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See more work from all the artists on individual Gallery pages.
A Love Affair with Quilts
Recent Acquisitions from the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection
November 1 – January 19, 2014
Del Thomas personifies the kind of art collector that artists love. She adds quilts to the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection for a variety of reasons, but mostly because she develops a little love affair with each new piece. She wants to know everything about the work, what inspired it, what techniques were used, and how the fabric choices were made. She wants to meet the artist, learn about other quilts the artist has made, know what excites the artist about her work and propels her to design quilts. Del is the ideal collector. Meet her at the opening reception for Recent Acquisitions from the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection on November 9th from 5-7 p.m. Admission is $5, and free for members of Visions Art Museum: Contemporary Quilts + Textiles.
As a quilt-maker herself, Del Thomas didn’t decide to be a quilt collector. She fell in love. In 1985 Del bought a quilt at a guild auction because it was love at first sight. A year or so later, she fell in love again, and soon she was falling in love with more and more quilts until she realized this must be what it means to have a collection. The Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection was born.
Today, the collection has 250 quilts. In the beginning, Del was seduced by traditional quilts, but over the years quilters began experimenting and Del became smitten with art quilts. The Collection is nearly all art quilts.
The Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection is really several collections. It comprises the largest single collection of Ruth McDowell’s quilts. The Collection has over 60 twelve-inch square quilts. There is a strong selection of landscape motifs in the Collection especially quilts with trees and birds.
Recent Acquisitions from the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection features 29 quilts by 22 artists including eight quilts by Ruth McDowell. Several of the quilts have won awards at recent quilt shows and the newest quilts to the Collection will be on view for the first time.
Join Del Thomas on December 9th at 2:00 p.m. when she gives a tour of the exhibition and talks about each quilt and how the romance began quilt by quilt. Del generously shares information about her collecting experience and will be available after the talk for questions.
Visions Art Museum: Contemporary Quilts + Textiles is located at 2825 Dewey Road in Liberty Station, San Diego, California. Museum hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $5. Children age 12 and under are free when accompanied by an adult. Visions Art Museum members enjoy year-round complimentary admission.
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Fiber art and oil paintings of Suzanna Bond will be featured at
Libreria Martinez de Chapman University
216 North Broadway
Santa Ana, CA 92701
November 2 – 23, 2013
Artist Talk Saturday, November 2, 6 – 9 p.m.
Seating limited: RSVP (714)973-7900 or
libreraimartinez@chapman.edu
“Relationships draw us to symbols that express a heart language.” says Suzanna. “Often these images evoke our longing for understanding of the world around us, whether remote or personal Common textiles used as medium can evoke memories of our earliest experiences, often unconsciously. We incite our own healing process as we connect to modern icons of portraiture.”
Suzanna is a native Californian who studied commercial art at The Burnley School in Seattle, WA. Recent studies have included textile arts and portrait painting with Kirk Miller.
When we visited with Jane earlier this year, she ended the tour by showing us the newly rented space she and her husband planned to turn into studio space for both of them. This month Jane shows us her new space.
In May my husband and I rented a studio in a loft building in Bridgeport Connecticut. We moved in, finally, in July. This is the first time that we have shared space and the first time I’ve had ALL of my art supplies, teaching supplies, vending supplies, etc., in one room for at least 12 years. The past couple of months have been an adventure in sorting, donating, organizing, and letting go.
The front entrance to the Nest – come on in!
The building is called the Nest Arts Factory and is home to about 30 artists working in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, poetry, and music.
The raw before space. Great big windows and really tall ceilings!
We’ll divide the room so that Carlos has the half closest to the windows and I have the half closest to the door.
The first thing we did before we moved in was to paint the floor.
We’ve hung some artwork on the outside wall of our studio.
I’ve started an installation project hanging from the ceiling in the hall outside our studio. I’m making giant feathers of Lutradur, stitching them and painting them, and hanging them from white thread at different heights and angles.
Just inside our door is my cutting table and some shelves for storage.
Just beyond my cutting table to the left is my small etching press. An Ikea kitchen cart makes the perfect base for it.
Looking to the other side of the cutting table you can see the door to my studio and my dress forms.
I’ve hung the mirror that was featured in Modern Patchwork next to the dress forms and added hanging rails for storage below.
I reused the ceramic kitchen organizers from my previous studio on the hanging rails for pens and scissors.
I tucked a wireless Epson printer into the corner next to my cutting table for image transfers and general printing.
Flower pots make excellent storage containers for paint brushes!
It’s fun to display art and other collections in my space. I have a collection of one Momiji figure from Japan right now but am on the lookout for more.
Opposite my cutting table are my working tables. I can use these tables for workshops and for the mentorship group that meets monthly in my studio, as well as for sewing, painting, and printing. And eating lunch or dinner!
I built the tables from birch plywood and some quirky magenta legs from Ikea (which is dangerously only 15 minutes away now!) I added a pop of color with orange washi tape around the skirt of each table before coating the table tops with polyurethane.
Behind the tables, on the same wall as the door, are shelves holding all of the patterns from my pattern company, The Country Quilter, and the merchandise from my supply company, Flourish http://www.flourish-art.com
At the far end of my space are the tall bookcases from my previous studio, filled with fabric and books. I added a comfortable and stylish dog bed below the table for my studio mascot.
Daisy comes to the studio with us most days and loves seeing what’s going on.
When I look into Carlos’ side of the studio, this is what I usually see – most of the time he’s working and sometimes he’s playing his African drum along to whatever music we have playing!
Carlos works on his wooden sculptures on his side and it’s pretty cool to see what grows over there.
I added a few custom touches to my space to reflect my style and add energy and color. I bought this $2 clock in Ikea, taped off the center and spray-painted the previously white frame a lovely turquoise.
After I hung tracklights on the ceiling, I decided that I needed more light in the center of the room and “MacGyvered” some light pendants from heating duct reducers, acrylic paint, light kits, picture wire, and more washi tape. I love the way they turned out.
We are in our studio most days and if you find yourself driving on route 95 (the major north/south highway that runs from Maine to Florida) in Bridgeport, please let me know and you can come for a tour.
There is an Open Studio event here the weekend of November 8-10, 2013 with many exciting demonstrations and performances taking place. Please join us!!
Thank you Jane for letting us see your new space. What a bright and cheery place you have created.
Check out Jane’s website see more of her work and learn about her workshops.
Next month: Gill Clark
Postmark'd Art 