Exhibit: Flora / Feathers / Fabric & New Wrinkle

Published: October 1, 2012

Sumac In All Its Glory by Susan McCraw

Broadmoor is celebrating the quilting arts with our October exhibit. Exhibit runs October 1-31.

Flora / Feathers / Fabric
Art Quilts Inspired by Nature 

This exhibit presents six artists’ visions and impressions of the natural world, rendered in mixed media on fabric.  From extreme close-ups to landscape views, from the surface at your feet to the sky above, the variety of life is the subject of all the portrayals gathered in this exhibition.

Art quilts combine the techniques of patchwork bed covers with those of painting, collage, photography, embroidery, and beading. Though their surfaces may contain a wide range of media, their foundation is a “sandwich” of soft batting placed between two layers of fabric. Each layer is constructed by joining pieces of fabric together with stitching or heat-fusible adhesive. The presence of the batting between the textiles enables the artist to make a relief pattern on the top layer, by stitching from the surface through the batting and the back of the work. The surfaces of some of the works are further embellished with stenciling, stamping, silk-screened or digital images, paint, dye, foil, beads, yarn, lace ribbons, thread embroidery and other materials. Some of the fabrics in art quilts are commercially produced, and others are hand-dyed or painted by the artist.

New Wrinkle
Contemporary Art Quilters

Pam Goody, Lucy Nims-LaFleche, Susan McCraw, Gladys Perkins, Susan Polansky and Ferne Weissman formed New Wrinkle to encourage and inspire each other’s creativity. They design and produce their work independently, and meet once a month for critiques to clarify their vision and promote their artistic development. Their individual styles are distinctive, but they all delight in the colors, textures and patterns of textiles.  Since 2004 they have exhibited as a group in half a dozen venues. In addition, New Wrinkle members’ work has been exhibited in numerous national juried and invitational shows, including the International Quilt Festival  (Houston, TX); Art Quilts Lowell (MA); Quilts=Art=Quilts (Auburn, NY); Art Quilts at the Sedgwick (Philadelphia, PA); Art Quilts at the Whistler (Lowell, MA); New Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts (Fort Collins, CO); and the New England Quilt Museum. All of the artists have been creating works in fabric for more than ten years.