ARTIST AS QUILTMAKER XIX

Artist Index

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**Unless otherwise stated photos are by the artist.**

Blue Ice

Joanne Alberda (Sioux Center, Iowa)

Commercial cotton
fabric collage, machine piecing and quilting
35” x 75”
$2,000

Blue Ice is part of a series based on the theme of water. This quilt was inspired by the break-up of ice on the Rock River on a sunny day when the blue sky, reflected in the water, created a stunning contrast to snow-covered blocks of ice.

Old Growth

Mary Alexander (Hubbard, Ohio)

upcycled shibori-dyed cotton-quilt fragment
Shibori shaping, cochineal dyeing, hand appliqué
19” x 19” x 3”
$500

By up-cycling a quilt that I made many years ago and adding shaped fabric that I am making now, I’m blending my old and new selves—documenting my own Old Growth.

LeDroit Valentine Study

Patricia Autenrieth (Hyattsville, Maryland)

cotton, beads, buttons
hand and machine appliqué, piecing, and embroidery
37” x 34”
$3,500

 Years ago, I saw an exhibition of work by Jasper Johns in which he included studies of his paintings — made after the fact. I was intrigued by the idea of reconsidering one’s work this way. I considered his studies as I viewed my own 1982 painting, “LeDroit Valentine,” hanging on my living room wall. I chose to focus on one area of the painting, translating it into a quilt, and adapting the painterly effects to a raw-edge treatment.

Tyger, Tyger

Nancy Bardach (Berkeley, California)

cotton, canvas, embroidery threads staining, painting, raw-edge machine piecing and quilting, hand embroidery
23” x 34”
$1,800

 I created Tyger, Tyger  for an invitational show of work by six Bay Area fiber artists called Momentary and Timeless , at the San Jose (CA) Museum of Quilts in the spring of 2019. Researching artistic tiger images, I found paintings, inked Chinese scrolls, even tattoo designs. One, with the hunting tiger submerged in tall grass, especially appealed. So does Blake’s (1794) poem:

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Rosy Retrospection

Emily Bellinger (Rochester, New York)

cotton, nylon ribbon
improvisational machine piecing and quilting
48" x 42" x 1”
$2600

Rosy retrospection is the psychological term used to describe the act of remembering an overly idealistic version of the past in comparison to a more truthful judgement of the present. The term is closely linked to concepts of nostalgia, a main theme surrounding this piece.

I find myself falling back on nostalgia as a coping mechanism for my present day anxieties. I consume music and movies tied to my adolescence. I pour over photo albums, mod-podge collages, and sketchbooks created by my teen angst persona. I spend time focusing on how I felt growing up as a female in the late 90s/early 00s: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

During these years, I would romanticize the idea of heartache, the woman crying over some guy, a damsel in distress. Media taught me it was better to have someone to cry over than no one at all. This sexist and outdated concept plagued my adolescent years, which I often view through rose-colored glasses.

Rosy Retrospection is a sarcastic caricature representing the emotions associated with these personal reflections. In this improvisational patchwork quilt, bright neon colors are juxtaposed with illustrative tears to create a playful and satirical depiction of teen angst.

Rosy Retrospection lies at the crux of fine art and traditional craft. My practice continues to challenge the confines of quilting through my unique shapes and piecing techniques while maintaining the same high level of craftsmanship utilized in the traditional and functional medium.

Gear Box Diptych

Deb Berkebile (Conneaut, Ohio)

cotton
rusting, indigo Itajame hand-dyeing, hand and longarm machine quilting
20” x 52” x 2”
$2,500

 A mechanical engineer by trade, I have always been fascinated by gears. I love the look and the locking mechanisms that get the work done. Just as gears transfer energy from one device to another, I feel as if I transfer my energy onto an open “canvas” and bring the momentum to evolve my artistic compositions. Each quilt brings something new to light in an ever-changing art world.

Mended Wedding Ring Quilt

Jeanne Bieri (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan)

reclaimed vintage quilt and army blankets, army suture cotton dated 1953, cotton, linen, wool, silk, satin, felt, buttons
layering, mending, hand stitching, and embroidery
85” x 52” x 8”
$3,000

 The women in my family have worked in textiles for generations. My grandmother held onto fabric with the idea that it could be mended. My admiration for fiber led me to collect quilts and my father’s army blankets. Using sewing to restructure form, I connect their stories by mending them into a new whole. Even though my works are deeply personal, their creators are not forgotten but honored. Layering quilts with army blankets represents the duality of their purpose that is both necessity and comfort. The hand stitching of every piece is a natural, even meditative, process. Drawing from Muslim clerical garments, the chain stitch allows for a flexible workflow and caters to each fabric’s unique history. The mending of these stories grants the work an environment in which the audience can remember their own memories.

Critter 4

Margaret Black (Boswell, Pennsylvania)

cotton, wool batting
machine piecing and quilting
51.5” x 98”

$5,000

 I am an improvisational textile artist. The rhythm and repetition of piecing fabric, cutting the fabric into new configurations, and rejoining them—without rulers or measurements—create vigorous, abstract structures. Bold color and value choices further propel the musicality of these compositions. The dense quilting flattens the images into dynamic fabric paintings.

Braided Squares

Natalie Black (Davis, California)

ceramic, acrylic paint
hand sculpting, fired to cone 6, painting
34” x 28” x 4”
NFS

ONLINE ONLY

This work is a 3D quilt made of 30 ceramic tiles with intricate textures that mimic braided and unbraided fibers. It represents my fascination with exploring materials and processes. In this case, I have translated the process of quilt making and hair styling into ceramic sculpture.

You’re Too Good Looking to Be This Size

Sarah Blanchette (Rochester Hills, Michigan)

velvet, corduroy, thread, floss
digital printing, hand and machine piecing and quilting
55” x 66” x 15”
$2,800

 You’re Too Good Looking to Be This Size is a musing about a statement that my doctor made to me while administering my yearly physical—with his mouth close to my ear.

Zeroing In

Jen Broemel (Indianapolis, Indiana)

cotton
machine piecing and quilting, hand embroidery
43.5” x 44.5”
NFS

ONLINE ONLY 

I work with cloth mainly for its tactility, responsiveness, and abundance. I was originally drawn in by the process: the way the materials layer; the way they feel as they are worked; the way thread and cloth come together, transforming and guiding the piece, adding texture, contrast, and comfort with every stitch. I work intuitively, letting my sense of the fabrics’ color, texture, and shape guide their placement and the stitches placed upon them. I love exploring and experimenting with different ways to manipulate cloth with thread, putting together and cutting apart, constructing and reconstructing—a cycle that for me symbolizes the happenstance of life. My intention is to inspire others to see the extraordinary in the discarded, to notice beauty in the mundane and the miracles of every day.

Line Cooks

Susan Callahan (Silver Spring, Maryland)

cotton
digital printing on demand, painting, machine piecing, and printing
103” x 16”
NFS

ONLINE ONLY 

My art is the intersection of my career and my creative spirit. I am a professional chef and love the landscape of the kitchen—the stainless steel, the steam, the heat. My artwork seeks to engage the viewer with what they rarely see when they order dinner in a restaurant or pick up lunch in a carry out. My work honors the women and men who work very hard, very long hours in a very stressful workspace. I use personal photographs, converted to black and white line drawings that are hand painted.

Many Are One

Nancy Condon (Stillwater, Minnesota)

reclaimed and hand-dyed fabrics, cotton gauze, perle cotton thread
painting and hand stitching
30” x 30”
$800

 Many Are One joins a multitude of small, diverse fabrics into a whole, reflecting the diversity of the world we live in.

Light on Dark

Elizabeth Danish (Wayne, Pennsylvania)

commercial cotton
machine piecing and quilting
31” x 58”
$1,500

 I make designs using vessel shapes in dark and light values. I like to explore the rhythm and patterns created by the flow of the dark vessels (and then the light ones) across the piece. The opposite values of the vessels remind me of diametrically opposed views (those we have in our own minds as well as between ourselves and others). The piece makes me think that opposites can relate if we find shared characteristics.

Complicit in the Crime

Pat DaRif (Fort Wayne, Indiana)

lutradur, silk organza
screen printing and painting, digital printing from original photograph, machine quilting
30.5” x 25”
$600

 Complicit in the Crime is my attempt to work out my grief at the loss of many large trees behind my home to another new home construction project. One day, as I worked on the piece, I had the sudden realization that, of course, many trees had likely been lost in the building of my own home. Hence, the title.

Summer Tomatoes

Maggie Dillon (Sarasota, Florida)

cotton
digital printing, raw-edge machine appliqué, and quilting
30.5” x 25”
$8,000

Influenced by the nostalgia of old film, I capture candid moments from the 1930s to the 1950s in my textile work. Choosing images that appear photo-journalistic, my work celebrates an unawareness of the camera that is simultaneously ordinary and meaningful. There’s no showing off; there are just pure moments . . . in the moment. The photographs evoke a wistfulness, a feeling of nostalgic happiness, but also loss of something deeply important and soulful.

Plot

Kim Eichler-Messmer (Kansas City, Kansas)

weld, osage, marigold, iron, and indigo dyed wool; cotton, hemp, linen, silk, gold lamé
hand dyeing, painting, machine piecing and quilting
56” x 59”
$5,800

 I create quilts that explore structure and pattern in the natural world through the use of hand- dyed and screen-printed textiles and complex, often improvisational, piecing. My quilts are constructed of natural materials such as wool, silk, cotton, and linen almost exclusively, and I use dyes and pigments made from plants and insects. I grow or forage many of my own dyes, such as black walnuts, Osage orange, madder, marigolds, and weld. The emotional impact of a landscape, the variability of weather patterns, and the abbreviated timeline of the earth visible in geology and landforms all speak to me on a spiritual level. I am equally inspired by the biological and chemical systems that make up living organisms, mathematical and planned systems such as central pivot irrigation, and the logistics of cities and roadways. I use color, geometry, and repetition to explore and represent these ideas.

Plunge

Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry (Port Townsend, Washington)

cotton
digital printing, machine piecing and quilting
68” x 53”
$6,400

In 2019 my husband photographed a 135’ dive by one of the cliff divers of Acapulco at four frames per second. He combined the twelve shots of the three-second dive into one time-lapse composite. Using my digital drawing program, I added traditional Storm at Sea blocks to the corners of the digital image and designed borders that extend the colors and patterns of the photo that fade to black. The center panel, borders, and binding fabric were digitally printed and pieced. I quilted the center very heavily with matching threads to enhance the textures of the rocks.

Sopher’s Window

Aaron Fein (Brooklyn, New York)

fabric dye, linen
hand painting, machine embroidery, piecing, and quilting
48” x 38”
NFS

 Sopher’s Window is the first work in which I turned to a quiltmaker’s piecework approach, to tile together individual pieces of digitally designed, machine-stitched surfaces. Graphic patterns of color and reflected light pass contiguously across serged edges to create a unified image that shifts in appearance as the viewer moves around the piece.

Kirtz/Van Nortwick Award

Friends, Roommates, Lovers

Belle-Pilar Fleming (Athens, Ohio)

cotton, polyester, found objects
lithography, screen printing, machine piecing and quilting
50” x 40”
$900

 My current body of work explores the historiography of queer womanhood, and the means through which queer women construct a sense of lineage and individual and communal identity. Utilizing a range of archival materials from the personal to the institutional, as well as textile traditions historically rooted in domesticity, I investigate the archive as a negotiation of affect, visibility, and public vs. private space.

Homage to Rosalie G

Diane Franklin (Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts)

cotton
snow dyeing, hand printing, machine piecing and quilting
39.5” x 39.5”
$2,160

This piece was inspired by the wood sculptures of Rosalie Gascoigne, an Australian artist who worked with discarded boxes and pieces of wood. I love the graphic quality of her work and her use of the letters and letter forms already on the wood. Inspired to make a similar piece in fabric, I found that snow-dyed cotton—with its mix of color and pattern—was an excellent background for printing letters and shapes. The finished piece also lent itself to extensive stitching that enhanced the graphic patterns.

Recollected 5

Helen Geglio (South Bend, Indiana)

cotton, linen, found domestic textiles
hand embroidery and stitching
36” x 35”
$1,500

Recollected is a visual narrative about the lost provenance of domestic handwork. I have collected many lovely handmade things, crafted by unknown hands and found in closets and boxes, sold in lots or pieces at estate sales and flea markets. In the stream of time, the maker is lost to memory and all that remains are the threads of her labors.

Gateway

Debbie Grifka (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

cotton
machine appliqué and quilting
32” x 39”
$3,500

My current work explores the intersection of drama and serenity through the use of line. I’m fascinated by trying to find out how much I can distill and take away while continuing to convey the essence of my subject. Working in black and white further assists in keeping the focus on line. Gateway  is based on a picture taken at the Palace of Versailles in France. The rustic fences enclosed many outdoor “rooms” where the trees and bushes grew wild. They were places with the potential for mystery, privacy, and seclusion in the middle of the otherwise highly cultivated gardens.

Porcelain Vine I

Lotta Helleberg (Charlottesville, Virginia)

cotton canvas, silk organza
plant dyeing, hand appliqué and quilting
75” x 55”
$2,800

Invasive species and noxious weeds were once eagerly introduced to bring beauty and utility to our surroundings. Many of these plants now engulf our landscape, suppressing and entangling native plant and wildlife. In this recent work the invasive porcelain vine symbolizes the vulnerability of our local eco systems and the threat that human actions pose to the environment as a whole. My art embraces natural materials and techniques, as well as a commitment to leaving behind minimal waste and toxicity, paying homage to the natural world in both form and content.

Veiled Windows

Patricia Kennedy-Zafred (Murrysville, Pennsylvania)

procion MX dyes, textile inks, fusible web, image transfer materials, batting, Peltex, rayon and metallic thread
hand silk screening and dyeing, fusing, painting, image transfer, machine quilting
15” x 58” x 12”
$2,500

I’m fundamentally a storyteller, and my goal is to create thought-provoking narratives using fabric, dyes, silkscreens, and ink to develop a visual dialogue with the viewer. Based on vintage post card images, this piece is one in a series of works portraying women from all over the world, with strikingly varied concepts of beauty. The images presented are Japanese geisha, and despite often negative connotations, a true geisha was highly trained in dance, music, and art. The calm expression in their faces was part of their allure; their years of rigorous training was designed to create a presence of subtlety, strength and grace.

Joseph and Dorothy Luciano Award

Joy and Pain

Toni Kersey (Springfield, Pennsylvania)

hand-dyed and commercial cotton, silk
machine piecing and quilting
51” x 41”
$1,800

As part of a series of quilts exploring my journey with chronic pain, I wanted to represent my joy of life despite this physical challenge. Hence, the color choices represent the warmth of radiating pain. But the overall shape of the quilt dances and is joyous, a depiction of the gratitude I feel for the gift of life.

Alone at the Beach

Sherry Kleinman (Pacific Palisades, California)

linen cotton canvas
digital printing by Spoonflower, hand stitching
47” x 26”
$2,000

 A solitary walk on the beach clears my head of the world around me, often making room for creative inspirations. Walking on a Carpenteria, California, beach, I snapped a photo that captured the mood I felt. The black/white/ red palette is meant to dramatize the moment.

The Swimming Story

Ann Kowaleski (Mt. Pleasant, Michigan)

hand-dyed cotton and ripstop fabric
appliqué, reverse appliqué, embroidery, hand quilting
48” x 69”
$2000

I live near the Great Lakes and on water. I have a sense for water: water is life, water is home. It sustains, this elemental force. I have swum since childhood. I love the loose, flowing quality of the watery space, the waves like the scalloped edges of a dress, the sunlight as it hits the waves or still water.

Nature’s Muse: Kaleidoscopic Vision I

Mary-Ellen Latino (Nipomo, California))

cotton, dyes, thread
digital printing of original photograph, mixed media, machine quilting
72” x 36”
$1,800

Nature fills my soul, inspiring me to create art that depicts the changing visual language of our natural world. While traveling in California I was inspired by a garden of luscious, colorful, and harmonious Birds of Paradise. The sun’s early morning rays enhanced the beauty of these spectacular plants. I photographed the moment, then— to show such kaleidoscopic patterns of nature—digitally developed the photo and employed mixed media and repetition.

Tenuous Ties

Viviana Lombrozo (San Diego, California)

hand-dyed cotton and monofilament fabric
dyeing, machine piecing and quilting
51” x 31.5” x 2”
$2,800

Tenuous Ties is part of a series of art quilts in which I explore text and calligraphy as a form of mark making. My aim is not legibility, but rather the depiction of symbols that stand for universal communication and connection. I am fascinated by the fact that the words “text” and “textile” come from the same Latin root “texere” which means to weave or construct. By combining both, I am creating a new narrative.

Heart-Shaped Box

Kathy Nida (El Cajon, California)

commercial and hand-dyed cotton
fusing, machine appliqué and quilting, hand inking
54” x 41”
$3,775

They find her outside, curled up in a ball, mute. There’s no explanation for what happened to her, just a beat-up backpack and some sketchbooks. . . and a beautiful box, metal, handmade, shaped like her heart. Sometimes when the trauma is great, we lock up our hearts to keep them safe for a while.

Award of Excellence

Proceed with Caution

John Paradiso (Brentwood, Maryland)

wood panels, commercial cotton, 3 mil poly caution tape, acrylic paint, found images, acrylic varnish
digital printing, painting, fabric collage
52” x 52” x 1”
$4,000

My work is an exploration of gay male identity and love. It is influenced by the impact of the AIDS epidemic, surviving the ‘80s and ‘90s, and being fortunate enough to now grow old. After moving to Washington, DC in 2001, and reflecting on a 1990’s visit to the AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall, I was inspired to reference the quilt and speak of survival and liberation. My use of pansy imagery refers to the use of this flower’s name as a disparaging term for a man or boy considered effeminate or homosexual. The irony is that the pansy is a very hardy flower. A term once meant to be ugly and hurtful remains as the name of something resilient and pretty. I use caution tape obscured, to acknowledge that HIV/AIDS and anti-gay attitudes are still of concern.

Security Blanket

Christina Pereyma (Troy, Ohio)

U.S. one-dollar bills, satin
machine and hand quilting, embroidery
39” x 64” x 1”
$1,500

This quilt is part of my Moneybags series. Security Blanket refers to our reliance on money to define and create value. Our current currency is called “fiat money” because it exists through cultural agreement, not through a gold standard. This quilt will keep you warm, and you can take it apart and spend it as long as the greenback has monetary value.

Sheltering Wings

Carole Pollard (Mantua, Ohio)

commercial and hand-dyed cotton, woven and knit gold lamé, slipper satin, silk-finish cotton and polyester thread, flannel
batting and Lutradur, cotton batting machine piecing and quilting
90” x 104”
$50,000

The 2011 election as my township’s trustee had me losing sleep and a friend having nightmares. I wanted a protective talisman, t-shirt, or poster. Obviously, the project grew, accumulating images and symbols of power, protection and spirituality, most obviously wings. BIG wings, and many feathers. Part by part, Sheltering Wings is not all that difficult. But assembling it was a series of engineering challenges, intensified by sheer size and growing weight. I worked on it intermittently for eight years, when my psychological energy permitted.

Finding Connections #22

Denise Roberts (Albright, West Virginia)

hand-dyed cotton, cotton batting and thread
machine piecing and quilting
85” x 41”
$8,000

After years of creating complex work, I have a desire to explore spare composition. I approached this series with curvilinear shapes in mind—ones that would interact with one another to create new shapes in a spare manner. My primary focus is on beautiful spacing to find the tension of interplay between figure and ground.

Sonder

Dinah Sargeant (Newhall, California)

cotton, canvas, embroidery floss
staining, painting, raw-edge machine piecing, quilting, and embroidery
51” x 68” x 1”
$8,400

Sonder describes the realization that each random person I might pass on the street is living a life as vivid and complex as my own, full of ideas, friends, worries and joys, beautiful celebrations, and complicated connections.

Sycamore Tree Bark

Karen Schoch (Glenside, Pennsylvania)

silk organza, cotton
dyeing, discharging, appliqué, and hand stitching
47” x 29.5”
$2,500

Sycamore Tree Bark was created from a composite of many pictures I have taken of these trees in my neighborhood.

Empty Vessel

Joan Schulze (Sunnyvale, California)

silk organza
digital printing, machine piecing, and hand quilting
30” x 46”
$5,000

A plant’s dying that coincided with the last few months of my husband’s death became an obsession. I photographed the plant each evening. The act became a metaphor for the losing and subsequent loss of Jim. At the end, the vessel held only the vestiges of the bulbs that were so full of promise and then existed no more. This quilt is part of my Brain Tangles Series focusing on the brain and dementia.

Award of Excellence

U Construction #6

Diane Siebels (Charlottesville, Virginia)

wool
hand cutting, appliqué, and quilting
43” x 88” x 1”
$7,500

My U-Construction  series was inspired by texting: “how r u?”and “where r u?” U (you) can be anyone, the other, all of us. Importantly, U is a pleasing shape. And so the series started with U Construction #1: U Are Undergoing a Renovation on Your House. Other pieces followed: U Construction #2: U on a cellular level, U Construction #3: U as individual, U Construction #4: U as flowers, U Construction #5 U morphing into new shapes, new growth. The series deals with U on a personal level, you on a universal level, and you as a pronoun—something standing in place of or on behalf of something else, U standing in place of you.

Hedgerow

Gerri Spilka (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

procion MX dyes, cotton, wool batting
deconstructed silkscreen printing, dye painting, machine quilting
46” x 96”
$12,000

Hedgerows is part of my urban landscape series. Combined in different configurations, these large, often anthropomorphic shapes, suggest aspects of the urban landscape. Ambiguous landforms, places or living creatures are expressed through bold figure and ground. Color is central. I enjoy how it captures and transmits light, and how various colors change with the adjacencies of others. Large scale is important also, as it allows the viewer to be in the work, provoking a visceral curiosity about who the figures may be, who they resemble, and what’s going on in the landscape.

Elizabeth Kozlowski, AQM XIX Juror

Independent Curator Elizabeth Kozlowski is Editor for the Surface Design Association’s quarterly journal, Surface Design. Her exhibition project, Craft as Social Practice, debuted at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, in 2019. She served as Curator at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in 2014; as Windgate Curatorial Fellow at Arizona State University Art Museum; and as an assistant preparator for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2011. Ms. Kozlowski has organized several national traveling exhibitions including The WildLIFE Project with Wendy Maruyama and Crafting a Continuum: Rethinking Contemporary Craft with the Arizona State University Art Museum. Kozlowski has a M.A. with Honors in Museum Studies from Arizona State University and a B.F.A. in studio art awarded by Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Cultural Anthropology at Tulane University, New Orleans.

 Juror’s Statement:

The quilt has traveled through space and time as object, artifact, talisman, commodity and art. It is inseparable from its creator(s) and the individuals bound through gift, exchange and memory. Both of the moment in its execution and timeless in its interpretation, the quilt (now more than ever) represents a kind of archive where personal memories are held, guarded and at any moment—ready to be reactivated with life, history and materiality.

I am honored to have served as this year’s juror for The Artist as Quiltmaker XIX. It was no easy task as I am constantly amazed at the depth and breadth of our human capacity for creativity. It was also incredibly difficult to select only 40 submissions from 328 entries by 147 artists. FAVA deliberately chose not to define the terms of a “quilt,” thereby encouraging both established and emerging artists to submit innovative artwork, push boundaries and challenge expectations. I was not disappointed! Entries ranged from the figurative to the abstract in terms of imagery. Techniques were improvisational, exploratory, or a complete disruption of quilting traditions.

My gratitude goes out to all of our participants. I would also like to acknowledge this year’s award winners for their innovative and boundary pushing artwork. Mended Wedding Ring Quilt by Jeanne Bieri (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan) was chosen for the Founders Award. Bieri connects her family history by stitching collected quilts and her father’s used army blankets into reconstructed garment-like forms. Each fabric’s unique history honors its original owner while the mending of these stories facilitates an environment through which the audience can reflect upon their own histories.

Friends, Roomates, Lovers by Belle-Pilar Fleming (Athens, Ohio) received the Kirtz/Van Nortwick Award. Through the medium of quilting, Fleming explores the histories of queer womanhood, and the means through which queer women construct a sense of lineage and individual/communal identity. Joy and Pain by Toni Kersey (Springfield, Pennsylvania) was chosen for the Color Award. This quilt is part of a series which illustrates the artist’s journey with chronic pain. The color choices and shapes juxtapose Kersey’s joy of life with the challenges of living with chronic pain.

John Paradiso (Brentwood, Maryland) and Diane Siebels (Charlottesville, Virginia) were selected for individual Awards of Excellence. Proceed With Caution by Paradiso is an ongoing exploration of gay male identity and love. Playing with the imagery and symbolism of the pansy, which once was a term that implied something ugly and hurtful, it now represents resilience and beauty. U Construction #6 by Siebels was inspired by texting: “how r u?” or “where r u?” U becomes the signifier—standing “in place of,” “on behalf of” something else—U standing in place of you.

In this time of uncertainty, I wish you all a healthy and heartfelt congratulations!

Elizabeth Kozlowski, Juror XIX

Coordinator’s Comments:

Two years later than planned, The Artist as Quiltmaker (AQM) XIX continues the tradition of celebrating the best in contemporary quilts at the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts (FAVA). This exhibit was envisioned by one of FAVA’s founder, quilt historian Ricky Clark, who died in 2014. Our 40 exhibiting artists hail from 15 states. Thirteen artists are first-time entrants to AQM and 23 are repeat exhibitors.

Independent Curator Elizabeth Kozlowski immediately accepted my invitation to jury the exhibition, notwithstanding her many responsibilities as Editor for the Surface Design Association’s quarterly journal, Surface Design, her own curatorial projects, and her academic deadlines as a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at Tulane University.

Elizabeth could easily have selected several equally compelling exhibitions from the 328 entries received in Decem-ber 2019. In the end, the choices she made celebrate beauty and excellent craftsmanship and provide a welcome respite from the chaos that surrounds us in our day-to-day political and social climate. A number of pieces reuse their own or other’s work and one reimagines their own earlier work in a different medium. Other works eloquently display a joyful play of color and shape. Identity issues are referenced, as is the environment. Technology is a tool that continues to provide myriad possibilities for many artists while still honoring the time-honored traditions of quilt making. The definition of ‘quilt’ stretched enough for Elizabeth to accept a ceramic ‘quilt.’ Her award choices are equally thoughtful.

It was disappointing to postpone the show, originally scheduled to open on May 16, 2020, but the artists and I were thankful it was not canceled entirely. With a show of this scope, there are always many to thank. First, I am grateful to all the artists who put their work up for consideration and who have graciously kept their pieces on hold for us for two years. Next, I thank our juror, Elizabeth Kozlowski, who faced no easy task with the number of outstanding entries received. She reviewed images, their details, and entry information repeatedly to select a cohesive show that clearly recognizes the rich tradition of quilt making while looking forward by celebrating technology and innovation. FAVA's Executive Director Kathleen Jackson and its new Gallery Director, Tirzah Legg, provided much needed support. Special thanks to Tirzah for installing this year's exhibition, Linda Grashoff for her edits to the catalog text and to Mary Ann Tipple for putting the catalog together.

I was honored that Betsy Manderen, FAVA’s former Executive Director, entrusted me with the coordination of this long-standing exhibition back in 2012. It is time to pass the torch once again and I am pleased to place all aspects of future Artist as Quiltmaker exhibitions in Tirzah’s capable hands.

Finally, I am grateful to the City of Oberlin and FAVA’s other sponsors for their continuing generous support of AQM. Join us in celebrating the art of the quilt in Oberlin in spring and summer 2022. I expect our hula hoop fiber ‘bomb-ing’ in the front yard will draw visitors in to savor the excellent work our juror has chosen.

Ruta Marino, AQM Coordinator

From the Executive Director:

Dear Friends of FAVA,

We’re so pleased to present to you Fireland Association for the Visual Arts (FAVA)’s 2020/2022 Artist as Quilt-maker (AQM). The last couple of years have been a long road for AQM—with multiple reschedule dates, tons of patience on the part of the artists, coordinators, and Gallery Director, some rearranging as artists sold pieces in the interim, and many crossed fingers that we would eventually move through Covid and be able to have the show in person. BUT here we are! Whew!

On behalf of FAVA’s Board, staff, and patrons, I would like to extend a warm thank you—to Ruta Marino, long-time AQM coordinator; Maryann Tipple, Linda Grasshoff, and Tirzah Legg, FAVA’s Gallery Director, for their count-less hours of work on this years exhibition and catalog; to this year’s Juror, Elizabeth Kozlowski, who thoughtfully chose both this year’s admissions and award winners; to Tirzah Legg for expertly handling the monumental task of repeatedly rescheduling, taking in the quilts, prepping, laying out, and hanging the show; to the 147 artists from around the country who applied for this year’s AQM and the 40 exhibiting artists; and (of course) FAVA’s many supporters who make it possible for FAVA to continue making shows like AQM open to the public. Thank you. Without all of you, none of this would be possible.

I am in awe of the time and talent that went into creating this year’s quilts. The work showcases a variety of materials and themes—from personal to shared. One of the long-time focuses of AQM has been to push the boundaries of what makes a quilt, and this year’s selections honors that tradition.

From all of us here at FAVA, we hope you enjoy the show!

Kathleen Jackson, Executive Director of FAVA