Gail Dentler - Final Project

         

  

"Afloat on the Llano River"

12"x 12" mini quilt

hand painted fabric

machine pieced, hand applique and embroidery

machine quilted

Detail of embroidery and machine quilting

Detail of painted fabric and quilting

          Crafts, to me,  involve movement of thought through an object to narrate a story.  As a child I grew up in a family that likes to stretch the truth, tell stories and loved watching movies.  As a visual learner it has always appealed to me, movement through a story.   Annie Currier’s pottery and Wharton Escher's staircase in Makers were my inspiration because they were able “to use a complex congregation of planes that you can follow with your eye and not end up where you thought you would be." (Makers, p406).  Their imagery and work creates movement and expresses the story of wandering and being okay with it in your process...as if they were leaving me bread crumbs to follow this advice to help me move forward in my work or to take a step in a new direction not knowing where it will lead.

          "Floating on the Llano River" was created for an exhibit with Studio Art Quilters, Texas Region.  A traveling trunk show on memories of Texas.  It is 12"x12" mini-quilt.  In the exhibit it will be hung with other fellow, central Texas region,  art quilter’s work on our memories of Texas.   

            My process began with inspiration from time spent in fellowship with friends and my favorite memory of kayaking down the Llano River.  I began with writing down favorite moments,  lessons learned and realizing the movement flowing through my inspiration.  I created drawing studies of movement in water,  meadows and dialogues of people, listening for rhythms to try and capture joy.    I tried to use an organic process in creating not necessarily drawing my quilt on paper but just started playing and sewing with fabric to see where it would lead me.  This approach is very new to me, I’m a confessed planner, so I took it in 30 min increments at first but by the end of the week I realized I was forgetting time, even my dogs 3:00 pm feeding.  As I took these new steps I felt a great appreciation for this organic movement letting go of fear and enjoying the new steps ahead of me.  Each step brought balance, revitalization and growth to trust the step forward. 

             I used a quilting technique of Foundation piecing to creating patterns of color to express joy and  gratefulness for having “like minded friends”.  I used acrylic paint and dye on Robert Kaufman’s, Radiance, natural, cotton fabric, painting boats floating in the water to express a journey ahead.  I appliqued flowers to represent the fruit of my work that blooms as I teach art,  exhibit or finish my classes with Tech

           I used embroidery to represent the ways we care for each other in friendships.  Embroidery is the process of embellishment with a needle.  This handwork creates movement and embellishes and nurtures the design.  Machine quilting is the finishing touch to the quilt.  Ending by sewing a pattern or mimicking a shape to bring repetition to the work.  Moving fabric under a quilting machine creates the last movement to finish the quilt.   I stitched a repetition of lines in the water, stitching to create flowing water around the boats and in the horizon.  I also mimicked the pattern of the cone flowers around the applique work.  Applique is used as figurative drawing with fabric or imagining designs with fabric. 

            Movement is a tool I use to help research rhythms, patterns, and connect  emotion in my drawings and studies.  It allows me to dissect and understand a story to interpret and narrate its vision.  I have to have movement through my artwork, created with line, repetition or pattern.  A congregation of these creates my visual movement nurturing the viewer to feel, see, and think. 

              Quilts always surface memories, good or bad.  The word, once spoken, creates thought about the viewer’s memory or attitude about technique.  It is my goal to use art quilts for narrating stories as my form of art making.   My thought is to create a dialogue through the artwork that encourages them in this life. 

               Complex planes and spiral staircases create a sense of adventure that inspired me to create, Afloat on the Llano River.