Quilt Artist - Kathleen Mc Cabe

I recently met up with Kathleen McCabe on the opening weekend of Quilts=Arts=Quilts at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY where she had two quilts on display. I was interested in interviewing Kathleen as she was curating SAQA’s traveling exhibit, “No Place to Call Home,” which included one of my own pieces.

I had never met Kathleen before and didn’t know what to expect. Her website bio was a little intimidating – a long list of juried exhibitions including Quilt National and Quilt Visions, a solo show, and representation in many other exhibitions and publications. I need not have worried. Kathleen’s warm smile and vibrant, sparkling eyes can put anyone at ease.

Kathleen’s  bio had said that she started sewing when she was 9 years old. I began by asking Kathleen how she got involved with quilting and particularly art quilts.

I was living in Southeast Ohio very close to Quilt National and my kids were young. I felt kind of stuck - with the weather, you couldn’t go outside much in the winter.  I was desperate for creative expression. So I started making pictures with my fabric. I kind of made things up myself. I figured out that if you put batting behind the fabric, the stitches stayed in better.

Then I started getting some magazines and followed directions in them. That was kind of boring because you followed someone else’s design but I still learned some things. I found a book about machine quilting and learned all I could from that and just began to read anything I could get my hands on. I started selling my pictures, a nice way to have some income, and things just sort of took off from there.

Kathleen had a piece in Quilt National in 2009. Since she mentioned that she lived for a while in Ohio near the Quilt National site, I wondered if she had been to QN back when she was starting to explore quilting and if that had influenced her.

I happened upon QN while I was living in Ohio – just chanced upon it, probably about 1983 or 1984.  I said,  “Oh, other people do this. I am going to be in this show. “

Kathleen with Protea – currently on exhibit at Quilts=Arts=Quilts

Kathleen was very active in Quilt Visions for a number of years.

I found Quilt Visions when I moved back to San Diego which is my home.  I became a member and eventually I was invited to join the Board.

With so many achievements, I wondered about burnout and why she keeps quilting.

I have to do this.  It’s my meditation when life gets crazy. The only thing that can calm me down is having time to work on my art. I don’t always get to do as much as I want…..this year has been a difficult one. I just need to work on my art to keep my perspective.

We also discussed her experience curating "No Place to Call Home."

 

SAQA came up with ‘curator in training’ program where you could submit an idea. I had actually considered putting a show together once before – it was after I was no longer involved with Quilt Visions. I was used to being active in an organizational community and I thought it would be fun to put a quilt show together and find venues for it – particularly a show about homelessness. I was familiar with St. Vincent de Paul and the Alpha Project which does outreach to the homeless. I thought it would be fun to contact people and see how I could do this.  It turned out to be a really overwhelming task so it wound up on a back burner.

But when the curator in training opportunity came up, the venues were already in place for an exhibit. So, I submitted a proposal and it was accepted. I just went from there. There was lots of info on SAQA website on how to curate. I have loved doing it and would love to do another exhibit sometime.

Kathleen has two works in the current Quilts=Arts=Quilts show in Auburn, NY.

Flight Crew

The one of the officer and sailor is called Flight Crew. The officer in the back is the pilot is my father-in-law and when he passed away several years ago, someone from his past navy career sent it to my mother-in-law. Nobody knows who the sailor is.  They think he was at Whigbey Island at the time doing surveillance patrols. It was just a photograph in a hangar. A sailor in front and that mop. I just loved the photograph. 

The other work is called Protea. We have a protea plant in our front yard and it is just beautiful in the spring. I actually made that piece for a traveling show on the seasons. I had planned to do spring, summer, winter,  and fall but I didn’t finish winter in time. Protea was my spring piece. 

I have only shared a glimpse of Kathleen's amazing quilt art. If you would like to see more, you can check out her website.  Enjoy!

Quilts=Arts=Quilts First Take

First prize, Stacked Mummy Bags 2010, Pat Pauly

I visited the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center for the Quilts=Arts=Quilts exhibit this past weekend. The show runs until January 9, 2011 and I really hope that I get to go back again. Why? There are 88 quilts in the show and it is a bit overwhelming to take it all in during one visit. Each and every quilts deserves attention.

I found the exhibit intriguing on a number of levels. As a metaphor, an onion comes to mind - except for the tears! The more you walk through the exhibit, the more you see in terms of levels of analysis and experience - a bit like an onion that comes apart in layers revealing more and more aspects of its being down to a core.

If I had to use one phrase to describe the art quilts in this show, it would be technical mastery. The stitching in each piece was impeccable. At times, in fact, I felt overwhelmed by the perfection. I had to keep stepping back and getting beyond technique to take in the compositions displayed. It was at this level that I could appreciate the diversity of the works. There were abstracts, landscapes and portraits. I would look across a room and notice the use of contrast to draw the eye - but then be drawn over to a piece that didn't use contrast at all. What fun! Similarly, there were many very linear quilts, but just when I would think this predominated the show, I would begin to notice all the beautiful curvi-linear pieces. There was indeed diversity of fiber - silk, cotton, wool, velvet, canvas, and linen to name a few. Many works used hand-dyed fabric but when I searched, I could find some that were all commercial cottons. There were some digital prints and quite a bit of hand painting. Viewing the exhibit from another perspective, there were pieces representing artists from around the world.

Foliage in Transition, Carol Taylor

All of this diversity left me intrigued about the jurors themselves. I didn't envy their task. I found myself wondering at times exactly what went on in their minds - in a good way, of course - as they made their selections. They had managed to represent many different facets of art quilts - was that intentional? There was such perfection in the stitchery that I began to wonder what didn't get in. Were there some rejections that were equally intriguing but perhaps less rigorous in rendition and therefore rejected? I am not even sure if that makes sense but it was fun to ponder it. I almost wish that there had been a folder of the rejects to glimpse at so I could have grasped a better understanding of why these particular quilts.

Any show that makes you think this much has to be good. Did I have favorites? Of course. I was delighted that a member of our local quilt guild, Pat Pauly, whom I had just taken a class from, won first prize for her quilt, Stacked Mummy Bags, 2010. There was something about Anthills, Study in Gold by Sue Dennis that I really liked - probably because it reminded me of a trip to South Africa where I saw unbelieveably big anthills. I found it impossible not to be drawn to the huge figures in Nancy Erickson's piece, In the Beginning, which greeted you when you entered the exhibit. I loved Carol Taylor's Foliage in Transition as it seemed to honor the traditional roots of quilting but express repetition in a wonderful display of colors. I could go on......

Anthills, Study in Gold - Sue Dennis

I guess the final layer for me as I peeled back my 'onion' of experience of the show was perhaps what touched my core, or heart. Every piece in the exhibit was, as I said earlier, awesome in a technical sense. My favorites, I think, spoke to me in a way that allowed me to go beyond awe at technique and enjoy their subject matter.  Finally, though, there were a few that touched me at a deeper level, in my heart. From the moment I walked in the show, I wished I could meet the men portrayed in Flight Crew by Kathleen Mc Cabe as I was drawn to them. Randall Cook's Tangled Timbre captured my imagination and sent me off pondering the story of those limbs. And, then over in a corner, was Hallowed Ground by Cathy Stechschulte and Paula Swett of Lewisburg, PA. There was no statement with the piece that I could find but the geographic location of the artists brought me to an interpretation of the piece that it honored the memory of those that died on 9/11/01. That touched my heart in yet another deep and profound way.

So, there you have it, my personal take on the show. If you live nearby, I hope you will take the time to visit Quilts=Arts=Quilts. I am sure you will find plenty to admire and to like. If you are unable to visit, then I hope you have the good fortune to visit another art quilt show soon and that it takes you on a similar journey of appreciation and challenge.

Tangled Timbre, Randall Cook

Elena Gonzales Ruiz, Master Weaver

On a recent visit to the Aspen, CO area, I met Elena Gonzales Ruiz. Elena weaves in the tradition of the Zapotec Indians of Southern Mexico. The Zapotecs had a long tradition of weaving by the time the Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.

Elena spends her summers introducing visitors to her weaving at Toklat, a special center under the guardianship of the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies.

As you can see from these photos, the colors in her work are stunning. The dyes use the cochinilla insect which lives on the Nopal cactus. The insects are dried and left in the sun for a week before being ground up and used to create dyes. The darker red in the blanket in the first photo is the natural color of the insect dye.

Elena lives in the village of Teotitlan del Valle in Oaxaca, Mexico when she is not weaving at Toklat. You can reach her via email.

For more information on the Zapotec Indians, try this link. I also found more about Elena's family and the village at this site. You might recognize Elena in some of the photos with her full name, Magdalena.