Jean Judd

What influences my art?


By Jean Judd

I’m not sure that my likes or dislikes in design or art influences what I create for my own textile artwork. As I was working at my sewing machine last week, the thought of what else to write for a last guest blog entry struck me and this topic came to mind. As I continued sewing for the next 2 hours, I jotted down the following “things” that popped into my head. These appeal to me and draw me in.

Duesenberg, Auburn, and Packard vehicles from the 1910s to 1930s – the elite cars for elite people and designed with style and sophistication in mind.

Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Style homes (especially the glass windows he used and the wood), Tiffany stained glass (I really enjoy the permanent Stained Glass exhibit on Navy Pier in Chicago).

I enjoy the optical designs of M.C. Escher and think how wonderful some of them would be translated into fabric (mostly stitching lines I think).

When I was in Europe in 2008, the OLD architecture just blew me away. I could have spent hours just looking at the cathedral in Cologne, Germany; an absolute masterpiece in craftsmanship, design, and grandeur for sure. I also loved all the churches and old castles that we toured even with the 2 or 3 hour walks to get to some of them. Loved the high ceilings and potential for design walls and the tapestries covering some of those walls were just spectacular.

Mosaics, tile work, Oriental wood cuts, architecture, and drawings also appeal to me. The flow and discoveries to be found intrigue me. I think the attraction to simplicity and Oriental art in general comes from the 5 years we lived in Japan in the 1980s BQ (Before Quilting).

After an all too brief of a tour of the Louvre in Paris (only 3 hours), I found myself attracted to the Old World Masters in sculpture and paintings – DaVinci, Monet, Delacroix to name a few. Also set me up for having to go back to visit again.

As I reread what I have written, most of my influences come from history and old art. I readily admit that when I have been at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in NYC, that some of it I just didn’t get how it was/is art. The pie plate nailed to the wall, the flattened Wheaties box layered over cardboard boxes and then nailed to the wall.

I look forward to reading other IL/WI members blog entries and seeing their work, thoughts, and influences. Thanks for your time and see you along the path on this journey we are all on – following our own muse and forging our own path to our vision of success.

Mesa Art Center 31st Annual Contemporary Crafts Exhibition

Mesa Art Center 31^st Annual Contemporary Crafts Exhibition

The Mesa Arts Center 31^st Annual Contemporary Crafts exhibition from January 22, 2010 through March 14, 2010 in Mesa, Arizona. Jean’s textile artwork, Scribble #2 (Black Pathways) was juried into this prestigious exhibition. This piece was one of three art quilts selected for the exhibition.

Eligible work included ceramics, fibers, basketry, metals, wood, glass, jewelry, papermaking and book art. Forty-Two artists from 18 states were selected to be included in the exhibition by gallery owner, Jane Sauer of Santa Fe, New Mexico. In Ms Sauer’s juror’s statement, she is quoted as saying: “From a field of 425 objects submitted I had the task of selecting 45-52 pieces depending on size. After six rounds of elimination, there was an exhibit of 118 objects. It was such a rich field of entrees that the reduction of pieces was very, very difficult.” The final exhibition included 48 pieces.

Textile artwork by Gillette, WY artist Joan Sowada entitled Mainstream USA and Dominie Nash’s (Bethesda, MD) piece Stills from a Life 29 were the other two art quilts featured. Note Dominie’s piece behind me in this photo on the left.

My husband, Danny, and I were able to attend the Artist Reception (6-8pm) as well as the Members Only reception (5-6pm) on January 22, 2010. In spite of the heavy rain and flooding that was occurring that day, over 500 people attended the receptions that evening. Many artists were on hand for discussions with patrons about their artwork. Neither Dominie nor Joan were in attendance as far as I could tell, as their name tags were unclaimed.

I was very impressed with the selection of artworks included. It was a very diverse and exciting display. Plenty of white space between artworks on the wall and items on pedestals were not crowded or not properly lit. The three art quilts were all on separate walls and I thought displayed beautifully. That is me in the “blend into the background” bright orange dress. Not sure what I was thinking when I packed that dress for the reception.

A four piece Latin Jazz band provided musical entertainment during the reception, and there were three other exhibitions happening in the other gallery spaces for collectors and patrons to view. One of the exhibitions included a photo exhibition by internationally known photographer Paul Nicklen, entitled Polar Obsession funded by National Geographic. An exhibition by bead artist Teresa Sullivan was in the adjacent gallery room and included a video and some very interesting installation pieces.

The time just flew by and as the evening progresses, I became more comfortable. Not many of the artists in attendance stood by their artwork. My husband herded me over by mine a few times, but I felt a bit uncomfortable doing that. For me, it felt better to circulate and I had more opportunity to talk to patrons and other artists this way.

I met a wonderful fiber artist, Dona Anderson (back to camera), from Seattle, Washington who uses reeds wrapped in dress pattern paper to make abstract sculptures. She acquires the old patterns from garage sales, thrift shops, etc. I talked to her about gallery representation (she is represented by GrottaBrown in Wilton, CT) and how successful that has been for her.

But Words Will Never Her Me - Katherine Sands

Greetings All,
Katherine Sands piece titled "But Words Will Never Hurt Me" #2 (Sticks and Stones) was juried into the Fiber:2010 exhibit held at the Foundry Art Center in St. Charles, MO. The exhibit hangs form April 2nd - May 14th and is sponsored by the Missouri Fiber Artist (MoFA) and the Foundry Art Center.

American Craft Council St Paul MN

by Jean Judd

I had a wonderful experience at the American Craft Council show in St. Paul, Minnesota while many of you were at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. I met the new executive director, Chris Amundsen, at the symposium at the University of Minnesota. He actually doesn’t start until mid May but was there checking out the show and meeting collectors and artists. I’m excited about the move of the Council from NYC to the Twin Cities.

There was some spectacular artwork there. I didn’t bring my camera with me as quite often photography isn’t allowed. There will be photos of the show in one of the upcoming American Craft Magazine issues. Tim Harding (a SAQA member) was very gracious and I enjoyed a good conversation with him. I congratulated him on his upcoming exhibition in Poland at the Textile Triennial. Tim and Regina Benson (another SAQA member) are the only non-weavers invited to exhibit.

I handed out many business cards to artists as well as collectors. I also put out some cards on the information table they had setup for studio tours so they will be there for Saturday and Sunday when I am not there. Many that I talked to I am now connected to on LinkedIn as well so it was very good from a networking standpoint.

Money was flowing very freely. I personally witnessed 5 sales each over $2,000 in different booths and many smaller sales. There was a lot of wearable fiber art and I thought there was too much similarity between colors and designs in the various booths. The American Craft Council shows don’t have quotas for the various mediums, but it seemed like there was almost too much wearable fiber art so the sales for them may not be as high. Besides Tim Harding’s booth, there was one other art quilt booth and they were small felt pieces framed in some wonderful handmade frames under glass. I did some promoting of SAQA to her as she is not a member.

Here is just a small sample of web sites of some of the artists’ work I saw and that really caught my attention.

Bratach Stitch Studio – Julie Crabtree-Pfannes – http://www.jcrabtree.com hand and machine stitched paintings.

Out of Paradise – Verne Yan – http://www.outofparadise.com hand silk embroidery was absolute astounding.

Transparent Dreams – Josephine Geiger – http://www.jageigerstudio.com/ does stained glass that also has copper fiber in it that looks like flowing material.

IMAJ – Rosella Pat Peck – from Pennsylvania makes wonderful mini kimonos out of paper that really look like textiles. She doesn’t have a web site.

Danielle Desplan – http://www.danielledesplan.com does mixed media on paper.

Sharra Frank – http://www.sharrafrank.com does fine art mosaics.

Jon Michael Route – http://www.jonmichaelroute.com does copper work and teapots. Has been at the show for all 24 years.

Tim Byrns – http://www.timbyrns.com does wonderful wood carvings from the left over stumps from timber harvests.

Claymoon Cooper – http://www.copperandclay.com does wonderful copper wall pieces that really look like hand dyed fabrics to me. This husband/wife team does fantastic work and they have multiple gallery representation that they can’t keep stocked as their work is selling so quickly.

Gallery 180 – www.brmdesign.com does great work with steel and uses images from the Hubble telescope as inspiration for his work.

Jean Judd

Once again we are featuring one of our members. Please meet Jean Judd.
Every quilt tells a story and every quilt is unique. The common factor in all quilts is that fabric and thread are used to create a piece of art. To many viewers, cutting up perfectly good pieces of fabric into little pieces and then sewing them together again into a totally different looking piece of fabric, is unbelievable.
Who would want to do this day in and day out? The dedicated quilt artist and fabric collector! I have always enjoyed putting jigsaw puzzles together and the same person who enjoys jigsaw puzzles (discovering a finished masterpiece constructed of hundreds or even thousands of little pieces) is drawn to the magic of quilt design. Each quilt design is a puzzle waiting to be put together. The design starts in the quilt artist’s mind and is eventually transferred into reality with the final stitch in the quilt.
Many times the original design is nothing like the finished artwork but this just adds to the excitement and the design potential for the next design. What starts in the mind is often transformed into a bigger, better, and more dramatic finished quilt than the artist ever imagined. I prefer to make my own quilts from my own designs and not copy what someone else has already done before.

Some of my work may have a similar theme or starting point, but change from there as the piece is designed. An example would be the on-going series of art quilts featuring hand worked cross stitch designs used as the center medallions. Blue Angel, Butterflies in the Dark, and Eagle Wings are just three examples in this series. Two others were completed prior to 2006 and more are in the planning stages.
Art Deco #1 is the first completed piece in one of my new series started during March of 2008 and completed in 2009. Art Deco #2 sold at auction online in September 2009. There are more pieces in the early stages of rough design in my sketchbook which will go into construction in 2010.
Scribble #1 (Dream Weaver) is the beginning of a new series started in March of 2009. This series is based on crayon artwork that I did as a young child. The second piece in this series is in the final construction stage, with the black leading being hand appliquéd at this time. I am currently working on new designs to include in this series as well.
Fractured ‘Gello #1 is my most recently completed piece and is the beginning of a new series started in April of 2009. The next two pieces (much larger in size than #1) are already constructed, and are waiting for the fracturing process, and then the hand quilting will complete these two pieces. Images of these works are on my web site in the Works in Progress page.
Stained Glass Mosaic #1-4 is a series started in 2007. Pieces #2-4 were inspired by the fabric used in the pieces. Stained Glass Mosaic #2 is in Quilts Inc. founder Karey Bresenhan of Houston, Texas. Stained Glass Mosaic #3 was part of the NQA Little Quilt auction in 2008 and was sold there. More exploration of this series is planned in 2011.
Most of my pieces are one-of-kind art quilts. Each art quilt is quilted and bound by hand, and the quilting design is developed as the stitching is being done. Designing art quilts is a never ending process, and more are just waiting to be set into fabric.
Jean M. Judd, Textile Artist
2807 State Road 87
Cushing, WI 54006-3209
Phone: 715.566.0212
Email: sistersinstitches@mail.com or jean@jeanjudd.com
Web Site: http://www.jeanjudd.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanmjudd
Online Gallery: http://www.yessy.com/sistersinstitchs
Online Gallery: http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/m/maude/
Textile Art...Discover the Possibilities!TM

Spring 2010

Isn't this spring weather great?! I am an avid gardener so this time of year is exciting. I can see everything come to life almost before my very eyes. As a tribute to Spring 2010, I have dedicated my newest quilt art piece to her. The piece is named "Persephone Rising".
This piece is an experiment with cyanotype fabric that was printed with sticks and stones. (I have a love affair going on with sticks that drives my husband nuts. We both love rocks so that works out.) I enhanced the fabric with white pearl fabric paint. A border of color similar snow dyed fabric was added. I quilted the piece and enhanced it further with watercolor pencil. A canvas wrapped frame has been built for it and it is almost ready to go up for display.

I have included an image that shows the complete piece and a detailed image.

Darcy Berg

Introducing Darcy Berg

At the Racine retreat in March it was suggested that we profile our membership. Starting this month every two weeks a new SAQAIL/WI artist will be posting about themselves. I will be contacting each of our members to do this and I encourage you to think about what you would like our group to know about you. You can plan ahead and get your posts all ready. If you are willing to start soon please email me and I will put you on the calendar, otherwise I will be contacting all the members randomly until we have gone through the whole list.

Darcy Berg has agreed to start us out. So here is some info that she sent me.

Hello,

My name is Darcy Berg. I grew up in northern Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin River and its abundance of wildlife was my backyard during my childhood. It was only natural for me to fall in love with nature. When I was seven years old I began sewing; when I was ten years old I picked up my first camera. After learning the basics of my craft, I began to apply the “what if” theory. Having been granted a seemingly unlimited imagination, I began to embellish the typical to create the inspirational. For years my focus was on producing garments. Desiring a more creative outlet, I turned my attention to the process of creating art dolls and art quilts. Today, my quilts, dolls, garments and photography do not simply exhibit the uncompromising hand of a qualified technician, or the careful application of color theory; they are a story that intrigues the viewer and makes them want to know more. My work is done in a medium of fabric manipulated by me through a series of painting and dyeing processes. I find this analogous to a painter mixing their own colors. My hand dyed and painted fabrics inspire me as projects begin to develop. Images taken with my camera are also a source of inspiration that is directly applied to my fabrics. Throughout my life, I have continued to use the needle and the eye of the camera to fulfill my passion to create and embellish images.

For more of Darcy’s work visit her website

Darcy Berg

Contemporary Art Quilts, Art Dolls, Photography
website:  www.darcyberg.com

blog:      cleverturtle.blogspot.com