Some new catalogues came in this morning’s mail.  One is  Portfolio #18,   (2011)  an art quilt source book published periodically by Studio Art Quilt Associates, SAQA,  in which images of quilted textile art by many of its Professional Artist Members, PAMs, are presented in categories of abstract, nature, figurative, colour work, landscape, representational and sculptural.  There’s some marvellous work in it, and I am proud to be there, too, (p 174)  with Ebb & Flow 17,  pictured below.  

Ebb & Flow 17, 178cm x 95cm, 2009

I don’t remember who it was several years back, while commenting on the current state of the art quilt world, ruffled quite a few feathers by saying that there were many art quilt makers who could just as easily or more effectively do in paint on canvas what they are presenting in fabric and thread, and perhaps more easily.   Of course artist’s canvas is a fabric too, but we don’t think of it in the same way as those fabrics we cut, sew, print, dye, pleat, burn, paint, rip, stitch  and do all other manner of things to in the name of making “art” quilts.  The ensuing fuss contained a lot emotionally charged comment such as how fabric is placed next to our skin right after our entry to this world and covers our bodies all our lives; therefore the tactile experience of fabric is innately familiar and important to humans, and that handling it as a raw material in making art caters to primordial emotional needs.   As I looked at some of those Portfolio #18 images I found myself wondering why fabric and thread had been used for some particular works, some of which indeed were more like paintings, seeming to me less related to their quilt heritage than their heritage of the art of painting.  Some of them are no doubt enhanced with some wonderful quilting, appropriately designed and well executed, an additional layer of texture like mantle over an already interesting image, and unfortunately for the technical enthusiasts there are no detail shots, but perhaps that is as unimportant as a close-up of a painting in which you can see the brush or knife strokes.  But it got me thinking, why did this and that artist do what they have done on fabric – and really, is the quilting that is on top of the image necessary, or could it have been left out? Or, to put it another way:  Would this work of art have had as much credibility (in the wider art world) as it appears to have in the art quilt world by virtue of being a layered and quilted textile presented as a wallhanging?  Sigh – some did not come up positive there. I felt a bit jaded.

Then I opened the Sightlines catalogue, another SAQA publication for an exhibition of installation works created especially for this exhibition by 14 selected PAMs, who in the words of curator Virginia Spiegel were described as “….artists … who were making art about Something.  Not necessarily momentous or earthshaking, but definitely artwork about something that motivated the artist to create artwork of the highest standards both in its materiality and it meaning.  We have all seen art that is gorgeous and technically brilliant, but so mindless and without depth that we do no more than glance at it and then glance away, disappointed.”     Concluding her curator’s statement, Virginia says:”Each of the artists has brought  to her Sightlines artwork knowledge, wit passion, maturity and a point of view. These artists are indeed telling stories about Something.”   This claim is especially true when one reads each artist’s own comments about their particular work and the motivation to produce it.  But without those statements, some stories were were less readable, less comprehensible than others.   

As often happens to me when I look at recent books, magazines or catalogues, I turn to yet another examination of my own rationale for making art in fabric and thread plus whichever of the above processes I’m using at the time.  On one hand fabric is just another medium like paper or canvas, using whatever additional materials, processes and tools that I select.    On the other, I find myself thinking yet again whether I am just making something “gorgeous and technically brilliant, but so mindless and without depth that we do no more than glance at it and then glance away, disappointed”?  I am confident (and modest too) of the technical qualities of what I make, but not always so sure that my story connects with the viewer in significant ways….does it have that elusive Something?

Both catalogues can be ordered online from www.saqa.com bookshop.  Within the next few months, ie the northern spring, the images of Portfolio #18 will also be accessible online from the SAQA website.