What Most People Don’t Know about Art Quilting

What most people don’t know about the roots of art quilting is that they are firmly based in Northern California. Art quilting is one of the newest art genres. SAQA(Studio Art Quilt Associates), the art quilters professional organization started in San Jose,California. SAQA has grown to be an international organization with over 4000 members. Northern California remains a hotbed for art quilting.

Yvonne Porchella, founder of SAQA(Studio Art Quilt Associates)
Yvonne Porchella, founder of SAQA wearing her signature checkerboard glasses. Ms. Porchella always included black and white checkerboard patterns in her art.

What many don’t know about the beginnings of art quilts

Yvonne Porcella

In 1989 in San Jose, CA, Yvonne Porcella http://yvonneporcella.net/bio.html invited about 50 art quilters to come together into an organization to promote quilting as an art. This local group became Studio Art Quilt Associates(SAQA). It currently has over 4000 members internationally. I am surprised at how many people including accomplished art quilters from our region are unaware of SAQA’s northern Californian roots of art quilting.

Yvonne Porcella was born and raised in Watsonville, Santa Cruz County,California. (I taught there for thirty years.) Ms.Porcella began her art career fascinated with the colorful costumes of her Croatian background. Her signature detail is a black and white checkerboard fabric she added to many of her pieces. Luckily, I was able to hear her speak at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Sadly, she passed soon thereafter in 2016.

What many don’t know about the beginnings of art quilts.

Studio Art Quilt Associates(SAQA)

SAQA promotes art quilts as an art form. The organization has been instrumental in the inclusion of art quilts into many museums and high level galleries. From SAQA’s website,
Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. (SAQA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt: “a creative visual work that is layered and stitched or that references this form of stitched layered structure.” Our vision is that the art quilt is universally respected as a fine art medium. SAQA’s core values are: excellence, innovation, integrity, and inclusion.
Over the past 30 years, SAQA has grown into a dynamic and active community of over 4,000 artists, curators, collectors, and art professionals located around the world. 
With our exhibitions, resources, publications, and membership opportunities, we seek to increase the public’s appreciation for the art quilt and to support our members in their artistic and professional growth.

SAQA’s success in promoting art quilts has lead to an increased interest in the variety of techniques and styles of art quilting from museums and galleries to the local guild level. SAQA is divided into regions. There are 347 members in our NorthernCa/ Southern Nevada Region. https://saqanorcalnv.com/ However, it must be remembered that there are many more art quilters of all levels than are not SAQA members. Seemingly, the roots of art quilting in northern California have spread worldwide.

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles formed in 1977 as the first museum in the United States to focus on quilts and textiles as an art form.Ms. Porcella was a board member of the SJMQT for many years. The meeting room and gallery is named in honor of her support for the museum. One might ask why is this museum in San Jose. Part of the answer is the local support from art quilters in Northern California.

Some Noteworthy Northern California Quilters

Marion Coleman, Castro Valley https://www.arts.gov/news/press-releases/2019/national-endowment-arts-statement-death-nea-national-heritage-fellow-marion-coleman

Therese May, San Jose therese@theresemay.com

Judy Mathieson, Sebastopol http://www.judymathieson.com

Judith Content judithcontent@earthlink.net 

Denise Oyama Miller, Fremont deniseoyamamiller@comcast.net

Alice Beasley, Oakland abeasley@sbcglobal.net

Holly Brachmann, Ukiah hollyweave@sbcglobal.net

Katie Pasquini Masopust, Fortuna http://www.katiepm.com

Joe Cunningham, San Francisco Joe@joethequilter.com

Laura Fogg, Ukiah http://fogwomancreations.com

This is the short subjective list of talented quilt artists living in Northern California.

Extra Special Expertise

Nancy Bavor www.quiltworth.com Los Altos Hills Master’s degree thesis,University of Nebraska, Lincoln-The California Art Quilt Revolution

SAQA(Studio Art Quilt Associates) is the international professional level art quilt organization. It is open to any one who wants to elevate their expertise from quilters to collectors. Find more information at the website, http://www.saqa.com/. Due to SAQA’s success in promoting quilts as art, many traditional quilt venues include art quilt sections. In addition, local traditional quilt guilds offer classes in art quilts. In this way, art quilts and SAQA are inseparable.

A Little Northern California Humor

I was born and raised in Palo Alto, California. Then I went to UC,Irvine in Orange County, Southern California for my education. There I met my husband and got married. We lived in Orange County for 10 years including beginning my elementary school teaching career in Santa Ana. Before moving to Northern California, my husband and I traveled in Western Europe for a year. Upon our return we moved to Santa Cruz, California where we have lived since 1980. About that time I kept hearing about Silicon Valley. I know my California geography. But where was that? Little did I realize that my hometown and home county had become Silicon Valley in my absence.

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2023/03/why-i-love-my-unique-business-cards/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2023/05/try-these-solutions-to-solve-little-art-quilting-problems/

Does it Help to be an Educated Artist?

An Educated Artist,Love in the Abstract 26" x 24"    2017   Purple, pink and red in this abstract art quilt
Love in the Abstract 26″ x 24″ 66 cm x 61cm 2017

An Educated Artist

I met an educated artist a while ago. Subsequently, we talked about art. She knew all the names of the unique colors. At certain times of the convo, I didn’t even recognize the name she used. Initially,her depth of knowledge blew me away. I had not studied art. I had not memorized nor had even heard of some of the colors. In short, I assumed that she was an excellent artist. However, was I correct to make that assumption?

Her Work

Subsequently, she showed me some of her work. These included drawings,paintings and mixed media that had done over the years. Her work was good not great or spectucular. Knowing all the correct art terms didn’t help her create better art. Maybe time spent is the studio is important. Focus one’s attention. Decide what one’s goals are.

What Makes a Great Educated Artist?

So what really contributes to making  a great artist? Skills, time to practice, resiliency, and above all, the mastery of materials.

Skills and Materials

The great thing about art is that everyone can and should make art. Humans need to make art. Each human can choose what skills and materials they want to use. They may choose materials that they have readily available. The skill needed to use those materials needs to be developed.

Time

One has to have time to develop those skills. Time could be set aside daily or weekly. Or on the other hand, it could be developed over years. It is difficult to juggle a job, family and art. Each person gets to choose how they will handle it.

Resiliency

Resiliency is necessary to keep going. Artists need it so that they continue on in spite of setbacks. One cannot give up. Making a living from selling art is hard. Some choose different pathways to do something in art for their career. Teaching or commercial art are just two paths. Others wait until retirement to work on their art full time.

In Conclusion

Skills and the mastery of materials, time, and resiliency contribute to the making of a great artist.

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2021/10/seeing-critically/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2022/06/how-to-discover-your-artistic-signature/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2022/01/to-frame-or-not-to-frame/

http://saqa.com/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2021/12/on-calling-yourself-an-artist/

https://annbmayartquilts.etsy.com/

How does a County support its Artists?-Visual Arts Network

Kiwi, 24" x 22", $395.
Visual Arts Network Santa Cruz County
Violet Seascape , an art quilt

Visual Arts Network Supporting County Artists

Visual Arts Network Santa Cruz County
Metal work by Mandy Spitzer

First of all visual arts are diverse art forms. For example painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, and architecture are visual arts. Furthermore,many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts also involve aspects of visual arts. Wikipedia

Something New-Visual Art Network to Support County Artists

For 34 years, each October artists across Santa Cruz County have opened their studios to the public.  Above all,the Arts Council Santa Cruz County sponsered  these Open Studios Art Tours. As a result of COVID, the methods changed.  Nonetheless,their support has not faltered.  The county created the Visual Arts Network, an online space for artists to display their art. In addition,the Network showcases the work of the many creatives that call Santa Cruz County their home.
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/04/new-visitor-rack-card/

How The Visual Art Network Supports Artists

First of all,the Visual Arts Network of Santa Cruz County is a  directory of over 300 artists. For example, you’ll find a wide variety of creators from painters,  sculptors, woodworkers and much more. Furthermore,each artist has their own page. In order for the public to  learn about their process and their creations. In addition, one can connect with them directly. That is to say that one may search by name, location or medium, explore all the artists, or meet featured artists.

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/06/art-quilts-at-new-york-art/

A Great Leader is so Important.

Finally, local artists are so lucky to have the support of the county. In addition,the Open Studios Event Director, Ann Ostermann is a masterful, innovative leader. Furthermore,her bright personality welcomes everyone to the delight of art. In conclusion, inclusivity reigns supreme.

The Visual Arts Network is no longer active. Arts Council Santa Cruz continues to support artists through the annual Open Studios and in other year long activities.

Lastly, read more.

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/06/juried-open-studios-2019/https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/10/wow-is-that-a-quilt/https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/05/open-studios-art-tour/https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/05/open-studios-october-2017/https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/09/open-studios-santa-cruz/https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/11/loc-art-in-santa-cruz-county-ca/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/09/olive-hyde-textile-show/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/04/fiber-art-in-san-jose-ca/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/07/july-buzz-newsletter-2019/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/04/may-buzz-newsletter/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/06/art-at-the-county-building/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/05/open-studios-october-2017/

https://visualartsnetworkscc.com/listing/ann-baldwin-may/

For example

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/09/open-studios-santa-cruz/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/04/fiber-art-in-san-jose-ca/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/07/july-buzz-newsletter-2019/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/04/may-buzz-newsletter/

In conclusion

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/10/october-buzz-newsletter/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/03/santa-cruz-art-center/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/04/fiber-at-r-blitzer-gallery-2017/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2021/07/stitching-california-in-northern-california/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/04/arts-at-santa-cruz-center/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/laguna-beachcalifornia-art-gallery/

Visual Arts Network Santa Cruz County
Assemblage by Janet Silverglate
Visual Arts Network Santa Cruz County
Visual Arts Network Santa Cruz County
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/09/open-studios-santa-cruz/
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/10/pajaro-valley-arts-show/
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/12/featured-fiber-artist/
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/10/october-buzz-newsletter/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/06/video-of-art-display-1/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/04/fiber-at-r-blitzer-gallery-2017/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/new-york-art/ https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts/

Why are Art Quilts so Popular?

BY: KATIE CHICARELLO, POSTED ON 

The Growth of Art Quilts’ Popularity-Art Quilts: 1980–1999

Art quilts from SAQA 1980s-1990s,Art Quilts: 1980–1999
Art quilts from Studio Art Quilt Associates(SAQA) 1980s-1990s

When did art quilts start?

How did art quilts establish themselves as an art form and move into mainstream gallery showings, exhibitions, and more? How did art quilters band together? Where did the driving force behind textile art come from? Quilting Arts contributor Sandra Sider answers these questions. She explores the history of the art quilt from 1980–1999. In additionMs. Sider to tracks the growth of art quilts’ popularity.

The Origin of Art Quilts

You may be surprised to learn that the term art quilt did not exist until 1983. Robert Shaw explained in his book The Art Quilt(1997). After launching The Quilt Digest, Michael Kile teamed with curator and writer Penny McMorris to organize The Art Quilt. This traveling exhibition of  new works by sixteen artists, above all, trailblazers in the field. The catalogue declared. After that the art quilt emerged.  It heralded a dramatic and fundamental change in the history of quilts. Art for walls, not beds, created by artists expressing  themselves in original designs of cloth and thread.A first step in the growth of art quilts’ popularity

 “Forest in New England” • Noriko Endo • 1996 • 55" x 84" |
“Forest in New England” • Noriko Endo • 1996 • 55″ x 84″ | Photo by Nagamitsu Endo

New venues for art quilt exhibitions and workshops

Several institutions promoting art quilts were founded from the late 1970s until the mid-1980s. The American Museum of Quilts and Related Arts now San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles) started in 1977. Quilt San Diego now  Quilt Visions  sprung forth in 1985. New England Quilt Museum began in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1987. That is to say that they are all leaders in the art quilt venue world! Another step in the growth of art quilts’ popularity


Five Quilt Institutions

The following decade saw five quilt institutions founded across the country. Beginning with the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado, in 1990. The following year, the National Quilt Museum was founded in Paducah, Kentucky. In 1995 the Virginia Quilt Museum was established in Harrisonburg. The La Conner Quilt Museum in La Conner, Washington (now the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum), opened its doors in 1997.  The same year   philanthropists and quilt collectors Robert and Ardis James were instrumental in founding the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. These venues exhibited quilts of all types.They provided quilt artists with refreshing new avenues to explore. In addition these venues provided spaces where their work could be collected and appreciated. Venues are important for the growth of art quilts’ popularity.

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/category/art-quilts/

Art Quilts1980-1999
“Four Patch: Hay/Wheat/Rye/Barley” • Dorothy Caldwell • 1994–05 • 96″ x 98″ • Collection of Eleanor McCain | Photo by Gulf Reflections Studio, Inc

Quilt Surface Design Symposium

Quilt artists Nancy Crow and Linda Fowler founded the Quilt Surface Design Symposium (QSDS) in Ohio in 1990.They offered a broad variety of educational opportunitiesadding to the growth of art quilts’ popularity. During the first decade of QSDS, hundreds of students experimented with new techniques and processes in these workshops. Most importantly, the art quilters of the future developed their skills therein.

Quilting By the Lake

By the 1990s, Quilting By the Lake (founded in 1981) in upstate New York had also become a popular destination for quilters in general. Many classes focussed on art quilts by the end of the decade.  Empty Spools Seminars in Asilomar, California(1986)and at Art Quilt Tahoe(1998)expanded where  quilt artists shared their expertise. Meanwhile, art quilters practiced their skills. All of these increased the growth of art quilts’ popularity.

Art Quilts: 1980–1999
“Dashboard Saints: In Memory of St. Christopher (Who Lost His Magnetism) • Terrie Hancock Mangat • 1985 • 99″ x 124″ • Collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska | Photo courtesy of the artist

Nonprofit Professional Organizations

SDA-Surface Design Association

Several nonprofit professional organizations helped bring momentum and innovation to the Art Quilt Movement during the 1980s and 1990s. Founded in 1977, the Surface Design Association provides a platform for the exchange of ideas, methods, and materials.Theirs is a wide community working in textile media and fiber arts.

Women of Color Quilters Network

In 1985, Dr. Carolyn L. Mazloomi founded The Women of Color Quilters Network.  This non-profit group fosters to preserve the art of quilt making among women of color. Today, a few men are members include a few men. The organization offers quilts and fiber art to museums for exhibition. In addition, they research and document African American quilt making.

SAQA- Studio Art Quilt Associates

In 1989, Yvonne Porcella invited 50 quilt artists to join with her to found Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA).They organized conferences and exhibitions. In addition they  developed a database of artwork by its members.  SAQA promoted their members art to galleries and museums. Now SAQA has  grown to 3,500 members in 39 countries. It continues to support the art quilt through education, numerous exhibitions, professional development, documentation, and publications. Moreover,the importance of these different organizations cannot be overemphasized.

“Robe of the Dragon” • Yvonne Porcella • 1982
“Robe of the Dragon” • Yvonne Porcella • 1982 | Photo courtesy of the artist’s estate

In conclusion

In the 1980s and 1990s, art quilts thrived.  Makers focused their energy and imagination on this relatively new medium. Museums supported their efforts. Publishers catered to their talents. Artists began to travel to teach workshops internationally. Many of them networked with students and colleagues to share new techniques and exhibitions. They formed a flourishing community of quilt artists that would grow astronomically in the 21st century.

 All images here are from SAQA’s new book, Art Quilts Unfolding: 50 Years of Innovation, from Schiffer Publishing. Sandra Sider is editor and co-author of the book.

edited for space

About the Author

Sandra Sider, a studio quilt artist, has published articles and books concerning fiber and art for four decades. Ms. Sider has a Masters in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is a past president of SAQA. In 2012 she became curator for the Texas Quilt Museum. Visit her website here.

Forge Your Own Art Path With Four Important Skills

Forge Your Art Path- Four Important Skills

Ann Baldwin May presented Four Important Skills to Forge Your Own Art Path as a Zoom talk at a NorCal/Southern Nevada  Regional Meeting of the International Art quilters organization,SAQA(Studio Art Quilt Associates).

black, white medium blue abstract art quilt, Forge Your Own Art Path with four important skills
American Democracy,2019 27″ w x 28″h

Introduction

There are many paths forward to become a quilt artist. Ann reinvented herself in retirement.  Her art friends call her resilient, a prolific artist and a master at social media.

Forge Your Own Art Path

Part of SAQA(Studio Art Quilt Associates)’s mission statement is to encourage art quilters to move their art forward and out into the world. Forging our own way can be exhilarating and frightening at the same time. What qualities does one need to forge their own path forward? I suggest that one needs these qualities. https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/04/making-your-own-luck/ 

Four Important Skills

Persistence- Just keeps trying!
Resilience- Do not take things personally. Bounce by from your disappointments.
Confidence -Believe in yourself. Accept Your Uniqueness.
Bravery-Put yourself out there! Never miss an opportunity to show your work!

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/06/resilience/

A Few Stories

Today I would like to share a few stories that focus on these four important skills. First, I would like to say that I am a big believer in baby steps. We need to be brave but you can be brave on your own timeline. I am not an early adopter of new things. When I started out, I found using this phrase helpful as a conversation starter. Hi, I am shamelessly promoting my work .

tree with branches, leaves falling, picket fence in fabric
Under the Shady Tree 27″ x 38″

Starting my Art Path

Back in 2010, I turned 60. I decided to give myself the gift of showing my art. I went to talk to the owner of a local leading gallery, the R. Blitzer Gallery. I asked how I could show my work there. Robert Blitzer, the owner is a very personable guy. He mentioned a local group show that was going to be hung soon. He gave the name of a fairly famous artist who was curating the  show. I called her up and spoke with her. She asked me to send her some photos of my work. I sent her the photos. But I didn’t hear back from her.

Persistence, to Forge Your Own Art Path

At the First Friday reception, I approached the curator and introduced myself. She gasped and said, “I never got back to you. I wanted to include your work.” Awkward moment for both of us. She turned and disappeared in the crowd. I took that as a yes.   The reception for First Fridays Art Walk is usually the busiest time. Then the rest of the month  the show is still up, there are less visitors.  This didn’t matter to me.

I returned the next day and explained the situation to Rob Blitzer. He called the curator . It was decided that he would find a space for me. He found  a funky wall in the back but it was fine for me. I could put it  on my resume. It was a talking point for me. My birthday present to myself was complete. Being persistent is an important skill to forge your own art path.

A Call for Entry

Several years later, I saw a call for entry for Monterey Peninsula College Art Gallery for a solo show. My application presented my Mexican inspired art quilts. I was not accepted. As a newbie, I assumed it was my fault. My work wasn’t satisfactory.

Market Day,Forge Your Own Art Path
Market Day

Bravery,to Forge Your Own Art Path

About a year later,I was accepted in to a show in Santa Cruz Art League. Melissa Pickford ,the director of the Monterey Peninsula College Art Gallery was the curator. At the reception, I was trying to get enough nerve to introduce myself to her. The line to speak to her was long. Finally, after she had spoken to everyone in line, I introduced myself. Ms. Pickford recognized my name immediately! She remembered and praised the work that I had submitted.

Who Knew the Rule?

As the director, she apologized because the college has a rule that only work can be shown in the gallery if the college offers classes in that mediam. Evidently, they do have not textile department. Who knew?  Be reticent and brave. What if I hadn’t been brave enough to introduce myself? I never would have learned that wonderful gem of truth, a true confidence builder. Bravery is an important skill to forge your own art path.

Resilience,to Forge Your Own Art Path

About that same time  I attended  my first SAQA conference. Leni Levenson Wiener gave a talk on how shows are curated. The curator has a huge job of deciding which pieces fit into her vision of the show. Choosing the art is difficult. Many pieces are not accepted for reasons that are totally out of the artist’s control.The takeaway point was that if an artist is not accepted it doesn’t mean their art is not good.

Say- Not Accepted Not, Rejected

It means that it didn’t fit in some way with  the rest of the work in the show. It was emphasized that we should say that our  work was not accepted for a show, rather than say it was rejected. Another gem from a SAQA conference-Maria Shell says you will not be accepted 100% of the time. Maria Shell says 30% acceptance to shows is doing well. Resilience is an important skill to forge your own art path.

Never Miss an Opportunity to Show your Work.

Funny story- I was asked to show my art quilts at a film festival taking play in a local gallery. They were having trouble with the acoustics. They wanted me to show my largest pieces of work to help with the sound. Because I had kept in touch through a monthly newsletter, the director was able to contact me quickly. I stepped up to the plate.  I wish I could say I sold something but I can’t.

Confidence,to Forge Your Own Art Path

I would like to share a story that I think of often. We push ourselves to create events and shows. We publicize them and invite everyone we know. Yet sometimes the turnout is low. You may know Brian Cranston from Breaking Bad. He owns a movie theatre near Palm Springs. My husband is from that area and spends a lot of time there.

Brian was fairly famous at the time. He organized an event at the theatre. No one came. My husband was able to have a long conversation with him. These things happen to the best of us; even famous people can have a slow night. Be confident and continue on.

Persistence,to Forge Your Own Art Path

I would like to share with you my latest new friend. We met in Zumba she is in her early 80s. She recently remarried. She paints and yet has no digital foot print. But she goes to restaurants and asks if she can hang her paintings there. And she has been selling them. She is persistent in her unique path forward. Persistence is an important skill to forge your own art path.

In closing,I would like to remind you to  say positive things to yourself. Hang compliments on the back wall of your mind . Refer to them often. I would like to end with a favorite quote of mine. In the words of the song,The Middle by Jimmy Eat World

“Just do your best , everything you choose and Don’t you worry what the bitter hearts might say.”

Finally,I hope that these experiences inspire you to develop the qualities of  persistence,resilience, confidence and bravery . With these four qualities you can forge your own art path and get your work out into the world. Thank you.

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/12/on-being-brave/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/06/develop-your-art-style/

https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/09/6-habits-of-effective-artists/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2021/10/seeing-critically/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/08/low-tech-quilting-hacks/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/10/starting-an-art-conversation/

African American Quilts On Display

Arbie Williams. "Medallion" (1987), quilted by Willia Ette Graham

Art Museum inherits  3,000 African American Quilts

Charles Desmarais October 16, 2019Updated: January 30, 2020, 10:08 am            

Arbie Williams, “Medallion” (1987), quilted by Willia Ette Graham.

A Gift of nearly 3,000 Quilts

Over all a gift of nearly 3,000 quilts,  was announced Wednesday, Oct. 16,2020. Furthermore, all of the quilts were designed and produced by African American artists.  Officials of the UC Berkeley Art Museum  announced the gift. Eli Leon put together the extensive collection over more than three decades.   Dr.Leon was a white Oakland psychotherapist. Meanwhile he became a respected expert on African American quilts. When Leon died in 2019, he left the quilts and a few other items to the Regents of the University of California. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Eli-Leon-scholar-and-collector-of-African-12757330.php

The Unusual Gift

Subsequently,the gift will  add 15% to the museum’s permanent collection, said BAMPFA director Lawrence Rinder, in an interview with The Chronicle.

Minnie Nobles, “Square-in-a-Square” 

Stories of Communities of Color

Furthermore,the quilts help to broaden the  horizons of art history. In addition this will include the culture and the stories of communities of color. In just the past few years, exhibitions of works by artists of color have been taking place in museums worldwide. Above all,collectors and institutions are trying to diversify their collections. https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/art-exhibits/why-is-african-american-art-having-a-moment-the-reasons-are-as-varied-as-the-art-itself

Major Commitments

In addition,the two largest visual arts organizations, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, made major commitments. This year, SFMOMA sold a key Mark Rothko painting to raise millions of dollars . For example,this will enable the museum to broaden its collection through purchases of works by women, LGBTQ artists and artists of color.  After that,the Fine Arts Museums acquired 62 works by 22 contemporary African American artists . Rosie Lee Tompkins, Untitled (1996), quilted by Irene Bankhead.

Similarly,Lawrence Rinder knew Leon. In the past,they had worked together on an exhibition  of the quilts of Rosie Lee Tompkins. In addition,more than 500 works of Ms. Tompkins  are part of the  the gift. Moving forward, Mr. Rinder will curate a larger Tompkins show as his final project before retiring He said the quilts are decidedly not “folk art.”

It’s Art Art

Likewise,“Not to me,” he was quick to say. “I think it’s ‘art art.’ I don’t make those distinctions. To clarigy, labels like that justify the exclusion of people who are less well off or people who are not white.

“Some people think if you slap a label , it can help us understand where it comes from.On the other hand, I don’t care about any of that at all. Most importantly,I see emotion, expression, technical skill. … The rest doesn’t matter to me in the least.”

Monin Brown and Hattie “Strawberry” Mitchell

Adventurous Designs

For example,Leon tended to collect adventurous designs. However,it was not because the works look modern. “He believed deeply in a connection to African traditions. He conducted research on motifs, patterns and methods that he saw as rooted in Central Africa,”  Variations on a Theme,artist unknown

Funds for Conservation

After that,Rinder said gifts and grants are being sought to fund conservation of the fragile works. Moreover, he believes the university is committed to their care and display. Furthermore in a statement, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said, “BAMPFA is uniquely suited to ensure that these wonderful works of art receive the exposure and attention they deserve.”

Eli Leon in his quilt storage room

Gladys Henry, “Medallion” (1992), quilted by Rose McDowell.Edited for space
https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/art-exhibits/uc-berkeley-art-museum-inherits-grand-trove-of-nearly-3000-african-american-quiltsCharles Desmarais

Charles Desmarais is The San Francisco Chronicle’s art critic. Email: cdesmarais@sfchronicle.com Free weekly newsletter: http://bit.ly/ArtguyReviews

https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/07/political-quilts2008-2014/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/08/eli-leon-collector-of-quilts-and-other-items/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/07/political-quilts2008-2014/

New York Art Center in TriBeCa

Sand Between My Toes
logo

  New York Art Center in TriBeCa

New York Art Center
New York Art Center

From Laguna Beach to New York City

Shane Townley was running a gallery in Laguna Beach a decade ago when he decided he needed a broader platform for his artists – one that gave them a bigger and better chance to sell their work than just the spot on one wall in one gallery. So he launched aniPhone app that catalogs artists and galleries, where any artist can sell her work. And now he has launched NYA Gallery, which not only has the classic white box storefront on the charming cobbled block of Franklin Place, but also another 9,000 square feet of artists studios, art storage and a frame shop on the lower levels. Welcome New York Art Center in TriBeCa!

Serving the Needs of Many

The studios will be open to the public and are generally for rent by artists, but some will also be donated as residencies for artists from other countries. He and his merry band of gallerists, handlers, educators and hangers (seen above) sell 50 percent of their artists’ work online, and also have a gallery on 1st Dibs. But Townley said they still need to sell in the 3D world. “Walls and artists go together,” he said. “They will still need a space to show.”

Townley spent four years here exploring different areas and neighborhoods while painting in a studio upstairs in 373 Broadway – biding his time till he figured out the New York art market. He came up with this idea as a way to replicate what he was doing in Laguna. His timing seems pretty good. “For Tribeca it couldn’t be a better time,” he said. “We’re onto something.”

NYA Gallery
7 Franklin Place (just west of Broadway, between White and Franklin)
info@newyorkart.com
917-472-9015

New York Art Center in TriBeCa
New York Art Center, studios

The New York Art Center is new to the TriBeCa neighborhood. It has been in New York City for a number of years. Ann Baldwin May is excited and proud to be the first art quilter represented by New York ArtCenter and Gallery.

https://newyorkart.com/search?q=Ann+Baldwin+May

https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2022/04/free-motion-quilting-hacks/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2021/02/visual-arts-network-santa-cruz-county/

Important Life Skill for Artists-Develop Resilience

Burlap and Silk,An art quilt demonstrating the contrasting fabrics of soft and hard rough and smooth

An important life skill for artists to develop is resilience. Resilience helps one weather the rough spots in life. Learn who you are. Learn what your passion is and develop it . Be authentic. Friends, family members and those close to you may not see your passion as you do. Focus on what is true and real for you. This can be hard. As human beings we rely on the reflections of those around us to see ourselves.

resilience
Burlap and Silk, an art quilt demonstrating the contrasting fabrics of soft and hard rough and smooth.

Following One’s own Path takes Resilience.

Developing resilience is an important life skill for artists to combat certain comments people might make. “What are you doing that for? “People will say the first thing that pops into their mind without thinking. Realize that it is okay if some people don’t agree with your choice of activity. When someone doesn’t like what I am deeply involved in, I often think about model trains. Some people are extremely passionate about model trains, something that I have absolutely no interest in.

Isn’t that a lot of work?” Just yesterday a neighbor made that comment about all of the work I do to maintain my garden. I love doing it. I can’t imagine not doing. It is the same way I feel about my art. Passion is what you can’t live without. It isn’t work if you like doing it. Picture water sliding off a duck’s back when disparaging remarks are made. Little by little build resiliency.

Being the Black Sheep takes Resilience.

Developing resilience is an important life skill for artists tostand up to certain activities other might want you to do. When growing up my family was into sports; listening, watching on TV and attending baseball and football games. Of course, I also did these things until I got old enough to realize that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I would rather be out doing something active than watching others do it. This act of resilience was easy for me. Being the odd man out may not be as easy for some people. Of course, it would be nice if the people we care about also cared about the things that we care about. But that doesn’t always happen.

Overcoming Setbacks takes Resilience.

Setbacks can also happen. Sometimes one’s work or family responsibilities take center stage. Being a responsible person creates its own confidence and resiliency. When one knows themselves and is authentic, then moving in a new direction can support one’s vision.

Life skills for artists Develop Resilience.

Many paths lead to success. If one path doesn’t work, find another. Take the long view. A different path might not immediately be visible. Keep working towards your goal, be it personal or professional or artistic.

The poster in my laundry room has this quote on it.

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Albert Einstein

Or as a favorite song, The Middle by Jimmy Eat World says

(partial lyrics)

“Live right now, yeah, just be yourself.
It doesn’t matter if it’s good enough for someone else.

It just takes some time,
Little girl, you’re in the middle of the ride.
Everything, everything will be just fine,
Everything, everything will be alright, alright.

Just do your best do everything you can
And don’t you worry what the bitter hearts are gonna say.”

Resilience is a life skill that can be developed and nourished. It applies to our professional, personal as well as our artistic endevours. Things happen in life that are sometimes out of our control. Don’t take setbacks personally. Just forge forward.

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How to Make Your Own Luck in Art

Dry Tree

Artists Making Your Own Luck takes Work.

Making your own luck through self promotion involves planning, organization and bravery. If you are an artist, the work begins by making great art. In this age of self promotion, one must present themselves in a professional manner.

Artists,make your own luck with People Skills.

Having strong people skills is essential. Working with people in a way that shows integrity and honesty. Be easy to work with. Go out of your way to help for example make things easier for the curator or organizer. Save those picky, finicky thoughts for when you are creating your art by yourself in your studio. Don’t create problems for others.

Artists,make your own luck by being ready to jump on an opportunity presents itself. This takes a bit of bravery.

Be consistent in your production of posts blogs or newsletter. Show that you are dependable and reliable.

Be someone who others want to work with. When a new opportunity comes up, they will think of you. Conversely, when I am planning a project or activity, I will leave out people who having proven to be a problem to work with in the past.

Dress the part.

Be yourself. Be authentic. But in general the public expects an artist to dress a bit differently. Sometimes I dress as a person working in an upscale gallery might.

When I am at a reception for an individual show or a group show, I wear something that identifies me as an artist. As a fiber artist I have made special clothing that I save for shows. Save the paint covered clothing for your studio.

Keep your own name tag with you. You never know when you will be at a meeting or a show where they forget to make name tags. I was one show where they made me a name tag. They had my name and a photo of my art on it. They even placed it in a plastic cover.That is the one I saved. Perfect.

Have unique business cards with you at all times. My cards are small handmade art quilts.People love my business cards. They illustrate what my art is while giving the contact information on the back.

Artists,make your own luck by Recognizing the Strengths of Others

Others in your field have strengths that should be recognized.Share or post about others, not just yourself all of the time. Promote the work of your friends or other people working in your field. It encourages others to look at your posts.

They are some people’s posts that I just delete because they just always about themselves and do it too often.When I share about others’ work, I find more people share items about my work.

Authenticity

Part of being an authentic person is realized our own strengths and weaknesses. While one may lead with their strengths, one must also develop their weaknesses. It is not as much fun and it is often a lot of work. Many artists find meeting with the public the hardest part of their job. Others find the paperwork and organization to be difficult. Overcoming a weakness begins with baby steps. Choose one weakness to develop your skills in and take small steps to improve in that area. Taking a class may help. Being brave helps.

In conclusion, what may appear as good luck is often the result of hard work, bravery, planning, and organization. Be persistent and don’t give up. Magic isn’t instantaneous.

You may want to read other articles on this topic,Ten Proven Ways to Make your Own Luck by Deep Patel.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/286336 https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/04/forging-your-own-art-path/

https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2019/09/becoming-more-creative/

LocArt a new app

pillow with tree artwork

LocArt

A New App

LocArt a new app for the purchasing of local art is now available on the App Store and Google Play Store. It is thrilling to be part of this new venture. At this time,the app only  works on a mobile phone. You may find my art quilts, throw pillows and digital mouse pads with art on them there as well as many other media of art. Look for the textile category to the right of All (media) at the top of the screen. Slide to the left to find.

Creation

LocArt a new app
art on a throw pillow
LocArt a new app
Slough Visitors ,wall art quilt

Both Delucchi and Elkin grew up in Santa Cruz. They experienced the abundant local art scene first-hand. After  college,while returning to work here, they decided to help this cultural epicenter thrive in a more clear and consistent way.  Delucchi envisioned an app as an easier  way to connect the community with local creatives. In early 2017, Elkin began designing Loc Art App around this vision. Together they refined the product. The Loc Art app  officially launched  in the fall of 2019.

A Unique Guide

Loc Art is a new app  guide to the Santa Cruz art scene. The Loc Art app gives art enthusiasts the opportunity to discover talented artists.  Original artwork located locally. Through the Loc Art app, collectors can browse and shop diverse forms of art from high-quality artists.  The platform provides a convenient  way for shoppers to communicate directly with their favorite artists. Commission are also available.  Artists have the opportunity to showcase their work and  sell it.

Loc Art app offers a digital art market experience that is user-friendly, personal, and professional. Additionally, the app provides a calendar with notifications of local art events, allowing people to keep track of classes, festivals, and markets happening around the county throughout the year.

Active Members of the Community

As well as pioneering the app, Delucchi and Elkin are active members of the community. Delucchi (whose family has been here for over 100 years) is a 4th generation firefighter who works for Cal Fire throughout the county. Elkin currently works for iheartjane, a Soquel-based startup software company.

We recently caught up to co-founders Derick and Dominic to talk about what motivated them to create Loc Art and how they imagine it evolving as more people jump on board.

Local Santa Cruz: What inspired you to launch Loc Art? 

Derick:  It started mostly by talking to friends who are artists and hearing about the challenges of trying to market and sell artwork. Especially when they really just wanted to spend more time creating. Then, when Dominic and I toured Open Studios a few years ago, we talked with some of the participating artists who were experiencing similar issues. That’s when we started working on the project and came up with the idea to design an app that would help local artists sell their work to the community.

At the moment, Loc Art a new local app is currently only available in Santa Cruz. But the inspiration was to create some kind of business that could grow community to community. Hopefully, something that could possibly spread across the U.S. and maybe even internationally. While still maintaining a grassroots feel. Once we get a business model down locally we can hopefully take that model and bring it to other communities. That way we can share the app in others interested in helping out their art scene in the same way.

Dominic: We feel like there is a big inefficiency in the way that the community interacts with art culture. With Loc Art a new local app ee want to make it easy for  people to  experience  art . We think it would make it feel less like a “walled garden” . It would be  approachable and easier to find something you are interested in.

Why do you think it’s challenging to become immersed in the local art scene?

Derick: SC has such a great art scene. But it can still be difficult for artists to dive in. There’s not always enough time for collectors to find new or established artists. Opportunities like Open Studios, for example, often only happen once a year. There were over 300 participating Open Studios artists this past October. I only made it to about 50, so there were still hundreds of artists I wasn’t able to visit. Art markets featuring a number of artists pop up around town as well. But we’ve talked to people at those events who were overwhelmed trying to get around to see all the booths. They want to have enough time to check everything out.

In terms of collectors, there’s also kind of a stigma around buying original art. That it’s only available for people who are maybe a little bit older in life or who have a larger amount of money to invest in art. For both locals and newcomers in the community, it can sometimes be a high barrier of entry to get into the art scene.  It helps if you know people that are already a part of it. These are things we hope to change with this platform. We see art as something that everyone should be able to enjoy at whatever level works for them.

Dominic: Right now, you almost need someone you trust to show you around the art world. It’s hard to know where to go to look at paintings, take a photography class, or even just explore artists that you mightlike.

How does the app provide a solution for all types of artists and collectors?  What excites you about the potential of this platform ?

Derick: The more we became aware of the difficulties the community was facing, the more we thought it would be easier to have everything available on one platform. People could discover artists and search through a large number of them quickly. Artists could present their work or communicate with buyers at any time of the year.

Based on the technology of the app, we’d like to eventually include videos of the artists talking about their work. There are also more chat features on the app.  It is less about you being on an app just to buy and receive an order. It becomes about having opportunities to get to know the artists and learn about their inspiration and work. So, there’s a more personal connection available when you shop on Loc Art than if you were buying a piece on Etsy.

Right now we have a QR code that takes people to the app if they scan it.  We might implement a QR code for artists who hang up their art locally, So, you could quickly scan artwork you see around town on your phone. The artist’s profile would come up, and you could follow them and stay connected with them that way.

Another big thing we’re excited about is the calendar on the app that helps people get out to more art events and classes. For right now, we’re sharing dates of events that other businesses in SC are putting on, like the Makers Market, Open Studios, and holiday markets. We’ve partnered with the Cabrillo College Extension program to promote their art classes, as well as the All Hands workshops. Hopefully, in the future, we can branch out and host our own community events.

Dominic: We’re excited to continue to innovate tech for the art community. Eventually, we would like to give artists the ability to treat Loc Art like their virtual store – with a unique link to their own account, where their artwork is hosted. We are looking to build features leveraging feedback from the community of artists who are actually using our platform.

How has the SC art scene impacted you personally and inspired the creative design of Loc Art?

Derick: Dominic and I were both lucky to have had so many great art classes available to us throughout all our years of school. I took several classes in film photography as well as ceramics and jewelry classes. I was aware that many people around the country don’t have the luxury of having diverse art classes. Getting that first-hand experience and enjoying the process of creating was a huge draw for wanting to bring attention to local artists and support other art-oriented people.

The business has come a long way since my original idea. I never thought I’d have my own app, but it’s been exciting to see technology merging with the art scene. There’s a huge connection that happens that makes the experience of art so much easier for everyone to enjoy.

Dominic: What a great question. I think growing up in Santa Cruz (and around the art and creativity here) pushed me to walk my own path. There are some “characters” in Santa Cruz that aren’t afraid to do things their own way. I think Loc Art reflects that in its own way, too. We are going against the norms, but for the right reason – to support art.

Loc Art is available to download on the Apple Store and Google Play Store and is compatible with iOS and Android.

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Why Does One Make Art?

Why Does One Make Art?

Greys,pinks and purple fabric in this abstract inspired by a winter sunset,Why One Makes Art
Winter Sunset 23″ h x 22″ 2018
Burlap and Silk 24" x 23"   2015,Shades of gold, brown, and white fabric transparent,rough, silky and shinyWhy One Makes Art
Burlap and Silk 24″ x 23″ 2015
yellow orange and white fabrics mix with  textured netting Why One Makes Art
Cheddar and Triscuits,30″ x 28″ 2015

I find Cheddar and Triscuits a perfect name for this art quilt.Cheddar is the name of the color used in. The cheddar and white traditional quilting blocks contrast with several types of redirected high end fabric from the San Francisco Design Center. Fiberous netting and decorative threads and synthetic raffia add texture. I couched other decorative threads and rickrack on a strip of fabric. Then I cut them into smaller pieces to add where needed.

Circuit Board  15" x 14" 2015, greens and oranges in this abstract art quilt. The fabrics looked like a circuit board.
Circuit Board 15″ x 14″ 2015

When I first saw the fabric with the dashes on it, I immediately thought of a computer circuit board.  I added many redirected fabrics in this piece. Decorative threads couched on a long strip of fabric and then sliced into pieces add interest. Pulling in colors similar to the fabric with dashes was fun. It was done without much thought but with much necessity.

 

Brown and blue layered fabric pieces create  stratification. Adorned with bone beads.
The Quarry 21″ x 31″ 2015

The Quarry uses found materials,beads and the color,brown that I usually avoid. Someone created fabric with a process of marbling paper in several colors, black, blue and reflective blue and pink. The stratification formed by these fabrics was a new idea to me. Bone beads added a 3D effect as if they were layered under the ground and just peeking out of a cliff.

 

In Conclusion

Playing with the contrast of fabrics or your chosen materials lets you create something unexpected. An outlier can suggest a new direction or technique to follow in the future. It is up to the artist to make that decision. Or maybe the success of the project that will make the decision for the artist. Make your art like your life depended on it! Because it does!

https://annbmayartquilts.etsy.com/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2022/12/how-to-break-your-own-art-rules/

For more information, on creating abstract art quilts read these posts.
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/05/work-in-progress-winter-sky-sunset/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/10/a-work-in-progress-sunlit-boulders/

Did You See these Open Studios Santa Cruz?

Barn Owl by Alexandra Sanders

Open Studios Santa Cruz 2018

 

Open Studios 2018 is Santa Cruz County’s premier art tour of the year. Furthermore,visitors come from all around the state to visit the studios and meet the artists. For example, joy comes from seeing the special environments that each artist creates in their home or garden.

Barn Owl by Alexandra Sanders

Therefore,these  members of the New Fiber Group of Santa Cruz County are excited to be part of the Juried Open Studios Santa Cruz County October 2018.

fabric layering technique, art quilt,Juried Open Studios Santa Cruz CountyOctober 2018
Fluttering Leaves, art quilt

Ann Baldwin May

Juried Open Studios Artist #184
Moreover,all original art quilts and fiber art Mexican inspired fabric collages or abstract wall art.
In addition, found objects and redirected materials are always a possibility.
Also featuring throw pillows, king sized artful pillow cases and very large fabric gift bags, $20. or free with purchase over $100.
Above all,visit my studio in the Santa Cruz Art Center, 1001 Center St.
First Fridays Oct. 5, 5-9pm
Open Studios 13-14, Oct. 20-21.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts/

Similarly,I fill the lobby of the Santa Cruz Art Center with Color! Texture! Movement! Come join the fun, demonstrations , and food.

Most importantly,

Alexandra Sanders

Most importantly, view Alexandra’s Original Batiks and Fine Art Prints

Lexie;s created #1,Juried Open Studios Santa Cruz CountyOctober 2018
Crane by Alexandra SandersJoin Alexandra Sanders for the Open Studios Art Tour

Furthermore,join Alexandra Sanders for the Open Studios Art Tour

https://www.ladywholovesbirds.com/

Meanwhile she will be open,October 13-14 & October 20-21 2018,11-5pm.

Above all,she will be showing originals and fine art prints of

Traditional Batiks, Silk Paintings and

Bird Watercolors. Also available will be the

2019 Calendar of Birds, greeting cards and

blank journals. In addition, sign up for classes that will be

given in the next year.

637 Columbia Street xst. Monterey Sttttt.

Then enter the Studio entrance is through back gate half way

down Monterey St. Santa Cruz CA 95060

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2021/02/visual-arts-network-santa-cruz-county/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/12/december-buzz-newsletter/

Did you See the Olive Hyde Textile Show?

Skyward finished piece
Black and White branches on an indigo and white sky background
Skyward 25″ x 25″
underwater seascape
Marine Canyon Dwellers, 26″ h x 25″w

View works from exhibit

A Unique History

Most importantly,the City of Fremont’s  Olive Hyde Art Gallery offers a glimpse into the textile world with textile creations.The show is  the 50th Annual Textile Exhibition. Furthermore,it  runs from August 3 – September 5, 2018. This annual exhibit began in 1968. It started in recognition of the Art Center’s original benefactor and Textile Art enthusiast, Olive Hyde. In its early years it was primarily a quilt show. However,this annual exhibition features works of both traditional and contemporary quilt artists. In short,these artists use textiles and fibers to create unique artworks and designs.

Above all, this is one of Olive Hyde Art Gallery’s most popular exhibitions. Therefore, the show includes a diverse group of Northern California’s best and often most recognized textile artists.

Participating artists include: Adriane Dedic, Alice Beasley, Ann Baldwin May, Catherine Kelly, Denise Oyama Miller, Dolores Miller, Drew Matott, Emelie Rogers, Gail Sims, Ginger Summit, Giny Dixon, Ileana Soto, Jennifer Landau, Karen Balos, Kris Sazaki, Lin Schiffner, Linda Waddle, Martha Wolfe, Maureen Langenbach, Melba Vincent, Patricia Porter, P. Kay Hille-Hatten, Rashna Sutaria, Susan Helmer, and Zona Sage.

Local Wonders

Alice Beasley

Olive Hyde Textile Show
Sunday On Lake Merritt  by Alice Beasley

Above all,Alice Beasley has been making portraits of people and objects since 1988. In short,fabric is her chosen medium of expression.  However,she incorporates the same light, shadow and realistic perspective used by artists in other media. Like the classical painter, her art is absorbed by an interest in the human figure and in our objects as they are presented in still life.

Dolores Miller

Olive Hyde Textile Show
Facets 2 by Dolores Miller

Above all, Dolores Miller supposes that her love of textiles is in her blood. In short,both of her grandmothers were seamstresses. For example,she threaded needles for her paternal grandmother for her job as a fine hand finisher.  Furthermore,as a young adult, she made most of her clothes. Hence,Dolores dabbled in most of the textile arts over the years.

Denise Oyama Miller

Montage 2: Strata by DeniseOyama MIller

Certainly, Denise Oyama Miller is a frequent and respected exhibitor at the Olive Hyde Art Gallery. As a result,she shows her unique, contemporary take on quilt-making using strong forms and contrasting colors. Moreover,Miller works in a variety of styles from representational scenes to intense abstractions.

Karen Balos

Chroma Two by Karen Balos

Karen Balos shows her mastery of creating visual explosions of color, patterns, and movements with textiles.

Ileana Soto

Ileana Soto looks into the history of human culture. She sees  herself  reflected by  the complexities of life with her mixed media creations. She adds alternating layers of dye, paint, and fabrics.

Bark Codex by Ileana Soto

Martha Wolfe

Weekend by Martha Wolfe

Inspired by the natural world, Martha Wolfe gathers photographs. She uses them as a guide to create finely-detailed works. She often recreates the images of everyday life with colorful patterns.

Venture by Zona Sage

Zona Sage

Pushing the boundaries of textile sculptures,Zona Sage

 assembles different found items and fabrics.

Kabuki Warrior by Adriane Dedic

Adriane Dedic

Adriane Dedic highlights the art of the figure. Inspirations from both Eastern and Western art have led her to create a wide variety of stylized figures, from traditional Japanese Geishas to figures painted by Klimt.

Opening Reception

Furthermore,the opening reception will be held on Friday, August 3,2018 from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Olive Hyde Art Center, 123 Washington Blvd. (at Mission Blvd.) In addition,parking is available at the municipal parking lot ½ block north of the Olive Hyde Art Center on Mission Blvd. The exhibition runs through Saturday, September 5th,2018. Gallery Hours: Thursday through Sunday, 12noon to 5pm.

https://olivehydeartguild.org

https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts/

Still Don’t Know about the Quilters of Gee’s Bend Alabama?

Quilters of Gee’s Bend Alabama

red with purple and white curved line piecedabstract modern quilt by Jessie T. Pettway Quilters of Gee’s Bend Alabama
Jessie T. Pettway (born 1929) String-pieced columns c. 1950 Cotton 95 x 76 in. (Collection of the Tinwood Alliance)

Fabric of Their Lives

The quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama lives have been transformed by worldwide acclaim for their artistry By Amei Wallach

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
OCTOBER 2006

This article from 2006 is still a great resource.

Recollectin’

Annie Mae Young of Gee’s Bend is looking at a photograph of a quilt she pieced together out of strips torn from well-worn cotton shirts and polyester pants. “I was doing this quilt at the time of the civil rights movement,” she says, contemplating its jazzy, free-form squares.
Martin Luther King Jr. came to Young’s hometown of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, around that time. “I came over here to Gee’s Bend to tell you, You are somebody,” he shouted over a heavy rain late one winter night in 1965. A few days later, Young and many of her friends took off their aprons, laid down their hoes and rode over to the county seat of Camden, where they gathered outside the old jailhouse.

Martin Luther King Jr., his visit

“We were waiting for Martin Luther King, and when he drove up, we were all slappin’ and singin’,” Young, 78, tells me.  I visited Gee’s Bend, a small rural community on a peninsula at a deep bend in the Alabama River. Wearing a red turban and an apron bright with pink peaches and yellow grapes, she stands in the doorway of her brick bungalow at the end of a dirt road. Swaying to a rhythm that nearly everyone in town knows from a lifetime of churchgoing, she breaks into song: “We shall overcome, we shall overcome….”

His Words

“We were all just happy to see him coming,” she says. “Then he stood out there on the ground. He was talking about how we should wait on a bus to come. We were all going to march. We got loaded on the bus. But we didn’t get a chance to do it, ’cause we got put in jail,” she says.

Many who marched or registered to vote in rural Alabama in the 1960s lost their jobs. Some even lost their homes. The residents of Gee’s Bend, 60 miles southwest of Montgomery, lost the ferry that connected them to Camden and a direct route to the outside world. “We didn’t close the ferry because they were black,” Sheriff Lummie Jenkins reportedly said at the time. “We closed it because they forgot they were black.”

Most Miraculous Works

Six of Young’s quilts, together with 64 by other Gee’s Bend residents, have been traveling around the United States.  The exhibition that has transformed the way many people think about art. Gee’s Bend’s “eye-poppingly gorgeous” quilts, wrote New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman, “turn out to be some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced. Imagine Matisse and Klee  arising not from rarefied Europe, but from the caramel soil of the rural South.”

From the South

If you think I’m wildly exaggerating, then you must see the show. Curator Jane Livingston helped organize the exhibition with collector William Arnett and art historians John Beardsley and Alvia Wardlaw. Livingston said the quilts “rank with the finest abstract art of any tradition.” After stops in such cities as New York, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Boston and Atlanta, “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend” will end its tour at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s de Young Museum December 31.

Young’s Work

The bold drama of the quilt Young was working on in 1965 is also found in a quilt she made out of work clothes 11 years later. The central design of red and orange corduroy in that quilt suggests prison bars. The faded denim that surrounds it could be a comment on the American dream. But Young had more practical considerations. “When I put the quilt together,” she says, “it wasn’t big enough, and I had to get some more material and make it bigger, so I had these old jeans to make it bigger.”

Good Money for Raggedy Old Quilts

Collector William Arnett was working on a history of African American vernacular art in 1998. At that time,  he came across a photograph of Young’s work-clothes quilt draped over a woodpile. He was so knocked out by its originality, he set out to find it. A couple of phone calls and some creative research later, he and his son Matt tracked Young down to Gee’s Bend. They  then showed up unannounced at her door late one evening.

A Quilt for Free?

Young had burned some quilts the week before (smoke from burning cotton drives off mosquitoes). At first she thought the quilt in the photograph had been among them. But the next day, after scouring closets and searching under beds, she found it and offered it to Arnett for free. Arnett, however, insisted on writing her a check for a few thousand dollars for that quilt and several others. (Young took the check straight to the bank.) Soon the word spread through Gee’s Bend that there was a unbelievable white man in town paying good money for raggedy old quilts.

The First Show

When Arnett showed photos of the quilts made by Young and other Gee’s Benders to Peter Marzio, of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), he was so impressed that he agreed to put on an exhibition. “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend” opened there in September 2002.

Reviving a Dying Art

The exhibition revived what had been a dying art in Gee’s Bend. Some of the quilters, who had given in to age and arthritis, are now back quilting again. Many of their children and grandchildren, some of whom had moved away from Gee’s Bend, have taken up quilting themselves. With the help of Arnett and his nonprofit, Tinwood Alliance, fifty local women founded the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective in 2003. Their mission to market their quilts. Some of which now sell for more than $20,000. Part of the money goes directly to the maker. The rest goes to the collective for expenses and to share  with the other members.

A Second Exhibition

Now a second exhibition, “Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt,” has been organized by the MFAH and the Tinwood Alliance. The show features newly discovered quilts from the 1930s to the 1980s.It also includes more recent works by established quilters and the younger generation they inspired. The exhibition will travel to seven other venues, including the Indianapolis Museum of Art (October 8-December 31) and the Orlando Museum of Art (January 27-May 13, 2007).

Arlonzia Pettway

Arlonzia Pettway lives in a neat, recently renovated house off a road plagued with potholes. The road passes by cows and goats grazing outside robin’s-egg blue and brown bungalows. “I remember some things, honey,” Pettway, 83, told me.  “I came through a hard life.  We weren’t bought and sold. But we were still slaves until 20, 30 years ago. The white man would go to everybody’s field and say, ‘Why you not at work?” She paused. “What do you think a slave is?”

Her Family Quilted

As a girl, Pettway would watch her grandmother, Sally, and her mother, Missouri, piecing quilts.  She would listen to their stories. Many of the stories were about Dinah Miller. She had been brought to the United States in a slave ship in 1859. “My great-grandmother Dinah was sold for a dime,” Pettway said. “Her dad, brother and mother were sold to different people. She didn’t see them no more. My great-grandfather was a Cherokee Indian. Dinah was made to sleep with this big Indian like you stud your cow…. You couldn’t have no skinny children working on your slave master’s farm.” In addition to Pettway, some 20 other Gee’s Bend quiltmakers are Dinah’s descendants.

A Long Quilting Tradition

The quilting tradition in Gee’s Bend may go back as far as the early 1800s. At that time, the community was the site of a cotton plantation owned by a Joseph Gee. Influenced by the patterned textiles of Africa, the women slaves began piecing strips of cloth together to make bedcovers. Throughout the post-bellum years of tenant farming and well into the 20th century, Gee’s Bend women made quilts.They were needed to keep themselves and their children warm in unheated shacks. The shacks also  lacked running water, telephones and electricity. Along the way they developed a distinctive style, noted for its lively improvisations and geometric simplicity.

Hard Laborers

Gee’s Bend individuals grew and picked cotton, peanuts, okra, corn, peas and potatoes. When there was no money to buy seed or fertilizer, they borrowed one or both from Camden businessman E. O. Rentz. The interest rates were such that only those without any other choice would pay. Then came the Depression. In 1931 the price of cotton plummeted. Cotton went  from about 40 cents a pound in the early 1920s, to about a nickel. When Rentz died in 1932, his widow foreclosed on some 60 Gee’s Bend families. It was late fall, and winter was coming.

The Depression

“They took everything and left people to die,” Pettway said. Her mother was making a quilt out of old clothes when she heard the cries outside. She sewed four wide shirttails into a sack. The men in the family filled the sack with corn and sweet potatoes and hid in a ditch. When the agent for Rentz’s widow came around to seize the family’s hens, Pettway’s mother threatened him with a hoe. “I’m a good Christian, but I’ll chop his damn brains out,” she said. The man got in his wagon and left. “He didn’t get to my mama that day,” Pettway told me.

Problems Continued

Pettway remembered that her friends and neighbors foraged for berries, hunted possum and squirrels. But mostly went hungry that winter.  Then  a boat with flour and meal sent by the Red Cross arrived in early 1933. The following year, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration provided small loans for seed, fertilizer, tools and livestock. Then, in 1937, the government’s Resettlement Administration (later the Farm Security Administration) bought up 10,000 Gee’s Bend acres. The land sold them as tiny farms to local families.

A Memory Quilt

In 1941, when Pettway was in her late teens, her father died. “Mama said, ‘I’m going to take his work clothes, shape them into a quilt to remember him, and cover up under it for love.’” There were hardly enough pants legs and shirttails to make up a quilt. But she managed. That quilt made of rectangles of faded gray, white, blue and red is included in the first exhibition. A year later, Arlonzia married Bizzell Pettway. They  moved into one of the new houses built by the government. They had 12 children. But no electricity until 1964 and no running water until 1974.

In the Same House

A widow for more than 30 years, Arlonzia still lives in that same house. Her mother, Missouri made a quilt she called “Path Through the Woods.” The quilt was inspired after the 1960s freedom marches. A quilt that Pettway pieced together during that period, “Chinese Coins”, is a medley of pinks and purples. A friend had given her purple scraps from a clothing factory in a nearby town.

Better Times

“At the time I was making that quilt, I was feeling something was going to happen better, and it did,” Pettway says. “Last time I counted I had 32 grandchildren and I think between 13 and 14 great-grands. I’m blessed now more than many. I have my home and land. I have a deepfreeze five feet long with chicken wings, neck bones and pork chops.”

Lots of Pettways

The first exhibition featured seven quilts by Loretta Pettway, Arlonzia Pettway’s first cousin. (One in three of Gee’s Bend’s 700 residents is named Pettway, after slave owner Mark H. Pettway.) Loretta, 64, says she made her early quilts out of work clothes. “I was about 16 when I learned to quilt from my grandmama,” she says. “I just loved it. That’s all I wanted to do, quilt. But I had to work farming cotton, corn, peas and potatoes, making syrup, putting up soup in jars. I was working other people’s fields too. Saturdays I would hire out. Sometimes I would hire out Sundays, too. I needed to give my kids some food.

After Work

When I finished my chores, I’d sit down and do like I’m doing nowI would  get the clothes together and tear them and piece.  Then in summer, I would quilt outside under the big oak.” She fingers the fabric pieces in her lap. “I thank God that people want me to make quilts,” she says. “I feel proud. The Lord lead me and guide me. He give me strength to make this quilt with love and peace and happiness so somebody would enjoy it. That makes me feel happy. I’m doing something with my life.”

A Dam and Lock

In 1962 the U.S. Congress ordered the construction of a dam and lock on the Alabama River at Miller’s Ferry, just south of Gee’s Bend. The 17,200-acre reservoir created by the dam in the late 1960s flooded much of Gee’s Bend’s best farming land, forcing many residents to give up farming. “And thank God for that,” says Loretta. “Farming wasn’t nothing but hard work. And at the end of the year you couldn’t get nothing. The little you got went for cottonseed.”

Quilts all the Time

Around that time, a number of Gee’s Bend women began making quilts for the Freedom Quilting Bee,. This organization was founded in 1966 by civil rights worker and Episcopalian priest Francis X. Walter. He wanted  to provide a source of income for the local community. For a while, the bee (which operated for about three decades) sold quilts to such stores as Bloomingdale’s, Sears, Saks and Bonwit Teller. But the stores wanted assembly-line quilts. They had to be orderly with familiar patterns and precise stitching. A far cry from the individual improvised and unexpected patterns and color combinations that characterized the Gee’s Bend quilts.

Personal Quilts

“My quilts looked beautiful to me, because I made what I could make from my head,” Loretta told me. “When I start I don’t want to stop until I finish. If I stop, the ideas are going to go one way and my mind another way. So I just try to do it while I have ideas in my mind.”

Loretta’s Work

Loretta had been too ill to attend the opening of the first exhibition in Houston. But she wore a bright red jacket and a wrist corsage of roses to the opening of the second show last spring. Going there on the bus, “I didn’t close my eyes the whole way,” she says. “I was so happy, I had to sightsee.”

In the New Show

In the new show was her 2003 take on the popular “Housetop” pattern. It is a  variant of the traditional “Log Cabin” design. Her piece is an explosion of red polka dots, zany stripes and crooked frames within frames. It is a dramatic change from the faded colors and somber patterns of her early work-clothes quilts. Two other quilts made by Loretta are among those represented on a series of Gee’s Bend stamps issued this past August by the U.S. Postal Service. “I just had scraps of what I could find,” she says about her early work. “Now I see my quilts hanging in a museum. Thank God I see my quilts on the wall. I found my way.”

Mary Lee Bendolph

Mary Lee Bendolph, 71, speaks in a husky voice and has a hearty, throaty laugh. At the opening of the new exhibition in Houston, she sported large rhinestone earrings and a chic black dress. For some years, kidney disease had slowed her quiltmaking. But the first exhibition, she says, “spunked me to go a little further, to try and make my quilts a little more updated.” Her latest quilts fracture her backyard views and other local scenes. They are fractured in the way Cubism fragmented the cafés and countryside of France. Her quilts share a gallery with those of her daughter-in-law, Louisiana Pettway Bendolph.

Mary Lee Bendolph

Louisiana now lives in Mobile, Alabama. But she remembers hot, endless days picking cotton as a child in the fields around Gee’s Bend. From age 6 to 16, she says, the only time she could go to school was when it rained. The only play was softball and quiltmaking. Her mother, Rita Mae Pettway, invited her to the opening in Houston of the first quilt show. On the bus ride home, she says, she “had a kind of vision of quilts.” She made drawings of what would become the quilts in the new exhibition. The shapes seem to float and recede as if in three dimensions.

Quilting helped redirect my life

“Quilting helped redirect my life and put it back together,” Louisiana says. “I worked at a fast-food place and a sewing factory. When the sewing factory closed, I stayed home to be a housewife. You just want your kids to see you in a different light.You want them to see you as someone they can admire. Well, my children came into this museum. I saw their faces.”

Quiltmaking is History and Family

To Louisiana, 46, quiltmaking is history and family. “Generally,we think of inheriting as land or something, not things that people teach you,” she says. “We came from cotton fields. We came through hard times. Now we look back and see what all these people before us have done. They brought us here, and to say thank you is not enough.” Now her 11-year-old granddaughter has taken up quiltmaking. She, however, does her drawings on a computer.

Well Deserved Fame

In Gee’s Bend not long ago, her great-grandmother Mary Lee Bendolph picked some pecans to make into candy. She had to have candy  on hand for the children.  The only store in town is often closed. Then she soaked her feet. Sitting on her screened-in porch, she smiled. “I’m famous,” she said. “And look how old I am.” She laughed. “I enjoy it.”

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/08/black-self-taught-artists/

https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/07/political-quilts2008-2014/

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Did You See a World of Fiber Art?

Tree Along Creek, art quilt

Currently,(2018)a World of Fiber Art at the Santa Cruz County Building is on view  at the Santa Cruz County Building on Ocean St. Above all, fifteen art quilts by Santa Cruz artist, Ann Baldwin May are currently on exhibit at the Santa Cruz County Building. In addition,the exhibit  is at the 701 Ocean St. facility in Santa Cruz. Furthermore, the show runs through July 27, 2018.

A World of Fiber Art at the Santa Cruz County Building

abstract art in blues, greens and oranges
Under the Savannah Shade using African fabrics 

From Bed quilts to Art Quilts

tree on Vacant Lot,Vacant Lot
Vacant Lot

Fabmo Materials

Firstly, May  gets  her material from the non profit group known as FabMo.http://fabmo.org It is an all volunteer run organization. Moreover,the group provides high-end materials to artists, teachers and others for creative reuse. A statement of the website, FabMo.org, reads: “These exquisite textiles, wallpapers, and tiles are from the design world.They are usually only available to you  through a designer. FabMo makes them available on a donation basis. Our work keeps about 70 tons a year of them from the landfill.”  PreCOVID FabMo also  typically came  Harvey West Clubhouse  about four or five times a year. In addition, special selection dates occur in Sunnyvale, California.

Award Winning Artist

In 2019,She entered her first art piece in Pajaro Valley Arts exhibit titled “Los Pájaros.” Her work was titled, “Great Blue Heron at Dusk.”
The following year it won a merit award at the Olive Hyde Gallery in Fremont,California. https://olivehydeartguild.org/ 

As a result, Ms. May was encouraged to continue her art quilt adventure.

Great Blue Heron at Dusk

Color! Texture! Movement!

Overall,May has  completed about 350 art quilts and counting.. Furthermore, her work has also been shown at the R. Blitzer Gallery in Santa Cruz, in Chicago, San Francisco, and at New York  Arts.

“Above all,I’m all color, texture and movement; that’s what I have to do,” Baldwin May said. “Furthermore,it takes me to another place. In other words, it feels very comfortable to build on skills that I already know, that I am confident in doing.”

https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts/

Open Studio Art Tour

 Once more, May will  take part in the annual Open Studio Art Tour in October,2018. Meanwhile, she does most of her work  at her studio in the Santa Cruz Art Center. In other words,for Open Studios her art  fills the  lobby at the Santa Cruz Art Center at 1001 Center St. She also participates in First Friday Art Walk.Similarly,this is  an informal, monthly art tour where artists and galleries open their doors to the public.

By: Tarmo Hannula  © 2018-Register-Pajaronian

SANTA CRUZ —

https://register-pajaronian.com/article/a-world-of-fiber-art

http://annbmayartquilts.etsy.com/

Artist Bio

Ann Baldwin May was born and raised in Palo Alto, California. Moreover,she began sewing in junior high. Later,she received her education from University of California, Irvine (History, BA Elementary Teaching Credential, Masters in Teaching Spanish) Meanwhile, her first quilting class was in 1975. After that,she basically never stopped making quilts.After she retired in 2012 After working 36 years as a bilingual teacher and Bilingual Resource Teacher, she retired. As a result, in 2012,she turned her attention to making art fulltime.

Purchased art

Over the years,Kaiser Permanente bought five art quilts.for their  facilities in Scotts Valley and Watsonville, California. Again she participates in the juried Santa Cruz County Open Studios Art Tour. Furthermore,her work is currently being shown at New York Arts in TRIBECA, New York City. https://newyorkart.com/

Contact info

Ann Baldwin May
Santa Cruz Art Center, 1001 Center St.#4 Santa Cruz, CA 95060
baldwinmay49@yahoo.com
831.345.1466
annbaldwinmayartquilts.com
Facebook- AnnBaldwinMayArtQuilts@annbaldwinmay
Instagram-annbaldwinmay

Finally,Some of Ann Baldwin May’s favorite artists.
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/07/marion-coleman-art-quilter/
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/04/robert-blitzer-painter-and-sculptor/
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/11/innovative-textile-artistscott-bodenner/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/10/urban-quilter-amy-ahlstrom/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/07/maria-shell-art-quilter/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/05/maria-shell-alaskan-quilter/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/06/art-quilter-cindy-grisdela/

In conclusion, read these.
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/05/alice-beasley-fiber-artist/
https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/04/joe-the-quilter-joe-cunningham/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/04/artwork-of-james-aschbacher/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/04/james-aschbacher-muralist/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/05/faith-ringgold-quilt-artist/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/12/sandy-takashima-shaw-santa-cruz-artist/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/03/museum-of-curious-perceptionsencore/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/03/museum-of-curious-perceptions/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/11/decorating-with-color-shannon-kaye

/https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/03/francoise-grossen-selects/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2017/04/beautiful-batiks/

Did you see Marion Coleman Art Quilter’s Award?

Marion Coleman Art Quilter
Marion Coleman Art Quilter

2018 NEA National Heritage Fellows

Marion Coleman Art Quilter receives an impressive award! Today the National Endowment for the Arts is announcing the newest recipients of the NEA National Heritage Fellowships. Moreover,they  range from an old-time fiddler to a Day of the Dead altar maker to an R&B musician. The NEA National Heritage Fellowships are awarded annually by the National Endowment for the Arts. Certainly,they highlight the breadth and excellence of the artistic traditions found in communities  across the United States. As a result,the 2018 recipients will receive a $25,000 award. Furthermore they are honored in Washington, DC at an awards ceremony. In addition they are presented at a free concert on September 28, 2018. The concert will be streamed live at arts.gov.

The 2018 NEA National Heritage Fellows are:

  • Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim (Milwaukie, OR)—Palestinian embroiderer
  • Eddie Bond (Fries, VA)—Appalachian old-time fiddler
  • Kelly Church (Allegan, MI)—Anishinabe (Gun Lake Band) black ash basketmaker
  • Marion Coleman (Castro Valley, CA)—African American quilter
  • Manuel Cuevas (Nashville, TN)—rodeo tailor
  • Ofelia Esparza (Los Angeles, CA)—Chicana altarista (Day of the Dead altar maker)
  • Barbara Lynn (Beaumont, TX)—R&B musician
  • Don & Cindy Roy (Gorham, ME)—Franco-American musicians
  • Ethel Raim (New York, NY)—traditional music and dance advocate
    In addition,Raim is the recipient of the 2018 Bess Lomax Hawes NEA National Heritage Fellowship. It is  in recognition of an individual who has made a significant contribution to the preservation and awareness of cultural heritage.   2018 NEA National Heritage Fellows

“The 2018 NEA National Heritage Fellows have dedicated their lives to mastering these distinctive art forms. As well as sharing them with new audiences both within their communities and nationwide,” said Mary Anne Carter, acting chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts. “We look forward to celebrating them and their incredible artistic accomplishments this fall.”

About the NEA National Heritage Fellowships

The National Heritage Fellowships is the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. It recognizes the recipients’ artistic excellence. Furthermore it supports their continuing contributions to our nation’s traditional arts heritage. Over the years including the 2018 class, the NEA has awarded 431 NEA National Heritage Fellowships.

200 Distinct Art Forms

Recognizing artists in More than 200 distinct art forms.  Former winners included bluesman B.B. King, Cajun fiddler and composer Michael Doucet, sweetgrass basketweaver Mary Jackson, cowboy poet Wally McRae, Kathak dancer and choreographer Chitresh Das, and gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples. More information about the NEA National Heritage Fellows is available on the NEA’s website.
https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage

Nominated by the Public

Initially,the public nominates the Fellowship recipients. The recommendation is often by members of their own communities.  Then  a panel of experts in the folk and traditional arts judges the work. After that,the panel’s recommendations are reviewed by the National Council on the Arts. Afterwards they  sends the recommendations to the NEA chairman. Finally,the chairman who makes the final decision.

Class of 2019

In addition,the NEA is currently accepting nominations for the 2019 class of NEA National Heritage Fellowships. The deadline is July 30, 2018. Finally,visit the NEA’s website for more information and to submit a nomination.

Marion Coleman ,SAQA member,Art quilter announces her award on Facebook. June 20 at 7:15 AM · 

First of all, I am delighted and excited to announce that I am the recipient of a 2018 NEA National Heritage Fellowship. Certainly,many thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts for this tremendous honor. Above all,I remain grateful to the African American Quilt Guild of Oakland, the Women of Color Quilters Network, family and friends for your support through the years.

Thank you Congressman Eric Swalwell

In addition,thank you Congressman Eric Swalwell for your visit. It was a delight to share my quilts with you. Moreover, thank you Ora Clay for your encouragement and support. In addition,thanks to the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) for helping me and others reach and teach community members to enjoy quilting. Certainly,congratulations to the other NEA fellows. #NEAHeritage18

Sadly, Marion Coleman passed in 2019.

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/07/a-world-of-fiber-art/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/07/political-quilts2008-2014/

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https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/artists-of-interest/

Have you seen the Art at the County Building?

Art at the County Building,2018

Above all, Art at the Santa Cruz County Building offers incredible art to a place where the public actually goes. Moreover, it brightens the day for people that are paying their taxes or just inquiring about a property. Some pieces just bring a smile to your face. However, sometimes people are truly at the county building for a serious item. They may choose to engage or ignore the art.

Above all,I am pleased to have my art quilts seen by such a random group of the public.  All citizens visit the Santa Cruz County Office Building at 701 Ocean St.  The display was up in July,2018.  There are a variety of media to enjoy. Art at the County Building, First Friday Reception was Friday, July 2, 2018.

Ann Baldwin May- Art Quilts
Barbara Lawrence-Painting   http://Barbara L Lawrence @ artavita
Krista Pollock-Painting on Silk   http://firstfridaysantacruz.com › artist › krista-pollock
Heather Richman Glass  https://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftyFoxArtGlass
Michael Singer-Photography  https://www.msfinewoodworking.com/

 County Building Art
Underwater Fantasy by Ann Baldwin May, art quilter

Ann Baldwin May

My art quilts may be abstract, whimsical or impressionistic.  Moreover, inspiration comes from the natural world as well as from Mexican influences. Furthermore, my materials of choice are often redirected fabrics from the San Francisco Design Center.  Art quilts free me to play with color and texture.

Bio

I was born and raised in Palo Alto, California. Later,I studied sewing   for two years in high school.  After living and traveling in Europe for a year, my husband and I moved to Santa Cruz, California in 1980. Then,in 1975, I took a quilting class. From then on,I continued to sew clothes and make quilts for my family. Finally, I stopped counting bed quilts at 300. After teaching 30 years in Watsonville as a bilingual teacher, I retired. After that, I began to spend more time on my art quilting career.

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See Faith Ringgold Quilt Artist

Groovin High art quilt by Faith Ringgold
Groovin High by Faith Ringgold
Tar Beach , an art quilt by Faith Ringgold
Tar Beach , an art quilt by Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold Quilt Artist

Sacramento, Calif –UPDATED December 22, 2017

On February 18, 2018, the Crocker Art Museum will bring to Sacramento Faith Ringgold: An American Artist. This exhibition features  Ringgold’s famous story quilts. In other words, tankas, inspired by thangkas, Tibetan textile paintings. Also included are Ringold’s oil paintings, prints, drawings, masks, and sculptures. Furthermore, on view are the original illustrations from the artist’s award-winning book Tar Beach.

Harlem-born Artist and Activist

After a trip to Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum in 1972,Harlem-born artist and activist Ringgold began working with textiles.  After that,a gallery guard introduced her to Tibetan thangkas. Above, all,thangkas are traditional Buddhist paintings on cloth, surrounded by silk brocades. After returning home, Ringgold enlisted the help of her mother, a professional dressmaker.Importantly, Ms. Ringgold made politically minded thangkas of her own. Certainly,she sewed frames of cloth around depictions of brutal rape and slavery. In 1980, Ringgold crafted her first quilt. Again,with some sewing help from her mother. Ms. Ringgold created Echoes of Harlem (1980).Moreover,she  portrayed 30 Harlem residents in a mandala-like composition.

Story Quilts

After that, her mother died in 1981, Ringgold continued to work with textiles.However,she embarked on a series of story quilts that would come to define her career.  https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-why-faith-ringgold-matters

Moreover,these works combined visual and written storytelling to explore topics. In addition, the underrepresentation of African Americans in art history stands out. Moreover, she explored her upbringing in Harlem. After that, the legacy of Aunt Jemima. According to the artist, the textile medium allows her political messages to be more digestible. “When [viewers are] looking at my work, they’re looking at a painting.  Certainly,they’re able to accept it better because it is also a quilt,” she says.

https://www.philamuseum.org/booklets/8_48_99_0.html

Finally,EXHIBITION: Faith Ringgold: An American Artist


VENUE: Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street, Sacramento, CA
DATES: February 18, 2018 — May 13, 2018

  • Four-decade survey of artist’s career
  • Includes one of Ringgold’s most famous narrative quilts and illustrations for the children’s book it inspired

http://Faith Ringgold quilt artisthttps://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/07/a-world-of-fiber-art/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2020/07/political-quilts2008-2014/

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Get to Know James Aschbacher muralist

As he retires from painting his striking Santa Cruz murals, James Aschbacher is re-inventing his art.

The Life of James Aschbacher

Sadly, after a  action-packed 66 years, artist and muralist James Carl Aschbacher passed away. His wife author Lisa Jensen, and several dear friends, were at his side. James was born October 9, 1951, in Evanston, IL.  For 16 years  he was co-proprietor of Atlantis Fantasyworld comic book store with Joe Ferrara. At age 40, with no previous artistic training, James gave up retail to pursue art full-time.

His first Magic is Magic.

Though he’s best known now as Santa Cruz’s most popular muralist, James Aschbacher once wrote a column for Magic Magazine.“I had a little stage show when I was 16,” he reveals. “My dad and I did magic acts—sawing the lady in half, that kind of thing. Even some Houdini tricks.” As he readies himself for another Open Studios season, transformation is still part of Aschbacher’s visual magic.

Murals

Over the past 15 years, James Aschbacher muralist painted with his wife, GT film critic Lisa Jensen, some with entire classes of fifth-graders from around the county—have sprung up everywhere, 18 in all. Working with private clients and city partners, Aschbacher has created wall-sized fantasies populated by his whimsical flying fish, twirling birds and cats, and fanciful folk with wild hair. Retiring this year from the mural game, citing back trouble, Aschbacher now devotes himself full time to painstakingly crafted, shaped, incised and painted artworks.

Atlantis Fantasy World

A Chicago native, Aschbacher came west in 1975 with a girlfriend who was attending UCSC. “I saw the palm trees and I loved it immediately.” He began supporting himself with a mail-order business in illustrated and vintage children’s books.  To expand his valuable collection of comics, he searched all over. “I went to flea markets,” he recalls. “And that’s where I met Joe Ferrara. We were both go-getters. In 1978 we opened Atlantis Fantasy World on Pacific Avenue.”

Aschbacher recalls the scene as “fun, weird, wild times. We handled some Star Trek stuff, and when Star Wars opened six months later, sci-fi came out of the closet. We were the first with TSR role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.”

He started Experimenting with Art.

After the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, Aschbacher retired from the comics scene. He started experimenting with art. “I had all these ideas, but no skill,” he says with a chuckle. “I never took an art class. Having grown up working in construction with his dad, Aschbacher was no stranger to woodshops. With cans of spray paint and hand-cut stencils, he began feeling his way into a style. “I did 200 paintings that way, spray paint through stencils on illustration board. I was obsessed,” he admits. “To work late into the night,I installed lights in the back yard.”“I learned on the job,” he says with a grin from an astonishingly neat work table at the studio end of his mid-county home.

Painting Fanciful Figures

The next breakthrough came when he started painting fanciful figures onto the stencils, each coated with hundreds of coats of sprayed color. “Lisa’s mom gave me paint brushes one Christmas, so I started carving in wood, then brushing paint into the carvings.” His familiar style was born. First a plywood base, then the painted board nailed onto the wood, and finally a border of encised and painted hieroglyphs. “Paul Klee’s quirky drawing gave me confidence that I didn’t have to have an academic style, I didn’t need perspective.”

The size of each painting was originally determined by the sizes of the recycled scrap board. Only later did he make large foundations for the highly popular pieces, available at the annual Church Street Art Fair, at Bargetto, on Pasta Mike sauces, etc.

Entering the Art Field

Aschbacher entered his first Open Studios in 1995. “I’ve been doing it for 25 years,” he notes. And it has been very very good to him.

“Then I started getting galleries,” he says, including Many Hands in Santa Cruz and two in Chicago. “Those were big for me, since my family was from that area.”

Color and Certain Symbols

As the years went by, Aschbacher’s palette got brighter. “I wasn’t brave enough at first.” Color is now a central feature of his style, along with the hieroglyphs. “Certain symbols—the circle, the cross, the star, the wave—are universal. And I like to alternate lines and solids. I’m a Libra, so I want balance.”

A devoted pizza and pasta chef, Aschbacher says he never tires of creating in his highly recognizable style. “It might bore other people, but not me, because I always love seeing how it will look.”

Do his smiling creatures reflect his own persona? “Absolutely. My mission is to make people smile.”

James was a board member for many yearsof the Santa Cruz Arts Council.

https://www.artscouncilsc.org/


LOCAL COLOR Now in his 25th year participating in Open Studios, James Aschbacher has had a great deal of success locally with his vibrant signature style. PHOTO: CHIP SCHEUER.

Georgia O’Keeffe: Trendsetter Before Her Time

Georgia O'Keeffe 's dress
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style
By Susan Flynn

Independent Streak

Georgia O’Keeffe’s independent streak started early. Her high school yearbook described her this way: “A girl who would be different in habit, style and dress. A girl who doesn’t give a cent for men and boys still less.”

A class photo seems to further this reputation as a woman determined to do things her way. Unlike her peers with a penchant for puffiness, O’Keeffe poses in a dress with fitted sleeves and cuffs. She wears her hair pulled straight back into a long ponytail. She does not style her hair in the trendy high pompadour with a big floppy bow.

Beige clothes designed by Georgia O'Keeffe
Clothes designed by Georgia O’Keeffe

A World of her Own Design

With exacting detail and fierce intensity, Georgia O’Keeffe controlled how the world would see her. She orchestrated her life  from the clothes she wore to the way she addressed a letter to the objects she placed on her mantle and  finally, to the compositions of her paintings.
—AUSTEN BARRON BAILLY, PEM’S GEORGE PUTNAM CURATOR OF AMERICAN ART

“For more than 70 years, Georgia O’Keeffe shaped her public persona. She defied labels. She lived life on her terms so that she could make the art she felt she was called to make.”

Never before Seen

Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style, which opens December 16,2017 at Peabody Essex Museum(PEM)Salem, MA, offers a radically new way to consider an artist we think we know from her iconic paintings of flowers and Southwestern landscapes. Through 125 works, the exhibition expands our understanding of O’Keeffe by presenting her wardrobe,for the first time, alongside photographs and paintings.

Sections divide the exhibition by the time of her life. From  her early years, when O’Keeffe crafted a signature simple style of dress. Then  to her years in New York, in the 1920s and 1930s, when a black-and-white palette dominated much of her art and dress. Finally to her later years in New Mexico, where her art and clothing changed in response to the surrounding colors of the Southwestern landscape.She continued styling right up until her death in 1986.

Georgia O'Keeffe 's monotone dresses
Georgia O’Keeffe ‘s dresses

A New Way to look at O’keeffe

“We are able to explore Georgia O’Keeffe and her art though the lens of her self-fashioning and her self-presentation,” said Bailly, the exhibition coordinating curator. “We can recognize that her clothes and the way she dressed were their own authentic form of artistic expression.”

Her whole life was a work of Art.

Before working on the exhibition, Bailly said she had no idea that O’Keeffe made many of her own clothes. In fact, the renowned modernist artist was a gifted seamstress who favored simple lines, minimal ornamentation and organic forms.

“When you see how exquisitely she crafted linen tunics or silk blouses, you are going to be blown away,” Bailly said. “There is such understated simplicity and elegance to her designs. There is  the beauty of the fabrics with the tiny little feminine details.  You start to see similarities between the aesthetics of her clothes and her paintings. Without opening up her closet, you never would sense that her whole life was a work of art.”

Decades Ahead of Everyone

Georgia O’Keeffe was decades ahead of everyone. Today, social media makes it easy to curate one’s own public image. Scroll through your Instagram feed. You’re likely to encounter friends skilled at projecting their self-identified brand.  O’Keeffee’s presented a unified aesthetic vision in every aspect of her life.

“I think people are really captivated by the fact that she maintained such a strikingly coherent style throughout her long life, “said Bailly. “Her ability to achieve creative and aesthetic excellence according to her vision in every aspect of her life far eclipsed her peers.  Her remarkable personal style continues to inspire.”

https://www.pem.org/https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/07/a-world-of-fiber-art/

https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/artists-of-interest/

https://www.etsy.com/shop/annbmayartquilts/

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