Blogger has managed to eat my first two attempts. I notice that a lot of bloggers are having similar problems.These are some quilts I liked from the main exhibition. The first one won a prize but not the others. I guess discharge just isn't mainstream enough yet.
I was talking to Bonnie McCaffery, who was also a tutor, about how what I made was different from what most other quilters here in New Zealand do, and that my work would never win a Viewers' Choice award because it wasn't cutesie-pie, or anything that people looked at and said "Oh, isn't that wonderful!".
So we talked a bit about that, and she agreed with me that I should be making what my heart tells me to make, and not what I think other people might like.Which is just as well, as that's exactly what I do. I know my work will probably never win awards, but that's not why I make it.
Clare Plug has kindly supplied me with the names of the creators of these works, so that I might attribute them. The first is Barbara McQuarrie's "the Power of Nine" which won a Merit Award for Best Contemporary Quilt under 1.5m. The second is by Catherine McDonald; and the third one is by Diane Southey, convenor of the Quilt Symposium.
6 comments:
From what I have seen of your work it is definitely award standard - whether or not it is ‘pretty’ by populist standards. I think there is more satisfaction in creating from the heart than being directed by the vagaries of fashion.
Wellthey tell writers to write what they know, so for a quiltmaker to follow her heart makes perfect sense. I find it hard to be comfortable in a stitching group these days because stitching in public like that with something out of the ordinary....well, people ask the strangest of questions. So ehar hear, follow your heart.
that 3rd quilt looks mighty interesting. and yes from the heart or just for no reason is a great way to live/craft etc. i too have problems when crafting in a group arena - nearly always i use that time to try out something, a couple of times in the last few weeks I was stitching on a wide tape in no particular way basically seeing how it was to stitch said tape! Everyone wanted to know what I was making...."nothin"
Cathy from KQ
I think the top and the bottom quilts are lovely.
I find it very difficult working with others, I need to concentrate and never make anything I like under those circumstances.
Hi Shirley
Viewer's choice can be a bit of a lottery, I think. I sometimes wonder why we have them in a juried and judged show?
I enjoy the sociability of being with others in a stitching session, but I usually do something that doesn't take too much brain space. I often work on my own late at night when I get the creative buzz, this is the time I am usually the most productive. And I am not an "art" quilter by any means, although I am trying to develop an individual style.
Keep doing what you are doing. I love your quilts.
The Dianne Southey quilt is called "In the Fields". The Barbara McQuarrie quilt is not the one that one the award, it is "The Power of Red and Yellow".
"The Power of Nine" was a monochromatic black/grey quilt.
The Catherine McDonald quilt is called "Waiting for God #1"
I checked these on the CD of the exhibition that I purchased
Post a Comment