In 2020, we flew home from Mexico a week before the U.S. shut down. We had spent our afternoons at the beach painting and sketching. I was obsessed by the forms of the palm trees, and started doing drawings that were more and more reductive, focusing on the smallest shapes and forms on the trees.
(See my blog post at https://www.janscilipoti.com/blog/2020/4/3/travel-rhythms)
We spent the last three nights in Mexico City, where we joined a local figure drawing class. Since I didn’t have my sewing machine with me, I had to use paper like everyone else.
So I continued what I had done at the beach with the palms, and sketched the model by abstracting and reducing her form.
Then - you know it - seven days after returning home: Pandemic. A shout-out to Lorraine Edmond, another Lopez fiber artist, who immediately came up with the idea to do a weekly zoom with Barb Nepom and myself. Her idea was to keep us accountable and engaged with our studio work, even though we couldn’t be together.
To even our surprise, we stuck with it! Here we are, a full two years later, and the three of us are still holding on to our studio Zoom. We’ve done two month-long challenges together that informed our processes. We joined the SJIMA (San Juan Island Museum of Art) together, and included pieces in their annual Artist Registry Show.
So it was natural to show together at Chimera Gallery. Knowing I would be showing with two art quilters, I decided to revisit my drawings from the Mexico trip and take them to finished work.
I started by gridding my sketch so that I could increase the scale.
Then I used the actual-size image to trace and cut my pattern pieces. Reminded me of making clothes from patterns when I was young! Really enjoyed the process of cutting and piecing, even though the curved shapes were challenging.
Fun Palette
I stopped by Anne Dawson’s shop (The Quilter’s Studio) to supplement my stash with Peppered Cotton.
Here’s a detail of the finished piece that shows the quilting.
Serendipitous Moment: my sweet old Bernina is in the shop, so I only have my travel machine and don’t have a walking foot for it. So I decided to try quilting freemotion instead. Turns out I really like the organic nature of the lines, and will happily trade consistent stitch lengths for the movement.
Tonight!
Our show opens on March 5th, 2022
at Chimera Gallery on Lopez.
Lorraine Edmond, Barb Nepom and I hung the show and were thrilled at how the pieces work together. We are doing a chat at 6:00 on the Chimera deck.
Please join us!