a 9″ x 8″ inch format. Despite it’s bulk, this book is user friendly – - easy to hold and it fits nicely in a tote bag. The photos are large, of excellent quality and unbelievable in number. If you have shopped for magazines lately at a newsstand, you will agree that it is somewhat mind-boggling that this huge book retails for $24.95.

I found it best to flip through the book until I saw a work that caught my eye and then to read the whole “chapter” about the artist and study the photos before moving on. Reading straight through is asking for sensory overload.

I have only two small quibbles about the book. The designation “Master” does imply those practitioners of an art that have labored long and hard in the field or have shown a mastery through an established style, regardless of their time in the field.

I personally could have seen a lot less of the art quilts which were the exciting New Thing of their time (some dating back to the 60′s) and a lot more current work. Perhaps the focus on the series is to show the history as well as the current state of the medium, but it does beg the question if some of the artists chosen would be better identified as Master Emeritus or some other title that acknowledges the debt art quilters owe these pioneers in the field.

Also many of the chosen artists are very well-known in the art quilt exhibit circuit, but perhaps those artists who eschew that route for professional or personal reasons are less well-represented. However these are minor considerations when weighed against the greater service this book provides as a resource for artists and collectors.

Part of the joy of reading Art Quilts: Masters is having a fine argument with yourself about the inclusions and exclusions made necessary by the choice of forty artists and for the ranking of your own personal favorites among the artwork. I have found that argument to be an education in itself.

If you would like an autographed copy and to have 55% of the $24.95 purchase price donated to Studio Art Quilt Associates (a non-profit organization, so, hey, why wouldn’t you?), visit the SAQA Store. Otherwise, it is available at the usual online bookstores, such as Amazon.