by Patricia Belyea
BIRMINGHAM UK The eve before The Festival of Quilts, I happened across the opening of the European Art Quilt Foundation’s 2014 show. What an amazing opportunity for me!
I met the leaders of the organization and many of the art quilters whose work is in the show. After the opening, I joined the group for dinner in the nearby Hilton Hotel!
Here are the photos I took of the artists with their work:
BELOW From the Netherlands, Simon Prins, chairman of the Foundation, and his wife, art quilter Olga Prins-Lukowski, beam with her piece Ups and Downs or Going with the Flow.
L Yes, that's me in the silly hat with Leslie Gabrielse of the Netherlands and his quilt Aerial Dancer. The inspiration of the quilt came from watching a trapeze act at the Pink Door restaurant in Seattle last year.
R Claudia Helmer from Germany stands beside Luminale 3, her art quilt that celebrates the biannual festival of light in the city of Frankfurt.
L Edwina Mackinnon of the United Kingdom created Six Houses, a quilt about identity and how we are all identified by numbers.
R See You in the Tracks, was quilted by hand by Renate Guetlein of Germany, who sewed together her husband’s cross country ski marathon bibs. She mentioned that pulling the thread through the Tyvec could be hard-going at times. (Sounds like skiing in bad snow.)
L Anco Brouvers-Branderhorst of the Netherlands impressed everyone with her impeccable quilted pryamids Elements VI, ‘All in one II’ that hung above a mirrored box.
R Katriina Flensburg of Sweden admonishes the arrogance of our fellow man who slaughter dolphins and dolpin-related mammals in her quilt Purple Waters.
L The threatening sky and impending storm in A Thousand Acres by Roberta Le Poidevin of the United Kingdom were inspired by the story of King Lear and his dysfunctional family.
R Cecile Trentini of Switzerland shows us life as it is— colorful, exuberant and yet so simple and full of contrast—in her art quilt Life.
L Black Shadow by Rita Dijkstra-Hesselink of the Netherlands recognizes that everything has a shadow. The challenge is to enjoy the colors of life as well as the existence of the shadow.
R Hanne Capel of the Netherlands plays with layers of type, created with printing on polyester and machine stitching, in her piece Messages from Prague 1.
L Susie Koren of the United Kingdom interpreted a reading of the I Ching, scattered thoughts and bundles of throwing sticks in Yarrow Sticks.
R Ampersand by Claire Higgott of the United Kingdom is part of an ongoing series inspired by the roots of modern communication.
L Juror Claire Benn of the United Kingdom shows As if the Nothing: Permafrost, seventh in a body of work based on remote landscapes.
R Willy Doreleijers of the Netherlands displays Found Memory, a retrospective of a distant past.
BELOW Astrid Streng-Groenen of the Netherlands’ quilt Information Overload II reveals a cacophony of words that are sometimes comforting and other times an intrusion.
The Foundation created a gorgeous catalogue of ALL the quilts (48 in all) with a DVD in the back. If you are at The Festival of Quilts this week, go to the exhibit and pick one up for £10.
I give this show five stars!
