Several years ago I made a difficult decision to put aside fiber art and begin a new adventure in art. I completed divested myself of my hand dyed fabric business and life as a nationally recognized art quilter, and remodeled my dye studio into a painting studio. For three years, I took private lessons with a very gifted local teacher. His name is Chuck Dunbar, and he taught me what I wanted to know: how to construct a painting in the way of the old masters. I've been painting in oils ever since, learning my craft.
This year, however, the fiber art has come back around again. I haven't made any new art quilts; don't even have my sewing machine out and my small studio seems to have shrunk even more. Barely have room for a still life set up, easel and table for my paints. But my work in fiber has gotten some long overdue recognition.
I was asked by the board of directors of the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta to be their featured artist this year. In May, I exhibited more than a dozen of my art quilts at the Fiesta and received some wonderful write-ups and publicity, and many kudos from the art quilt community and friends I hadn't seen in a while.
As a result of that show, some of the ladies from my church asked me if I'd do a presentation for them. This past Saturday at a tea hosted by our church for a sister church in a nearby town, I was able to show even more of my quilts that haven't been seen in a while, and give a heart-felt talk to the women present. I used as my starting off point the first post on this blog, "How Can I Sing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land."
And today I received in the mail several copies of the upcoming issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine (Nov 2007). On page 34 is featured some of the quilts of the recently ended national tour that began in 2001! called "Potluck", including my piece, "Cole Slaw."
Here's a photo of it. It was nice to see it, and touch it again. I had hurried to meet the deadline back in '01 and send it on it's way to the opening of the tour in Boulder, CO. It reminds me exactly of why I wanted to paint in oils! All those tiny little bits of fabric, cut out just so, glued down and then quilted! Now I do the same thing with a flick of a paint-filled brush!
6 comments:
really fun, katy. you seem to be more facile with this medium than i am but i have a blog too. jannypezaro.blogspot.com.thanks for letting me knowabout yours. janny
Hi, Katy:
You sure make it easy for me written in Chinese. I love your oil painting, it is really eye catching.
I love your soap so is Ruby, we went to farmer's market try to buy some soup but you were not there.
Ming
Learning oil painting has informed your fabric art. I think it all works together as we challenge ourselves to learn more.
Thanks, Janny. I just love artist's blogs. This is going to be an exciting adventure and encouragement to keep at the easel.
Sorry I missed you at the Farmer's Market, Ming. But happy you like the goat milk soap! You can always visit the web site at www.puregoatmilksoap.com and then give me a call or email me, and I'll be happy to bring the soap to our artist's meetings. Or just use it as an excuse to drop by my house and visit some time!
And Diana, I actually did the fiber piece, Coleslaw, in 2001, about two years before I began to learn how to paint in oils. I felt great frustration with the execution of that piece, even though the fiber world loved it.
You can see now why I wanted to paint in oils!
I am thinking of you and hoping to see you again one of these days. I was scrolling through your posts and found "Cole Slaw." It is an amazing piece of quilt work and I wish people could see its details so they can truly appreciate your talent, Katy! God bless you and Ken throughout 2018!
Hi Montana! Thanks for the kind words. You'll have to come and visit and see that little quilt in person. I still have it.
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