Losses 2, 2009
45" x 45"
Not for Sale at this time
Juried into Sacred Threads, Reynoldsburg, Ohio, June 17-28, 2009.
This piece continues with the theme of loss, a theme that follows all of us as we move into middle age. In the first piece in this series (Losses, see below) I captured a soft feeling of sadness and melancholy with the green and gold colours and the floating leaves. In Losses 2 my goal is to capture the gut wrenching feel of major personal loss, and for this reason I chose a graphic leaf in a crimson shade.
All fabrics hand-dyed by artist. Free-form curved piecing, fFusible applique, free-motion machine quilted.
Losses, 2006
42" x 61"
$3,900
Juried into The Grand National: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, May-June 2008.
Juried into Sacred Threads, Reynoldsburg, Ohio, June 2007. A picture of this quilt also accompanied Vikki Pignatelli's article about the Sacred Threads show in the July/August issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. This quilt has also been selected to travel to International Quilt Festival Houston for a special exhibit of the Sacred Threads show at the International Quilt Festival in November 2007.
Juried into the Canadian Quilters Association National Juried Show, Ottawa, Canada, May 2006.
What is the colour associated with loss? I think of basswood trees in autumn when leaves on the same tree can be in varying stages of turning from green to gold. The leaves seem to grow more luminous as they change. In the last few years I have sometimes come to feel that aging is characterized by a series of losses (parents, friends, jobs, health, etc.). In reality, these losses can begin at any age. The downward flow of the leaves on this quilt represents the losses experienced over a lifetime.
All fabrics and thread hand-dyed by artist. Free-form curved piecing. Fusible trapunto applique, free-motion machine quilted.
Possibilities, 2006
21" x 32"
$900
The seed for this quilt was sown one spring day when I spotted some maple seeds lying on the ground. A few weeks later, while travelling in Prince Edward Island during a rainy period, I sat in my hotel room and began to sketch. I started sketching maple seeds. During the creation of this piece there were times I thought my maple seeds looked more like kidneys and kidney beans! However, now I see this piece as an abstract statement about potential and possibility. What better symbol of possibility than seeds? Some of my friends saw human fetuses in the womb (possibility!). I have decided to begin a series of quilts called "Possibilities" to balance out my series about Loss.
All fabrics hand-dyed by artist. Free-motion machine quilted.
The Structure of Loss, 2003
20" x 22"
SOLD
I tried my hand at a collage quilt in a workshop with English quilt artist, Sandra Meech. Transfer paints on synthetic fabrics, painted and melted tyvek, specialty papers, a piece of silk fusion paper made prior to class, and words from a poem called "Symmetries of Dilation" by Canadian poet Alice Major. The poem describes the laminate build-up of a pearl inside a sea creature, caused by scar tissue, and compares it to the laminate structure of loss we build during our lifetime. At the age of 44 I am beginning to experience some of life's losses.
Renewal , 2003
15-3/4" x 18"
SOLD
Made during a period of renewal when I was taking a mid life career break. This piece is the result of a workshop with Sandra Meech. Transfer paints on synthetic fabrics,, hand-dyed fabrics (by artist), free-motion machine quilted.