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QUILTS WITH PEOPLE

This set of 12 quilts was exhibited at the 2009 Quilt show of the Sunshine Coast Quilt Guild, in Sechelt, B.C., where I was invited to be the featured quilt artist.

One of the best parts of an exhibit is getting to see a group of quilts meant to be seen together actually together. Nobody has enough wall space to keep everything that goes together up at once.

In addition, at this exhibit, I babysat the quilts a couple of hours each day and had the chance to talk to people about the quilts, another real treat.

A new direction in 2007. I was planning a gallery show called, "Abandoned Houses and Other Places without People." Immediately, I began to think that perhaps I ought to be making some quilts with people.

"What We Imagine..." was juried into the Houston "International Quilt Show in October 2007 .

"Arachne" (below) includes silk and silkworms, flax and linen, sheep and wool, and cotton plants and cotton, as well as a beaded spider on the web. On the bottom of the quilt, it says, "Shouldn't You Be working?" Exhibited at the 2008 Fibre Arts Festival. Now in private collection.

Both 'Suzanne' and "50th Class Reunion' were included in the Sechelt Art Centre in 2008, in a show of art quilts based upon songs and poems.

This quilt began when I was asked to do a protest quilt based on the slogan 'No Justice, No Peace," which been an actual protest slogan used in a B.C. labor action. Unlike the other protest quilts (below), these are joyous protesters. The final signs say either 'No Justice, No Peace' or 'No Peace, No Justice,' because it really does go both ways. Also, the protest signs in all the protest quilts are velcroed on, so they can be changed as needed. (Now in a private collection.)

In the spring of 2008, my despair at the Congress's actions reached new depths and I began this piece showing them as guys who just want to have fun, guys who essentially seem to think their job is to run a carnival. Not a serious spirit among them.

The Old Black Crows: life gets a little scarier as one gets older. Here we are, in a cul-de-sac, our backs against the wall, and not at all certain whether the crows are our friends or our enemies, although we clearly have much in common.

The Fall of 2009 gave me way too much familiarity with credit default swaps and slicing and dicing and all that destroyed the financial system. This quilt was a tribute to those who profited and profited and brought it all down on the rest of us. The portraits hang on a velvet covered wall with antique lace edging, askew, with moss and mold beginning to take over. There is more moss and mold, an entire sheet of it on the back, that I plan to add over time.

In "50th Class Reunion," the 26 heads are not painted: they are entirely made of fabric (each eye, e.g., includes five separate pieces of fabric). Each head is 4"x6". Next to each 'photo' is a (fabricated) biography, leading one to ask: all that has come to this?? Aah, the question of an old person who has recently attended a 50th High School Reunion. Clicking on the 'Detail' photo should make it possible to read the text for these 4 pictures.

What is the difference between us and those in the Middle East? Well, one thing, is they have no lawns, whereas we are obsessed with out lawns. Maybe we could focus on that, first.

Now that we don't have Bush and Cheney to impeach, this quilt's protest sign says 'Health Care For All, NOW!' I surely hope it will say something else by the end of this year.

I suppose we'll always need a 'No More War" protest quilt, just as Northwestern gardeners will always need a 'No More Slugs' Protest Quilt.