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Book Review: Masters Art Quilts, Volume 2
Sunday, January 8th, 2012
Masters Art Quilts, Volume 2, Martha Sielman, Ed., Lark Books
When hubby and I left the Foreign Service, I was pretty glad to go–no more bureaucracy, no more office politics, no more lobbying for the next assignment trying to get a job you wanted *where* you wanted (tho I will admit I do miss being able to help people…finding a solution to problems). But retiring to one pension that was about a third of two former combined full time professional jobs, while feeding one small child and pregnant with the second, was not exactly brilliant financial planning. However…. we got by! One of the hardest things for me was adjusting to NOT being able to buy books at will. When we were overseas, we either mail ordered (this was the pre-internet days) or bought a lot on home leave and shipped them to wherever we would be living. We were lucky that San Juan Island (Washington) and, now, Camden/Hope (Maine) have good libraries with great inter-library lending priveleges, but they still didn’t have a lot in quilting and art books. Fortunately, I now have some income and can buy lots of books. It’s even better when you get a free review copy, such as this one: Masters Art Quilts, Volume 2 (note–hotlinks will take you to a listing at Amazon.com or to an artist’s website). Best of all is when you can heartily recommend a book–such as this one. Over the next month I’ll be sharing some of my new indulgences!
The Lark Masters series books follow a set formula: about 8×9 inches, just over 400 pages, they feature some of the best of the best of a given art or fine craft. Masters Art Quilts was such a success, that Lark asked for a Volume 2—one can only hope they will ask for yet another! As you can see from the title pages, this volume includes a number of well-known and (at least to me and in the US) not-as-well-known-but-should-be artists:
Title Pages, Masters Art Quilts, Volume 2
Each artist and their work is alloted ten pages, with as large a photo as the format will allow. For some quilts, a detail photo is provided, but often the enlargement isn’t much greater than the main photo so you don’t get that true close-up that so many of us (those who are quilters especially) crave. The first page inlcudes a few paragraphs fro the editor describing briefly the artist and their technique, inspiration and other tidbits. The captions on the photos include size, date, and materials. I particularly appreciate that the date is included, because I love to watch how the work of a given artist evolves over time. For some of the artists, the work covers a fairly extended time period; others show work that only covers a few years. I was fortunate to be included in a previous Lark Book, and selections were made based on the works submitted by the artist. I don’t know how it was handled for this book, but I would have appreciated seeing a wider time span; for example, this quilt by Gayle Fraas and Duncan Slade has captured me completely:
Last Day of the Year, Fraas and Slade
These artists have been at the forefront of art quilting for a couple decades–they set up their studio in Maine in 1975 and were in important exhibits almost immediately, and I would have loved to see some of their earlier works.
If we are fortunate enough to get a Volume 3, I would love to see the editor ask the artists to submit representative works from their entire careers in textile art. I would also encourage Lark to consider having fewer artworks included, devoting at least a page if not two of the total ten to larger detail photos that, particularly with textile art, reveal so much more of the true experience of seeing these cloth works in person. Or, alternatively, select fewer artists and give them 12 pages each, using the extra page-real-estate for true detail shots. The photos are also submitted by the artist and are for the most part excellent; a few, however, it would have been nice if Lark had (after seeing proofs of the printed page) asked the artist to submit higher resolution pictures–fortunately, there only a handful of those among the hundreds of glorious pages.
Carolyn Crump, Cherished Times
Carolyn Crump is an artist whose work I had not seen before, but I love woodcuts and woodcut style quilts and am currently working on portraits. I enjoyed how effectively she uses clean lines and carefully shaded and cut cloth to convey form and light and personality. The fact that she shares my passion for batiks, hand-dyeds and lots of quilting is a plus!
There are a number of abstract / non-representational artists included, as well, but to be honest, I’m not much of a fan of most of these types of artwork. Australian Dianne Firth‘s quilts are, however, instantly recognizable and intriguing, as are those of Alaska’s Nelda Warkentin. The breadth of styles and nationalities is quite enjoyable. Seeing this book makes me wish I knew even more about artists using textiles to make art both in the US and around the world.
One quilter whose work I was elated to see is Leslie Gabrielse. He lives in the Netherlands, uses paints and hand-sewing, and masterfully uses commercial fabrics… I particularly admire how he uses stripes and plaids in his portraits. Given the size of this book, it would be easy to overlook the scale of his work–his quilts are HUGE.
Leslie Gabrielse; You and Me III and Swimming
The two shown in this p hoto are actually on the small side. On the left, You and Me III is a mere 36 x 60 inches. Swimming is 59 x 78 3/4 inches…. that’s 5 feet by 6 1/2 feet. I was lucky to see his work one year at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, and the figures are life size, sometimes larger. It is quilts like his where I crave a true detail photo!
This book is one to savor…. you want to sit down and sip it in small doses. OK, first you want to gulp down the whole thing… revelling in how wonderful the imagery is. THEN you want to sip and savor! Do yourself a favor… if you haven’t already found this book on your shelf or under the tree, treat yourself!
