Upcycle Entries - Making More Decisions

I've made a little progress in this early stage of my SAQA "Upcycle" entry (or entries).  I have three possible dyed tablecloth backgrounds:

I have doubts about the bottom two, they look too much like tie-dye, which they aren't.  Many people try to equate some of my dye techniques to 1960s era t-shirts, which is NOT what I am trying to emulate. Anyway, for the Upcycle idea, I want to create a series of small abstract collages on dyed damask napkins and join them onto the tablecloth background.  Here, I am starting to audition the napkins:

The separate small collages will incorporate lots of found objects and stitch-able materials.  I will likely add pieces of re-purposed clothing too, and I am about to embark on a journey through the house looking for potential non-fabric scraps - for example: shopping bags, net bags from fruit and vegetables, junk mail, wrappers, etc.

Stitching the Summer Flowers

Slowly, I am am adding hand stitching to both of my little summer flowers series.  The hand stitching slows down the progress of a piece, which brings up a significant dilemma.  My art quilts are all about a multitude of textures and details that includes lots of hand stitching.  It also adds exponentially to the time and therefore the selling price of the piece. This occurred to me as I started to stitch yesterday on these little flower quilts.  

Image and designs copyright RPS

One hour's worth of stitching on the day lily, fifteen minutes on the Joe-Pye-Weed.

I have been intending on having 8 x 10" art quilts as a more affordable option to customers at future art fairs.  The more hand stitching I add, the less affordable they are, but leaving out the hand stitching compromises the integrity of my vision for the quilt.  So far, I have worked on the Joe-Pye-Weed for one hour and 35 minutes and the day lily for two hours and ten minutes.  I could split the hour I spent piecing the bases, since I made two bases in that time, that would bring down the times for each.  The hand stitching is something I like to do, but it is going to wreck the cost factor.  Take a look at the Joe-Pye-Weed (the one on the right above), I have a long way to go!  

That day lily really needs some leaves...

Give Up or Keep Going?

I had a set of four small (8 x 10") art quilts resurface in my mass of unfinished projects.  I started them over a year ago in an attempt to have some small impulse-buy type pieces to sell at art fairs.  They were cast aside as I wasn't happy with the way that I had assembled them. 

Image and designs copyright RPS

I had pillowcase bound these two after doing some, but not all of the intended embellishing.  I keep running into problems with embellishing before quilting through all three layers.  I don't always like putting a heavy quilting design on my work, as I want the fabric itself to be the focus.  I will quilt some pieces of fabric in these collages, and I'll add hand stitching in others, but I want some pieces of fabric left unadorned.  I'll sew along the seams to quilt, but here I've put thick trims in many places where I didn't want to quilt inside the fabric pieces.  It won't be a good idea to sew over the trims again in the quilting process.

Image and designs copyright RPS

The piece on the left in the above image has some hand stitching on it, and then I pillowcase bound it.  I should have added some trims along the seams before binding, so that the trims along the outer edged would have been neatly tucked in the binding seams.  The one on the right is just a pieced top with no quilting or embellishing yet.  I still have a chance to get it right on that one.

I am stuck on these small pieces, should I pitch the ones that I have embellished but could have assembled better?  How much time should I give to fixing them before giving up?  Finally, I 'm still uncertain as to how to combine all the different techniques that I want to use in a sequence that results in good craftsmanship.  I am going to think about this for another week, then I must decide to fix them or move on.

Getting Started with Art Quilts

A day late...

I'm often asked how to get started in art quilting.  There are many resources out there now for art quilting, not just books, but blogs (like this one!), workshops, retreats, online classes and more.  To me, the most important thing in an art quilt is that the finished piece is your own original design.  No patterns or kits, just your personal vision.  Too many people let themselves get intimidated by being original and creative.  Creating artwork in any media is no different than learning a language, playing a musical instrument, or any other skill.  Way back in our youth, we started to learn to read and write by first learning letters and their sounds.  The letters were put together in words, then sentences.  We learned grammar and punctuation, building to paragraphs.  Best-selling novels are not written by kindergartners!  Did you learn to sew in one hour? 

Two early projects that I made from The Art Quilt Workbook

Image and designs copyright RPS

Art has its own elements that need to be mastered a little at a time: color, design and composition.  Creativity can be learned or more appropriately, re-learned.  Too often , creativity is discouraged as we proceed in our education.  Yes, rules should be followed, but we also need to recognized when the rules must stick , and when we can stray from them. 

One of the exercises that I made from The Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design

Image and design copyright RPS

I have encountered three excellent books for anyone interested in art quilting and being more creative.  The first is Art Quilt Workbook by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston (C&T Publishing, 2007).  Another one is The Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design: The Basics and Beyond by Heather Thomas (Landauer Publishing, 2011).  One more is Art + Quilt by Lyric Kinard (Interweave Press, 2009).  All three do a great job of explaining the vocabulary of art design elements, and have a series of exercises to complete, highlighting the design concepts.  It is crucial to do the exercises - build your skill set.  Most importantly, make things!

Next time, a bit about getting ideas.

Collage with Vintage Textiles

I'll be giving a short demo each day of the upcoming Lebanon, Ohio quilt show on creating a unique fabric collage with vintage fabric and fancy pieces.

This is a finished collage, a very simple composition made from a fancy hankie, a hand dyed damask napkin, vintage ties and some pieces of my "scrap-lace" fabric technique.

Image and design copyright RPS

Over the next couple of weeks,  I will be working on a few more collages to showcase the items I sell at the quilt shows.  I'll post the progress here as they come together leading up to the show on the first weekend of March.  Here's the start I have on the two I will concentrating on:

Image and design copyright RPS

Image and design copyright RPS

Check back Thursday to see my next steps on these.

Postcard from Mutton Hill

The third Mutton Hill Quilt Show is now history.  Sales were moderate for me and I was quite successful with three of my show entries.  Most importantly, I met more people who are or want to be more creative and who appreciate my unusual hand dyed textiles and art work.  Thank you.  I am energized and inspired by all of you whom I spoke to over the weekend, and by all of the lovely quilts at the show. 

                                     

I want this show to continue, for the Summit County Historical Society, for the vendors, for the quilt crafters and artists, for the supporters of textile arts.  The show dates for next year are October 19 & 20, 2018.  Please consider entering a quilt next year, and come out to the show.  This is a show worth supporting, all of us involved with it want it to continue.  Consider making a challenge entry, the theme for next year is the World War I Centennial.

Of course, I must brag a little.  I won a second place in the Challenge class, the theme being “What’s Your Story?” 

Image and design copyright 2017 RPS

One of my boxes that are a specialty of mine won an honorable mention in the Fiber Arts category.

Image and design copyright 2017 RPS

This was the first time that a Fiber Arts category was offered at Mutton Hill, so I am very honored (and a bit surprised) to have won first place Fiber Art this year! 

Image and design copyright 2017 RPS

My statement for this little piece reads; “In July, the meadows around my rural home are filled with bright orange Butterfly Weed.  This is one in a series of felted and stitched pieces that captures the seasonal changes of the meadows.” 

I enjoy sharing my creative expressions with others, and I hope that I occasionally inspire others to try something new.

Last Two Vending Stints This Year

I was going to discuss the finishing of the purple collage, but I foolishly sent it off to the upcoming Mutton Hill quilt show without getting pictures of it.  So, that will happen later this month when I get it back.

Speaking of the Mutton Hill quilt show, I will be a vendor there, if you are in Ohio, please come out and see the show.  Better yet, buy some beautiful fabric.  I will have my hand dyed fabric of course, and I have recently purchased some great collections of vintage hankies and silk men's ties for fabric collage and crazy quilts.  These will be available along with other fun embellishing items.  I will be presenting a vendor demo each day on using vintage textiles, and I am also giving a presentation on the SAQA art quilt trunk show and SAQA Ohio's Art Quilt Gems. 

The Mutton Hill show is October 13-14, at the John S. Knight Center, 77 East Mill Street, Akron, OH.  Friday hours are 10-6, Saturday from 10-5.  Admission is $10, well worth the price for the quilts you will see and the vendors.

My last venue for the year is the Valley Quilt Guild show, October 20-21 at the First United Methodist Church, 1725 North Wooster Ave., Dover OH.  Friday 10-5, Saturday 10-3, admission $5. 

Backsides (of quilts!)

I finally started quilting the purple collage that has been featured here periodically.  It was good to sit down at my little Elna "Grasshopper" again, but the long hiatus in sewing has resulted in a regression of my already meager free-motion quilting skills.  I'm not concerned about my skills on this one, as so far I am only outlining the major pieces of fabric.  The quilting isn't readily apparent, something that I like.  There are quilters out there who make some amazing designs with thread, but for my style of art quilting,that doesn't work.  I want my quilting to be structural, and not a feature of the overall design.

I'm not a fan of scrutinizing the backside of art quilts.  I understand the importance of having even stitches with balanced top and bottom thread tension, and the concept of good craftsmanship throughout a piece, but in art quilting, the maker often has different qualities that she wants to emphasize.  All the interest in my art quilts is on the front, the back is my place to anchor everything.  There is nothing great to see back there.

I suppose my feelings about the backsides of quilts comes from my very early days in acrylic painting.  Paintings of any type are usually framed, and the back of the piece is often covered in the framing process.  No one wants to see the backside of a painting.  This is a portion of the flip side of one of my high school efforts:

Nothing at all of interest to a viewer!  There is a reason why one side perpetually faces the wall, and so it goes with art quilts in my world.

Traveling through Ohio

The Fredericktown Quilters' Market Day was successful for me, if not in cash, definitely in books.  I added six new books to my personal library, along with some magazines and two other books that I already have, but will eventually be door prizes at a future class.  Thank you to those of you who made purchases from me!  I hope that you will find some new skills in this blog, at least you will be entertained by my ramblings.

It looks like I will be a regular presence at the Zanesville First Friday gallery walks through the summer.  Every first Friday of the month in Zanesville, the downtown art galleries open late and have special events from 5 PM to 8 PM.  I will be in the Masonic Temple at 38 North Fourth Street.  I will have mostly finished art work - fabric boxes and small art quilt wall hangings - but I usually bring a small selection of hand dyed fabric too.  Stop by and visit!

Here are two views of my table last month, tucked inside a vacant office:

Images copyright RPS. Please do not copy or repost.

The Masonic Temple was built in 1903, and retains most of its original interior.  This was the view out of my little office-for-a-night:

You'll never see new woodwork like that!

Despite not yet attempting the pirhi eggs I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am working on some flower pounding on fabric, from one of the books I just purchased.  Check back on Thursday to see if it works!

Learning from Mini Quilts

Yikes, last week just slipped away from me.  I have a good excuse, I was excited about the first session of an art journaling class at a nearby small art museum.  More about that on Thursday.

I was also frantically working on an idea that I have since let up on.  My idea was to make an 8" by 10" art quilt each week for a year.  I thought of this halfway through January, and since I have four pieced tops from last fall, I thought that I could get four of the minis done by February 1.  Here are the first two, still not quite finished:

Image and design copyright RPS

And the second pair, still nothing done other than the piecing:

Image and design copyright RPS

The first two are a bit of a disaster in the way of quality.  I did not sew all of the trims to the top before I pillowcase bound it, leaving some floppy ends, and they are a bit lumpy, as I did not quilt them enough before binding.  I am still struggling with how to put the three layers of an art quilt together and embellish it without having the back look like a knotted mess, or not have any stitching through all three layers.

While  I am not going to attempt one mini quilt a week anymore, I will keep working on a long series of minis.  I'm giving two evenings a week to this adventure, and I am not going to fret if I don't finish a quilt in two sessions.  Maybe I will finish some in that time allotment.  What is most important to me in this project is getting better with technique and process.  In order to improve any skill, you have to work at it.

Pillowcase binding

Not a very exciting topic, but I've had several requests to post instructions for pillowcase binding.  I'm not a fan of the traditional bias strip edge bindings for quilts.  The pillowcase technique suits my style now.  Here's what you do:

1. Cut batting and backing fabric same size as quilt top.  Partially quilt the top and batting together, just enough to hold the two layers together.
2. Place backing fabric onto the top/batting layer, right sides together.  Sew 1/4" around the edges, leaving 1/3 of one side open.
3. Trim corners and excess batting from edges.  Turn right side out, iron.
4. Stitch or fuse the opening, quilt as desired.

There, that is the quick version!  For this collage, I am creating a three layer quilt base that the actual collage will be attached to at some point.  Here is the base in progress, with the collage to the right of the sewing machine, showing that it is clearly not being included yet in the construction.

I have to quilt the base layer again, and then decide if I want to attach the collage now, or do some more work on it.  I need to think about this for a bit.

Yes, that is a vintage Singer 201.  I LOVE that machine, a sturdy workhorse!  I am one of those people who names their sewing machines, this is Grace.  I found her at an estate auction, and I can prove that I am the second owner of this machine.  Grace was the first name of the machine's first owner.  I never knew Grace, but she took great care of her sewing machine, and I am honored to be the next owner of her treasured Singer.

Backsides

Progress on the collage has not been made yet, I do not have backing fabric yet!  I have found the lost quilt that I mentioned last time.  The search for that one has taken much of my time that was supposed to be spent sewing.  Now I can move forward.

I'm still debating how to put together the purple collage.  I continue to be somewhat mystified at quilt shows by the multitudes of viewers who have to see the backs of many of the quilts.  Yes, I get it that even stitches and so forth are an important part of good craftsmanship.  However, for an art quilt that is hung on a wall, should the back matter so much?  No one, no one, at an art gallery or museum asks to see the back of a watercolor or oil painting.  If anyone did, they'd be escorted out of the place.

It is important for my hand stitching not to come undone - I always end up with lots of knots on the backs of my quilts.  

I don't want the embellishing to fall off!  There is only so much I can add before I have to quilt, and some of my embellishing cannot not sewn over.  I have to add things after quilting.  

This (above) is the back of a small quilt collage that was completely embellished before I pillowcase bound it and quilted it with just four lines of decorative machine stitching (horizontal and vertical axis), and added a scant few decorative stitch flowers here and there.  The thread ends are hidden,  it is still technically a quilt, but not likely to be acceptable in quilt show judging.  The machine didn't like having to deco stitch over some of my embellishing, more points off for uneven stitches!

On this one, I did all my stitching through all three layers.  Since there is so much happening, the awkward knots and undersides of the hand stitching do not seem all that bad... the batik print helps to distract from the ends as well.  However, would this pass muster in a quilt show?  I wonder how much the back matters to the average non-quilter (potential) buyer of my work.

I am leaning towards options of finishing my collages that would disqualify them as quilts, but would result in a better looking back.  I'm not much for entering quilt shows anyway. 

Books and Pieces

I’m taking a bit of a break on the purple collage… at least a break from it here.  I am continuing to add to it; it will return on this blog in a week.  Thanksgiving is here, and I am using the days off from work to sew and ponder some ideas for the near future.  Here is another collage in the works, a 7X10” little thing, for the 2017 SAQA Trunk Show.

 image and design copyright RPS, 2016.  Please do not repost.

It is loaded with many bits and pieces, but using a limited color palette. 

Another item on my agenda for the next few days is perusing the stack of past Quilt National catalogs that I have loaned from the SEO libraries.  There are eight of the catalogs on my dining room table now, plus the five catalogs that I own.  I am planning on going through them in chronological order, beginning with the earliest.  I want to make some notes on the evolution of the show, and how art quilting itself has changed over the years.  Look for my initial thoughts here on Tuesday. 

On my initial skimming of the earlier QN catalogs, I noticed a number of quilts that were made from many random scraps, resulting in an overwhelming visual overload – there seemed to be a trend to use as many different commercial prints in one quilt as possible.  Unfortunately, I cannot illustrate any of them here.  I’m wondering if the perceived trend came from the rapid growth of the commercial printed fabric industry that was happening at the time.  It appears that quilters were wildly playing with these new “toys” (print fabric lines), without much regard to good design.  Of course, this is just my opinion… I do love the more is more approach to collage, but with some limits (like my little collage above… with three basic colors).

I always could end up feeling differently about these quilts that right now for, are too much, visually.  Maybe next week, maybe in two years, maybe never!  We all have different creative visions, and we don’t have to like everything we see.  However, when you see something you love, celebrate it!

Quilting ideas

The actual process of quilting my textile art pieces always gives me trouble.  I'm bored with the usual quilting motifs; most of them just don't work well with my ragged edge collage technique.  I must quilt these creations, the stitching holds the layers together and it is mandatory to enter them in shows, the stitching through layers of fabric is the total identity of "quilt."  The quilt stitching is also a vital design element in the whole piece.

I'm not proposing any solid answers here to my own dilemma; I guess I am just ranting today.  I have some ideas that I am soon to attempt.  Recently, I found these line drawings while doing research on something else:

This page is from the October, 1887 Criterion magazine, located at the Marietta College Library.  I believe that it was part of an order form for embroidery patterns, but I am wondering if I could use the idea of line drawing and turn that into quilting designs.  The concept probably still won't work with most of my collages, but I could easily come up with another overall design concept to feature the line drawing-quilting.  Maybe I'll just use much bigger collage pieces.  Creativity is all about rethinking what you have done and figuring out how to do what you want to do.

End of Year Goals

Five art quilt goals I want to meet by the end of the year:

1. Get through workshop #4 in A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design (Heather Thomas, Landauer Publishing, 2011).  A couple of years ago, I made three art quilts from workshop #1 in this book, and got sidetracked on moving forward with the other workshops.

2. Make at least four more pages for my sample fabric book from Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond (Chandler/Kettle/Thomas/Vleck; Landauer Publishing, 2009).  Another ongoing project that I set aside.

Image and design copyright RPS, please do not pin or post elsewhere

3. Find my copy of Art Quilt Workbook (Davila & Waterson, C & T Publishing, 2007), and do two more chapters/workshops.  Do you see a trend developing here?  Finish unfinished things!

4. Finish my ATC-a-day project that I started three years ago, or was it four years...

Image and design copyright RPS, please do not pin or post elsewhere

5. Start my entry for Quilt National 2019!

More Fun with Fabric Collage

Here are some of  the same collage pieces that I was working with in my last post, on a lighter, smaller background.

images copyright RPS, please do not re-post elsewhere

It is amazing how moving pieces, overlapping, adding some pieces and taking out others changes the look of a work in progress.  Looking at the above images, ask yourself what elements appeal to you, and what ones you would change.  If you are a traditional quilter, think of the creation of an original composition as an extension of auditioning fabric for an existing pattern.  You are simply adding shapes to the decisions that you must make regarding fabric color and texture.  

If you are serious about creating your own original compositions, there are things you can do to help on your creative quest.  Get to know other creative artists, even if they work in other media.  Ask them for feedback on your art pieces.  Take classes, visit museum and galleries.  Read about making art.  Two books on design and making art that I highly recommend are: The Creative Artist by Nita Leland (North Light Books/F & W Publications, 1990) and A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design by Heather Thomas (Landauer Publishing, 2011).  Look for them at your local library, if they don't have them, ask for them through interlibrary loan.

Most importantly, make stuff!

Ohio Annual - Zanesville Museum of Art

I promised this post late last week, now it is early this week.  It was a lot harder to write this than I thought it would be.   

I traveled last week to the Zanesville Museum of Art for the opening of their 72^nd Ohio Annual exhibition.  Ohio has a wealth of very, very good artists.  Only a scant few of them are in this show.  I wish that there were more people to support the arts in this state.  I’m baffled at the people who would fork out several hundred dollars to attend a sports game that lasts a couple of hours and they wouldn’t spend the same (or even less!) on a piece of artwork that they will have forever. 

The show was well-rounded, including a variety of media.  I especially liked the attention given to various types of printmaking.  There were only four fiber art entries: a basket sculpture, a small rug hooked piece, and two art quilts.  I really wish I could post images of the art quilts here, as they were (I thought) top-notch.  I’m always gleaning criteria by which to evaluate artwork, and one that I use often is if I want to keep coming back to look at a particular piece, does it hold my attention over time? (Something I picked up at the Quilt National Symposium in 2015.)  The two art quilts met this criteria for me. 

The first, Passages, by Sue Copeland Jones, was a symmetrical geometric composition in yellow-orange and blue-violet silks.  The base composition was overlaid with bold strokes of indecipherable writing, hand stitched to outline the writing.  It was a classic example of using complementary colors, and certainly grabbed the viewer’s attention.  It kept my attention, as I wanted to figure out the writing, and there was enough variety in shade and tone of the colors to keep the piece from being overly garish. 

The second art quilt was by Georgie Cline.  This was a fascinating assemblage of random odd shaped (rough-cut) neutral tone (grays and tans) mini quilts zig-zagged together, leaving some open spaces in the construction.  The overall appearance made me think of an old stone wall, and indeed, the title of the work was, Stone Wall!  One can create good art work with neutrals, here was proof!  A variety of fabrics were used, accented with hand stitching.  The fabrics appeared to be hand dyed, perhaps some by rust dyeing, others from plant dyes.  Great visual interest was achieved by color gradations in the fabrics, the shapes of the pieces, and texture from the fabrics and the rough edges of the small pieces… all things that I like and use in my own work.  This piece captivated me even more, and I could kill a good bit of time contemplating it, given the opportunity. 

I picked up another evaluation criteria at the opening: do you want to live with this piece of art in your home?  (Of course, disregarding the cost.)  This is very similar to the question I mentioned above, but both are very good things to think about, especially for those not versed in analyzing art.  Identify what you like and worry about the why later.

Why I make art quilts

I thought I’d ramble on a bit about why I make art quilts/textile art.  As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I have dabbled in other art media, somehow intrinsically knowing I wanted to make something, but not being happy with the materials until I forced myself to learn how to sew.  My mother has always sewn, making some of my clothes when I was a youngster.  I frequently tagged along to fabric shops with her, and I always appreciated the art and design in the print fabrics.  It wasn’t until I started seeing books and magazine articles about art quilts that I became inspired to learn the basics of sewing.  I wanted to make art quilts, not clothing, not drapes, not bed quilts. 

A little bit of my fabric stash

 

Fabric is easy to find, and in the realm of art materials, relatively inexpensive when compared to paint or the investment of equipment needed for ceramics, glass or metal work.  Yes, a sewing machine can be a big investment, but if you do like I did and find a nice vintage machine to get started, it is not that much out of most budgets. 

Sewing does not require a lot of space, even though most of us who sew have vast stashes of fabric, taking over significant portions of our homes.  In theory, one could get away with a boxful of fabric and notions, a portable sewing machine and an ironing board that is put away when not in use.  I don’t need a huge kiln to fire ceramics, no welding equipment or cumbersome power tools. 

Sewing does not make too much of a mess.  No paint spills or splatters, no long drying times.  Yes, I dye my own fabric, which is wet and messy, however, I dye outside and in only a few intense sessions a year.  Most sewing projects are easily interrupted, from five minutes to several years.  I don’t have to worry about a project drying out before I finish it.  They are not going to be ruined if I cannot finish them in a day.  If a piece doesn’t go together right the first time, I just rip out the stitches and try again.  I remember so many ceramic pieces that I put a lot of time on, only to have them crack in the kiln.  No good way to fix those. 

There are so many amazing ways to manipulate fabric, multiply that by the many different kinds of fabric (cotton, silk, wool…) and you have endless inspiration.  I am constantly astounded by the art quilts in the SAQA shows, there is always something new.  Fabric is incredibly versatile.  If I had to choose just one positive characteristic of my chosen medium, it would have to be versatility.  Finally, I fell into art quilting because I did not want to make things that had already been done. 

Art quilt labels, the end of the series

Labels, part three

One more go around with the labels, then I will move on to something else.  One of the opinions that arose in the SAQA list discussion was that art quilters (textile artists) should just follow the status quo of the established fine arts world, and just put your name and title on the piece, nothing more.  The more I think about that, the more I dislike it.  If I were buying a painting, new or old, I would like to know more about it than a name and title.  As an art quilter, this is one area where I don’t want to emulate the greater art world.   

I also feel that informative labels might help in our crusade to gain more acceptance in the greater art community.  What a great way to educate potential buyers who are unfamiliar with art quilting.  This is yet another way to be good ambassadors for our chosen form of expression.  When I see an art label with some background about the individual piece, it tells me that the artist really cares about it, and wants other people to care too.  Not that lack of a label means the artist doesn’t care, but I like it when I see someone go the extra distance. 

As I asked in my last post, what sort of legacy will you leave as an artist?  If you don’t want art collectors (or museums, galleries) to know about your work, why are you making things?  The information on your website is only going to last as long as you keep paying for the site hosting.  In what other venues do you have your biographical information as an artist?  I used to work in an art museum in a major Midwestern city that has an extensive archive on artists that either were born in that city, were educated there, or lived for more than one year there.  Someday, I should find out if similar artist archives exist elsewhere.

Art Labels, Part Two, the Sequel, the Next Day

Aside from the five art quilts on canvas that I discussed in my last post, I own only three other pieces from other art quilters.  None of the three pieces are what I would consider a “quilt.”  All are mixed media, one is a collage on mat board (I think), the other two are creations on stretched canvas.  Collage #1 has a neat computer printed paper label affixed to the back with the title, artist, date, artist’s address and phone number.  Collage #2 has a computer printed label with the title, media, artist, and date.  Collage #3 simply has the artist, city and state, artist’s email and title scrawled on the back in pencil. 

Does the information provided on a label convey anything of the artist’s thoughts about their work? 

Does the manner in which the information is placed on the art work say anything? 

I know I have a miniscule population sample to go on, but just the three pieces raise some interesting issues.  Not one of the three has a copyright insignia (you know, a letter “c” in a circle).  I don’t want to get deep into copyright here, which is another can o’ worms.  I will say this much; at a talk given a few years ago by a copyright lawyer, I learned that at the very least, an artist should put their name, date and the copyright symbol on their finished work to protect themselves (even if the is not formally registered).  Are artists giving up on copyright?  I know I need to learn how to watermark my images.  (No, it is not OK to repost images from this blog elsewhere, even if I haven’t done what I should do to them.) 

I was stunned over the piece that had the address and phone number on the back.  I know we all want to generate more sales, but there are now far better ways to have unknown individuals contact you.  Be careful, be safe, think about what information you are putting out there.  Yet at the same time, we want to be traceable, not just for sales here and now, but farther down the road.  Do you want future generations to appreciate your art work and know a little bit about you?  What legacy do you want to leave?  

I’m not going to divulge my answers to the above questions here, but I will put them into practice with my art work.  As someone with a bachelor’s degree in art history, I am intrigued by the future study of art work labels, not by me though.  This is a lot to ponder, and I have more than enough to think about.  Right now, I am trying to think spring, and I need to get back to a design of flowers that I hope to offer as a pattern soon.