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Adventures Told Through Quilts
I’m having my first solo exhibit of my work as part of Bayfield’s Art Escape in September and I’m counting down the days I have left to get everything sewn, mounted, and ready to hang.
It’s exciting and also I’m one to really push myself with ambitious goals and I’m definitely feeling it this time. But, I’m also a lover of to-do lists and spreadsheets are one of my love languages, so I’m getting it done, even if that means sewing at the beach and in the car!
Both those things were actually very fun, so I’m not complaining. I have also been staying up a little too late these nights, but with a family with two little kids, it’s the time of day I have. I’m sure many of you can relate.
In any case, I’ve been busy making new work around the theme of the Apostle Islands and Chequamegon Bay and I have endless ideas about the places I want to show off because we live in just such an incredible place. For instance, yesterday I was lucky enough to visit Stockton Island as a professional development opportunity through my work as the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s Food Sovereignty Coordinator. Already I had been working on a piece with Stockton in it, but being back on the island and seeing the wetland just makes me really want to take a deep dive into showing people what an incredible place this is!
This is another quilt I finished earlier this summer and it shows Madeline Island, Basswood Island, Hermit Island (what I learned yesterday was also called Wilson Island), and the mainland. This quilt will be in the show (and will be for sale!) as will a few other full-sized quilts and then plenty of framed pieces.
In fact, I’m also going to have this quilt–my very first map quilt which I started making as a toddler quilt in 2018 before my first kid was born. I didn’t finish it until COVID when I was expecting my second kid, and truth be told it hasn’t become the well-loved security blanket I envisioned it becoming when I made it. But that’s how it goes, we all have our preferences.
With that, I hope you’ll come check out my show next month! I’m even leading a workshop that you can sign up for through Honest Dog Books (register here) and giving an Artist Talk in which I’ll be showing pictures from some of the crazy pre-kid adventures I’ve had. It’ll be fun–hope to see you!
Life of the Party Quilt
I finished a quilt a couple weeks ago! This one I’ve named “Life of the Party” and the name came to me as I was matching up all the vibrant colors, some of which were streamers and decorations from my wedding last summer.
The process of making this quilt started by attending Tara Faughnan’s “Color Interaction” class in May. Through this one-day virtual class, Tara had us play with color. One of the exercises that was most intriguing to me was starting with two colors that we disliked (each selecting our own since color is so personal) and then seeing how close of colors we could choose altering the saturation, value, and hue, until we liked the pairing. I learned so much about my color preferences doing this!
The second part of the class we started putting those preferences into action by starting to make Tara’s Bars Quilt. For starters, this is really my kind of quilt “pattern”. Instead of giving ridig instructions and measurements, Tara provides a framework. For starters, she provides suggestions about a color pallet but quickly shares that she used way more colors than she lists which immediately freed me up to grab fabrics that call to me. These I added some colors that she suggested that I’m still getting used to working with – peach, tan, reds – just to name a few. Following her guidelines I then cut yardage into 6″ widths and then further cut these down into various sized 6″ strips.
Then the most fun part–to make the quilt I simply spent the next hour or so grabbing one color and finding another color that I thought it paired great with! These I clipped together and tossed them in a pile and repeated until nearly all my cut strips were used up. From here, my pairings sat for probably a month until I had a couple nights to piece them all together–which actually went incredibly fast, in part due to the Juki TL-2010Q that I purchased for myself this spring!
My motivation for piecing the top actually came from wanting a quilt that I could handsew at night. Something that was a little mindless and could be a bit of a pallet cleanser from all the very detailed sewing I’d been doing to get ready for my gallery show in Washburn early in the month. With that, I had a great time hand-quilting this whole quilt, including appliquing my name and the name of the quilt onto the binding. (Oh and I realized such a great trick for this! Instead of sewing the binding on first, I just sewed it to the front, then appliqued it so I had access to the back of the binding and didn’t have to bury my knots. It worked like a charm and is my method from now on!)
Anyway, the quilts already been dragged across the floor by my kids and taken on a camping trip with us the other week. I feel a little protective of it still, but also ready for it to show all the scars of a well loved quilt.
The “X” Show
A group show exploring the visual, linguistic, and cultural currency of “X” as a potent symbol of intersectionality & social change.
After an afternoon spent at Park Point–the gorgeous six-mile beach in downtown Duluth–my partner, our kids, and friends of ours sneakily changed from swimsuits into dry clothes on the side of the road then proceeded to go to the opening reception at the Prøve Gallery where my piece Convergence was one on display as part of a group exhibition.
The show was so fun, filled with art from about a dozen different artists all exploring the theme of “X” as a symbol of intersectionality and social change. For my piece, I chose to tell the story of my experience joining others at Oceti Sakowin camp to help stop the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, and used Xs to mark the spot that the pipeline ended up being drilled under the Missouri River.
14” x 7” – Cotton fabrics, felt batting, machine applique and quilting, hand embroidery, mounted to stretched canvas.
In 2016 thousands of people from around the globe gathered at the Oceti Sakowin Camp on the Standing Rock Reservation. We gathered in an effort to protect the waters, to protect the lands, and to uphold Tribal sovereignty. We gathered to stop the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. This piece remembers and honors this time by continuing to tell the story.
Water was all around us at the camp, which was located on a floodplain, nestled between Cantapeta Creek and the Cannonball River, just west of their convergence with the Missouri River. To the north and south brown hills rose up cradling us. Access to camp was from the south because to the north the road was blocked by armed guards at the bridge over Cantapeta Creek. Beyond this point construction crews continued building the pipeline, which eventually led to the forced drilling and laying of pipe under the Missouri River, shown as the two embroidered red X’s.
The red stitching details some of the memories I have from the camp. The location where I first set up my tent. Morning circles. The unsettling night sounds of explosions too close for comfort. A water ceremony along the Cannonball River. The hill we climbed to access phone service. The place where we shared meals. Where I found comfort in community and assisted with a medic training teaching warriors techniques to control severe bleeding with tourniquets. The location of actions to push back private security and reclaim ground. Thanksgiving night spent walking with two dear friends under a star-filled winter’s sky. I will hold the memories and the lessons I learned during my time at Oceti Sakowin with me forever, and for that I am grateful.
Mini wiconi. Water is life.
Being in this group show and seeing how all the other artists represented the theme was really incredible. What’s more, my biggest surpise of the night was seeing that my friend Jesus Barazza and his partner Melanie Cervantes who are both established artists with the Just Seeds Collective had pieces in the show! I cannot even begin to describe what it feels like to have a piece of my art in the same show as these two incredibly talent artists and my brain is still trying to take that it!
The show’s going to be up at Prøve Gallery through mid-August! The gallery hours are on their website, so go check it out if you’re in the area!
Line 5 Public Hearing
The Army Corps of Engineers very recently released their draft Environmental Assessment regarding Enbridge’s proposed re-route of the Line 5 pipeline around the Bad River Reservation. This proposal is in response to the Bad River Band asserting their sovereignty as a Tribal Nation and demanding that Enbridge shut down and remove the pipeline from the Bad River watershed. However, this proposal still puts the waters, lands, and our communities at an unacceptable risk, while also continuing to support the oil industry which among other things, is directly linked to the disappearance and murder of Indigenous women.
The hearing is being held on Tuesday, June 4th at Northwoods Technical College in Ashland from 11am – 3pm and 4pm – 8pm. While comments submitted to the Army Corps likely won’t have much affect on their decision regarding the permiting, out from of the hearing does seem like a great opportunity to demonstrate our community’s support for Bad River by showing Enbridge that we strongly disapprove of the re-route project!
Resources to learn more:
Variations Fiber Arts Exhibition
I am so excited to be a part of the Variations Fiber Art show at the Washburn Cultural Center. I was invited to join and seeing the list of other artists who will be participating, it feels like a great honor to be among such talented artists. While I did exhibit somework when I was in high school (had I chosen to go to college after high school it would have been for art), this is my debut gallery show as an adult. And what’s even more exciting is that this is just the first of four gallery exhibitions I’ve got lined up for 2024 so far, and that’s not even including the quilt I’ve entered into the MN Quilt Show!
Each person in the Variations show will be exhibiting three pieces. I decided that I would make three brand new pieces, and that they’d be a part of my Water Protector series and feature waters threatened by Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline. This is such an important issue and it felt like a great opportunity to use my voice and this public platform to help educate others in our area about the threat this pipeline poses to our communities, lands, and waters.
The Line 5 pipeline was built in 1953 prior to environmental protections being in place and is 645 miles in length, originating in Superior, WI and terminating in Sarnia, Ontario. As the pipeline traverses northern Wisconsin, it crosses below the rivers that nourish Lake Superior. With the more extreme weather events happening in our region due to climate change, increased flood events which erode and scour these river channels are occurring more frequently and pose an increased risk for an oil spill.
The documentary, Bad River: A Story of Defiance, premiered over the past couple of months and shows how Endbridge is just one more example of colonization threatening Aanishinaabe communities and cultural traditions.
My hope is that these works serve as a call to action to shut down Line 5. Water is life.
For more info check out these resources:
Exhibitions
My friends and family know that when I set my mind to something, I really go for it. That’s been the case with my sewing and as proof, I’m excited to share that I’ve got four gallery shows lined up for 2024!
First up, is the group show Variations hosted by the Washburn Cultural Center which I was invited to participate in. The show will be up from June with the Opening Reception Thursday, June 6th. I’m really honored to be a part of this show with so many other established local artists.
I’m making three new pieces for the show that will be a part of my Water Protector series and am excited to showcase them in such a public way!
Next up, I found out on Friday that I piece I submitted for consideration in a group show at the Prøve Gallery in Duluth was accepted! This piece, Convergence, is about my experience joining thousands of others from around the globe in 2016 at the Oceti Sakowin Camp on the Standing Rock Reservation to stand up for the water. Mini wiconi. Water is life. The prompt for this show was to show how “X” is used as a powerful symbol of intersectionality and social change. This show will run from mid-June through July and the date for the Opening Reception will be shared in the coming weeks.
Third, in September I’m going to have a solo show at Honest Dog Books as part of Bayfield’s Art Escape events! The pieces that I’ll put up will include my full size map quilts as well as smaller map pieces stretched over canvas. Yet, the thing I’m most excited about with this opportunity is that I’m holding two events along with the exhibition. On Sunday, September 8th I’m hosting a “Mini Sewn Adventure Map” Workshop from 9 – 12pm in which people will be able to learn techniques to make their own 6″ x 6″ mini sewn adventure map to take home!
Then, on Thursday, September 12th I’m giving an artist talk called “Adventures Stories Told Through Quilts” where I’ll give an engaging presentation with lots of pictures showing how my adventures through life now translate into the pieces that I make. It’s going to be such a fun night!
Lastly, I’m going to be the featured artist at the Chequamegon Bay Food Coop the whole month of November! I’ll have a ton of work up in the store’s gallery just in time for your holiday shopping, so that will be fun too!
If you hear of any galleries seeking submissions for shows that you think might be up my alley, please reach out! I’d love to keep broadening the reach of my work!
Kickapoo River Quilt
I made this quilt for a friend of mine who’s been going through cancer treatment this past year, hoping that the quilt would offer her some extra tenderness and care.
I chose to feature the Kickapoo River because it’s a river she and and I joyously canoed some summer afternoon years and years ago while drinking champagne, telling stories, and laughing.
This is the third quilt in this style that I’ve finished and with each one, I’ve learned some new tricks. With this one, I again used a reverse applique technique where I cut out the river channel as I turned the raw edges under and sewed them down. I’ve found that with this approach, the accuracy of the meander river channel stays more true than if I were to just cut out the channel and applique it on top of the background fabric. Likewise, I like the depth that this method creates as it adds to the feel of the river channel being lower in elevation than the surrounding uplands.
This quilt is entirely hand sewn including the extensive quilting showing the towns of Viola and La Farge, the river channel, and the complex topography of the driftless region. After washing it, the gauze fabric became even soften with the wonderful crinkly texture created by all the quilting–just what I’d hoped!
