On My Mind, Nancy Crow on Off the Wall Friday

You wouldn't think that living outside of Erie, Pennsylvania would be a center of culture. And it kinda isn't.  But it kinda is.  Really, we're within an hour or two of Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Buffalo.  Plus 3 hrs out of Toronto. As well as 2.5 hrs out of central Ohio.  Yes, you read that right ....central Ohio.   Central Ohio, for you not in the know, is a hot bed of quilting.  Not only is there a plethora of quilt stores, quilt groups, retreat spots but also there is The Dairy Barn Art Center (home to Quilt National) and the Crow Timber Frame Barn.  The latter is the brain child of Nancy Crow.  

Nancy Crow
(photo credit Schweinwurth Art Center)

If there was a mother of the art quilt movement, I would nominate Nancy Crow.  Born in 1943, she pioneered her way through Ohio State achieving an MFA in Weaving and Ceramics.  Moving into fiber and quilting, she developed what we now know as improvisational piecing to take quilting from folk
craft right into accepted art.  (Well mostly accepted.  There are still some die hard haters who insist it's still craft, but if anybody is an accepted artist, it's Nancy).  She's won multiple awards including the Living Treasure Award from the University of North Carolina.  Her work is part of the permanent collection of many museums including The Renwick Gallery/Smithsonian Institute.  (As an aside, if you haven't put the Renwick on your bucket list, stop reading this and do it.  It doesn't get as much press as the National Gallery but it houses the work of most talented artisans in our country)

I say all of this in a way of an introduction, because I took a drive to Kent University in Kent, Ohio.  (Yes THAT Kent University).  Besides its tragic past, it also houses the Kent State University Muesum with it's renowned collection of fashion, costume, and accessories.  At the core, is the collection of Shannon Rogers and Jerry Silverman who donated over 4000 pieces.  

On exhibit this weekend was a timeline history of fashion, a stunning collection of Katherine Hepburn Clothes, and Nancy Crow's On My Mind showcase.  To say it was a textile junkies dream is an understatement.  

There are four series of works that are included: CONSTRUCTIONS, RIFFS, DRAWINGS, and MONOPRINTS.  Although I've seen Nancy's work many times, it was a treat to see all 40 pieces displayed to perfection. Nancy hasn't been just an artist for the last 50 years, she's also been teaching.  Her classes have spring boarded many quilters into the world of art.  I myself have watched her classes and roomed with her students.  I also lucky enough to sit and listen to a lecture that finally explained to me the idea of composition and depth.  

This exhibit runs through December 15, 2024, and I encourage you to take the drive to Kent to see. it.  The campus is lovely, and they even have a nice museum store (we also went into the bookstore which was cool too). 

(my favorite piece)

Under Things that I Like....

Did anybody hear about the Monet water lilies painting that sold for 65 million dollars at Sotherby's this week?  If you want to watch the 17 min auction you can see it here (although spoiler alert...it's a quiet affair).  How often do you get to see a Monet come up for auction?

It does make one wonder who bought it.....

So, What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

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Value is My Thing on Off the Wall Friday

Peppermint Reindeer by Laura Heini

 This week in my spare time, I started thinking about decorating for Christmas.  To tell you the truth, I'm not all that much into decorating, mostly because it takes so much time.  What I do like is designing the composition of the decoration scheme.  Yes, you read that right.  Your decorating has a composition just like your quilts.  One thing I've learned, is that all the elements of design I've been studying over the years can be used in a myriad of ways....like planning your Christmas decorations. 

But this post is not about Christmas decorating - you can thank me later - No, I say all this because it brought to mind my favorite way to evaluate a composition....studying the value of the piece.  If you're a long-time reader, you might have noticed that value truly is my thing.  Mainly because 

Color gets all the Credit, but Value does all the Work

Gosh, I must have been told that by the late great Joan Colvin about 20 years ago and it still holds true.  I pulled some truly random quilts from my Pinterest board to show you what I mean.  (I really did randomly choose them - mostly because they could be easily attributed).

Let's look at detailed look at embroidery textile by Mary Ruth Smith

Great right?  When you first look at it your just taken by the great use of shape and line.

Take the color out and you can see how it's all about the value in the composition.  The contrast between light and dark is giving this heavily graphic piece a lot of much needed depth.  Also, it emphasizes the use of line to form more movement and rhythm which would otherwise have come off very flat.  The darkest parts are acting like a solid ground for all that movement of line going on.  Without color to distract you, it's much easier to see what is truly going on.

This is An Evening Out by Colette Behrends 

Talk about a lot to unpack with this piece...WoW!  When you first look it's all about taking in how she so masterfully captured the moment.  It's all so relatable.  I love how it's figurative but still abstract.  The colors just add to the vibrancy of the piece eluding joy and energy.

Step back with this version of it...

Now you can better comprehend the composition.  See how easily you can see how she laid it out in a diagonal line.  Also, the focal points pop with the accents used to move your eye around the piece.  Again, the artist uses value to create depth as well as movement.   (hmmm I'm sensing a pattern).  Without getting too carried away, I also want to mention how well soft and hard lines are used in this piece.  That is a difficult thing to do and you don't see it that often done this well. 

Let's go totally abstract with a favorite of mine ...Emily Richardson's Original Copy (I want to confess a true bias where Emily's work is concerned.  I loved it from the moment I saw it, Then I took a 5 day class with her and it added this whole sentimental twist to my crush on her work)

Amazing right?  Now you can see why I have quilt crush.  The palette is so effective in this piece with it looking ethereal.  I love how the abstraction lets the viewer choose their own take on what it represents.  Honestly, in this form I just get lost in studying how the orange/yellow interacts with the blues. 

But in gray scale we get another look at it..

And for the third piece in a row  - what is value creating? Movement and Depth.  Honestly, this whole composition is about movement and depth.  With the color removed it's truly evident.  

So why do this exercise?  Just to play with pretty art quilts...well yeah...but mostly, it's to show that you can do it with your own work.   Traditional quilts or art quilts, it doesn't matter.  When you're laying out your compositions, take some time to take picture and desaturate it (way easier now that everyone had a camera in their back pocket for sure!)  Even take out the quilts that you think of your "dogs".  Take a value study picture of it and I bet you'll see why the quilt isn't quite working.  

Thanks for indulging me on yet another post on value.  

Oh, one last thing, so my new job has me writing a lot of emails a day. When I say a lot I mean 50-80 a day.  Twice this week - not once - but twice...people I email with mentioned the unique fashion of expressing myself through word and how they look forward to my emails.   Cracked me up - literally.  I thought, oh I know why.  It comes from chatting on blog posts for the last 15 years.  

So, thanks for that as well.  That's me this week...

What Have You've Been Up to Creatively?

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Creativity in the Face of Adversity on Off the Wall Friday

 For all my US readers...well it's been a week, hasn't it?  No matter what your political views, I'm sure
I'm not alone to say, this week has been A LOT.  Raise your hand, if you've had enough politics to last you four years?  Living in Pennsylvania, it's been kinda like being the most popular girl at the dance.  THEN living in Erie County, just doubles that.  Apparently, unbeknownst to me, the saying goes in the political world...the way Erie County goes is the way the country will go.  We've picked the winner for the last 36 years.  Who knew?  All I can say is that when you drive down any street and see opposing political yard signs on every other yard, well, let's just say, "We take this $#@! seriously".  

And I've had enough.

But it got me thinking, with all this going on how does one keep creating?  How does one stay grounded in the here and now so not to get caught up in the drama and the rhetoric that seems to be the Special of the Day?  I don't know about you but when I'm not creating, it really effects the quality of my life.  

So for you that are hurting this week, I offer up some ways to create in adversity...

• Embrace the Chaos.  I really think the scariest part of adversity is the loss of control and certainty.  Use that emotion, to step out of your comfort zone and explore what it feels like.  How?  Use colors you hate, try new techniques, explore avenues you never even thought to go down.  If it doesn't work out you can always just say - well ya know, it was 2024

• 

  Order Through Chaos by Robert Ball 

  
  
• Seek Unity.  OMG, how many times have I heard that come from both sides this week.  I mean, they just spent all year tearing the country apart and NOW you say seek unity.  But I really mean it.  One of the best ways to discover a new creative path, is to explore other ideas and cultures.  Why do you think one way and they think another.  The word diversity has gotten a total bad rap.  I think it's because it's not often paired with commonality.  When you bring the two things together, great things can happen.  That's a lot of words to say this - don't be afraid to step out of your bubble  - invite someone into your bubble and find something in common.

  

  Harmony by Alima Newton

  
  
• Calm Down.  Once again, the internet - a blessing and a curse.  The 24 hr news cycle has made things look worse than they are.  Stay grounded in the things that really matter.  Quietness is not the enemy here.  Peaceful music  - maybe a walk - browsing through your favorite art book.  Silence can lead to new ideas - away from craziness.  
• 
  
  

Rant over.  I know it's easy for me to say because I've always been pretty pragmatic and a middle ground kind of chick. But truly...

Elections come and go.

But art is here forever.  

So What Have You've Been Up to Creatively?

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Off the Wall Friday

I'm on candy duty tonight so I'll leave you with some words from Anne Lamott.

  If you haven't read her books, I highly suggest them.  

What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

 

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Fall Sheep on Off the Wall Friday

 So I did it.  I manage to get through my first rug hooking project.  Let's just say it's rough but a start and I wouldn't quite say a rough start.  Some things I've learned...

1. Taking a 3 hour starter class to get a taste of a new hobby was one of my better ideas.  It was a relatively small investment ($65 and that included everything you needed including a beginner hook) and you really get a feel for if you're going to like it enough to invest more time and money.  
2. I like rug hooking now as much as I did that afternoon 30 years ago when the lady at the senior center showed me how.
3. It's a perfect busy hands, quiet mind kind of activity that I need to de-stress after working all day in customer service.  
4. This is an acquired skill and now I see those perfect even little loops I saw on the sample are NOT easy.

5. 

   Wool I have left from the kit

   I'm a textile tactile girlie through and through.  From my earliest memories till now, it's gotta feel right in my hands.  Something about the rough wool and the smooth  - so lusciously smooth - Hartman hook really is soothing.  (For Margaret - yes I invested in a #6 Hartman Ergo hook, my goodness - love it!)
6. Finally, it's a start but fortunately not a finish.
   

What I mean by not a finish, is that I plan to just practice on small pieces and enjoy the ride with no agenda other than that.  At least for now.  Eventually, it will be May and I can take my week long class at John C. Campbell's.  

Till then, I can hunt down wool remanent in thrift shops and spend time watching videos on hooking.  

What Have You've Been Up to Creatively?

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Technique vs Design on Off the Wall Friday

 Something that I was reminded of this week is that I have a tendency to create in one of two categories.  Either my pieces are all about technique or all about design.  I know lots of quilters who are all about technique.  They buy a pattern and then spend their energy on learning how to create it perfectly.  The closer they get to perfection, the more of a rush they get.

Oh What Lovely Smoke, Elizabeth Barton 

Then there's the quilters where it's all about the design.  They work on designing a piece and then figure out how they are going to make it.  Or they innately will improvise a piece and just use whatever technique works at the moment to achieve their goal.  Artist that showcase these two methods are Elizabeth Barton (who once had me make 8 value studies of the same design) and Rayna Gillman whose improv work is to die for.   (Also, who actually gave me the idea of calling this blog link up Off the Wall Friday as we were brainstorming back and forth) 

Marimba, Rayna Gillman

Normally, I'm a design girl partly because after 30 years of quilting, I mostly understand how to do techniques correctly and partly because my personality isn't very exacting.  I love the challenge of coming up with just the right composition, not to mention I've had to learn all about art theory myself which I find fun. 

I say "Normally" because this week, I dipped my toe into the technique side of creating.  I drove back to Berlin, Ohio to visit the Plaid Sheep Company to take a beginner rug hooking class.  For $65, you get a 3 hr class that includes a nice 10" square kit, beginner hook and a handout with the basics.  This is basically a "get your feet wet" kind of class.  Now the Plaid Sheep Company isn't your average quilt shop...it's basically two shops in one.  One side is all wool for applique and hooking rugs while the other side is quilt cottons and notions.  It also has a very primitive traditional vibe.  So our kit had a folk art bent with a simple sheep on a grassy knoll.  

All it takes to start a new craft

Melanie patiently showed us all how to make our first hooks taking strips of wool and bringing it through a linen background.  We had the fabric stretched in PVC piped frames, but you could easily do it with a big quilting hoop (which of course at home I'm doing).  I spent the 3 hr trying to make my loops nice and even not really caring that I was creating this lone sheep.  It was more about the push and pull of the wool.  The whole thing is VERY tactile.  I mean hand quilting is tactile but nothing like rug hooking.  Anyways, Melanie would point out what I was doing wrong and I would say okay and then proceed to keep doing it wrong.  I mean what can I say?  The hands do what the hands do.  I think I couldn't get them to switch from hand quilting motions to rug hooking movements.  

What it's supposed to end up looking like

Before we knew it, the 3 hrs was done and I had about 20% of the rug done.  She encouraged us to go home and finish it this week.  I knew I hadn't quite mastered it, but you don't get to be almost  60 without knowing that if you practice long enough sooner or later you'll get it.  Then I remember what she said about going home and watching a YouTube video on how to hook,

I mean as my brother-in-law Steve says, "It's not worth knowing if there isn't a YouTube Video on it".

And guess what?  There was!  This 3 min video showed me exactly how to do it and what I had been doing wrong.  BRILLANT!  Now things are going better (but obviously not perfectly LOL!  It's a process!) and I got this much done.

Don't ask me how this going to play in my creative life.  I just knew I always wanted to learn and since I was looking for a new hand craft for the evenings it was time.  I found another kit cheapie on ebay (because let me tell you, this, like most crafts, rug hooking is NOT cheap).  I'll do that one too just to get my technique down.  For the record, there is nothing I dislike more than primitive folk art.  But that doesn't matter, because this is all about the technique.

By the time I get to John C. Campbell I'll have a good idea of how to work a hook. THEN I fully intend to let the design side of creative nature out to play.

But for now, the technique part is in charge.

What technique is on your bucket list and why?

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Summoning the Wind on Off the Wall Friday

 I really think it's important to feed your inner creative soul.  I know that sounds "artsy", but it's true.  I think after preaching this so much at home, my husband has finally gotten it.  That's why I wasn't shocked when he dragged me out to the Erie Museum to see the latest exhibit, Summoning the Wind, by Qian Li.  

The Erie Art Museum was never this powerhouse in the art world.  Lately, though, I can see that it's upping its game bringing in some really nice exhibits as well as developing its own.  Qian Li, who was born in China, educated there and in Massachusetts, and teaches at Cleveland State University.  Her work which includes mixed media, print making, painting and video has been shown all over the world.  She also does installation art, which was very evident in the exhibit in Erie.  The exhibit wasn't large nor was it earth shattering, but it was very impactful.  I love mindful art because it proves that pieces don't need to be showy or provocative to be good.  

The medallion is gorgeous but look how the reflection becomes part of the exhibit

Although the exhibit included an interesting, animated video as well as an interactive piece, what I liked most was the mixed media and surface design installation.  The gallery was set up in a rectangular formation with paper compositions running along one side, silk screens running along the other and a lovely medallion showcased at the base. I found the artist's statements to be thoughtful and genuine which was a refreshing change to the pompous rubbish I usually read.  But really the pieces spoke for themselves.  

I loved the play of light in the pieces.  She played with transparency though out and it was so interesting.  My husband and I were talking about how we both like the silk screen side best.  He thought the little compositions were interesting and as a whole they look amazing.  I liked how light played even more into these pieces since you could see through them and light surrounded them instead of just landing on the surface.  

And then there was the idea of moving from warm to cool .... like the day does. Just gorgeous.

Like I said - not loud - not shocking - mindful and thought provoking.  

Again, I would encourage you to seek out local art or take a ride to a near by museum.  We put off our trip to see Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Muesum till November because they are bringing in a new fiber art's exhibit then - I can't wait!!

So What Have You Been UP to Creatively?

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