Fragments of Color

From "Celebrating luscious colors and shapes"
By Marcy Stamper - Methow Valley News

In the sensitive control of the textile artists of Fiber Optix, quilting attains a new level, employing hand-dyed fabric and freestyle patterns to create visually stimulating – and utterly tactile – works of art.

The 12 Fiber Optix members whose work is on view in Confluence Gallery’s new show, “Fragments of Color,” plumb and push the traditions of their medium – the richly hued fabrics and the geometric characteristics of appliquéd fabric and the repeated designs created by the quilting itself.

Their wall hangings celebrate luscious colors and shapes – trapezoids and triangles and wave-like curves; patterns, stripes and grids as well as more pictorial elements, such as painted fabric. Their art is accented with meticulously stitched quilting that makes one look at mere filaments of thread in a whole new dimension.

The Fiber Optix pieces are free-form collages and explorations of pattern and color that expand on the well-respected, but more staid reputation of their chosen medium. “It’s really manipulated fabric,” said curator Roxie Miller, who has been sewing clothing since age 8, and has done more traditional quilting in more recent years.

“I’ve been wanting to do a quilt show for a long time, in particular to represent a group that works together,” said Miller, noting the vital tradition of quilting as a social activity, particularly among women.

A statement from the Fiber Optix collective about their approach to art says it well: “Although the work of art quilt makers is built upon the foundation of traditional, utilitarian quilt making, these contemporary artists use the tools of that tradition in order to achieve the same goals as all artists: self-expression and the creation of visually stimulating and meaningful works of art.”

Still, Miller notes the appeal of the roots of the art. “It’s an incredible testament to the artistic talent of people who sew. They’re abstract but there’s still just this precise sewing – it’s phenomenal.”

The quilt artists use many techniques, from the serendipity of hand-dyeing and painting to appliqué and machine-stitched patterns. Some assemble vibrantly colored fabrics in a distillation of color and form, while others use a technique called discharge, where designs are created when color is bleached out of the fabric. Others add embroidery or incorporate antique fabrics for additional texture and detail.

Many of them view their quilted wall hangings as improvisational and intuitive, and some consider it painting with cloth. Others focus on the creative process – the dyeing and cutting, the juxtaposition of shape and form, and the exploration of the irregular patterns that occur in nature.

Miller chose to pair the quilts with the biomorphic vessels and sculptures of Twisp River Glass because she saw the glass as a three-dimensional expression that shares many formal and practical elements with the quilts. She saw the small colored rods, which glass artists melt to add color to their blown glass as analogous to the bits of fabric that textile artists use.

Jeremy Newman and Allison Ciancibelli of Twisp River Glass are showing more than a dozen pieces, round and lozenge-shaped forms and vases in their signature matte glass, with abstract landscapes and geometric glyphs that complement the supple texture of the quilts.

The Twisp River Glass artists use other innovative techniques as well, layering colors of glass and adding powdered glass and steel fibers. Acid-etching of the surface gives the finished pieces their matte finish.
Newman and Ciancibelli are influenced by the natural world and embrace the placid, seemingly “empty” expanses of nature for the emotional content of their work. “In the presence of nature, there is absence, where the mind can wander over open spaces and find a sense of calm,” they say of their work.

As one quilter writes, “I also hope to elicit a physical response in the viewer whose hand almost invariably seeks to touch the wondrously sensuous surface of the quilted cloth.” Visitors to the gallery will surely be tempted.

During the exhibit, a local quilter and her sister will be converting the front room of the gallery into an artists’ studio, where they will design and work on quilts, using a range of techniques and ideas adapted from traditional and contemporary craft. Visitors will be invited to observe the design process and techniques, but there will not be explicit instruction. “It will be an active, visually changing environment,” promised Twisp resident and quilter Jayne Schrock

Photo by Sue Misao: Roxie Miller positions “Wings” by Ellin Larimer.