I'm Working on a Project: 2020 Art Quilts in Review

Monday, January 4, 2021

2020 Art Quilts in Review

2020 was by any definition a crazy year, and I'm hopeful that 2021 will be a bit more back to normal (eventually).

I was able to make a large number (for me) of art quilts this year. Most of them were small-ish with a few larger things thrown in. I like these summary posts- they often serve as sort of an index for me!

The early part of the year was dominated by kirigami pieces as I tried to get things ready for an invitational mixed media show that was subsequently cancelled. Several pieces in this group felt like explorations of an idea rather than fully conceived pieces, but I'm pleased that some of them have been exhibited and I'm hopeful that our mixed media show will go forward.

I'm also part of a just-started-in-2020 art quilt group called 4 Common Corners. This group contains artists from the four corners region and we make a new piece quarterly, so four of the pieces this year were for those calls.

I really loved the way my only smocked piece of this year turned out (Cloud Rim: Summer 1991); I feel like this is an approach that I usually have success with and every new piece in the series is just a bit different, but building on things I learned previously.

I hope that quilt shows come back some time because Tree of Life: Polar Dendrogram is another fun quilt from this year (so many fun hand-dyed and painted fabrics and really fun quilting) and it's a very quilt-y sort of piece. My very favorite piece of the year though has to be my illuminated Nicene Creed quilt (I Believe). It's so very personal in its design and meaning-really a quilt made just for me.

I like to use these year-in-review posts as a time to reflect on how I want my art practice to evolve going forward. I think in 2021 I want to allow myself to slow down and let ideas germinate as long as they need to. Some pieces this year felt forced; like they would have been better if allowed to evolve longer. This slowing down is hard for me as I constantly feel (admittedly self-generated) pressure to produce more work to enter into more shows, and show deadlines come up quicker than I always think. In general though, I think pieces where I've been intentional and thoughtful in the design process turn out more meaningful (and better?)?

So here's the 2020 Art Quilt Wrap-up.