2026 Artist as Quiltmaker

Abby Sherrill, Juror

Juror Statement

Mary and Tom Van Nortwick Juror's Choice Award - Laurel Izard, Irate Grizzly

Excellence in Composition/Design Award - Chandra Wu, Unfinished Steps

Excellence in Storytelling/Narrative Award - Jessica Cartwright, Smothering

 Art making is an inherently personal act. Artists use tools and materials to create works that express ideas, experiences and observations through visual form. I believe that the most compelling art also creates points of connection, inviting us to ask: How was this made? What is it made of? How does it make me feel?

 Quiltmaking as an artistic practice adds another layer to these questions. Textiles possess a particular intimacy: they inhabit our homes and cover our bodies throughout life. As art materials, they carry associations of labor, community, comfort, and repair. Even in the absence of cloth, grids and pieced forms can evoke the language of quilts. The process of piecing together disparate materials - and the histories and meanings they contain - continues to make quiltmaking a distinctive art practice that expands the possibilities of contemporary art.

 As the juror for this year’s Artist as Quiltmaker exhibition, I was impressed by the range of approaches to both process and form. Artists combined stitching with surface techniques, like Marty Kotter’s Hungry Monarch which integrates silk painting. Others responded to the memory of a stitch, like Glenda Ma’s Fandango, piecing together panels of stitched shibori-dyed cloth, a process used to create resist patterns. Varying widely in scale, detail, and color, the works also demonstrate the many ways a “quilt” can occupy space: suspended (Kaitlyn Taylor’s Fading Moments, Lingering Lines), folded (Jessica Cartwright’s Smothering), or draped (Emily Mueller’s Endless Day Part II).

My pick for the Juror’s Choice Award, Laurel Izard’s Irate Grizzly, first struck me for its layered meanings. The circling teddy bears suggest softness or innocence on a baby blanket, contrasted by the sharpness of the artist’s added grizzly. The bear holds two truths at once: fluffy plaything and intimidating predator.

 The embroidered teddies sit atop the grizzly, fading in and out of view against the white background. It becomes difficult to decipher what came first, what transformed into what, or whether such distinctions matter at all. The artist playfully engages our material association to a baby blanket, prompting the question, “What is it made of?”. At the same time, the contrast between the bears asks, “How does this make me feel?”, positioning comfort and threat, nostalgia and unease, in conversation with one another. Drawing on the histories embedded within the materials, Izard creates new meaning through alteration and assembly. The piece demonstrates how quilts can hold memory, emotion, and contradiction all at once.

 The additional award recipients likewise exemplify the diversity of quiltmaking. Chandra Wu's Unfinished Steps creates a dynamic composition through subtle movement and rhythm, while Jessica Cartwright's Smothering builds a compelling narrative through Androsia batik resists and grogware forms.

 Congratulations to all of the artists for continuing to expand the possibilities of quiltmaking as a contemporary art practice.