Books like this make me happy, they excite me, make we want to dash out and learn more more more and create… I told my friends that if I hadn’t already bought them presents for Christmas, I would have bought each of them a copy of this book.  Kate looked at my copy, and promptly took all the info to order it for her town Library (her town is SO lucky to have her as their Librarian, but I digress…)…   What book?  Personal Geographies: Explorations in Mixed Media Mapmaking by Jill K. Berry.

Personal Geographies by Jill K. Berry.

Order from her here or Amazon.com here.

Ya know how a comment from an internet friend, especially one in a small group where you get to really know each other and know a suggestion is worth checking out, will set you off to check out a link for a tutorial, which will lead you a person’s blog, then their website, and on and on?  And then you find out she has just published a book…on a subject you adore?  In this case, it was this tutorial on geo-papers and Jill Berry’s blog and book about maps…all SORTS of maps!

True confessions:  I will admit to being totally, utterly biased.  I LOVE maps and I LOVE color and I really enjoy a bit of whimsy. But let’s start at the beginning:

Table of Contents

As you can see from the map on the right page, it’s not all about continents and streets and the bird’s eye view from the height of an orbiting satellite… that map is about the Right Place at the Right Time…oooh what a cool concept to turn into a map!   You know straight off you’re not in for some dry tome on elevations and political boundaries, at least in the usual map-sense.  This book begins with some basics:

• What is a Map
• Questions for the Cosmic Cartographer
• Things to Map

"What is a Map" from Personal Geographies; as you can see, I was so excited reading it and full of ideas I had to write them down in aqua ink right there on the page--any book that does that to me is a GOOD BOOK in my world!

• Nontraditional and Quirky Maps
• Parts of a Map
• Designing a Compass Rose

Parts of a Map---pages like this make me want to learn more, see more old maps....

• Designing a Cartouche
• Supplies for the Journey

Now…I am a book fiend AND I love to delve MORE into the information… I was thrilled that in the back is a Resource section that coers not only where to get STUFF, but where to get more information…like research sites and good books for learning more.  Guess where I’m going …the internet and inter-library loan!!! and I may be adding a couple of new reference books to my groaning book shelves! I mean…how tempting is it to know there is a site where you can learn the history of sea monsters?!!!! OK… I’m really not gonna go surf now…really…..

Then there are the three major sections of the book:

• Mapping the Self
• Mapping Your Experience
• Plans, Projections and Possibilities

Oh me Oh MY…..just re-reading this makes me want to stop writing and go PLAY and DO! But I will restrain myself just a bit… just for you dear readers!

One of the first maps is this one which, when you read the words closely on the top layer (“My Idea of My Neighbors’ Day not mine”)  and suss out the words on the underneath layer  (Jill’s life) are just hilarious…makes me wish Jill were my neighbor–this is someone with whom you can have fun!  I’ll just have to do that via her book.

Jill K. Berry's"Head Map"--please remember all these pages and artwork are Jill's and respect her copyright!

Just one example…on the nape of the neck it reads on the top layer:  The way to sculptured shoulders perfect in halter tops.  On the underneath layers:  several blog shapes with the notation:  spit-up land.  What a hoot… anyone who has been a mom or babysat remembers having shoulders like that!

Another cool thing Jill did is to ask a dozen mixed media art buddies (including Jane LaFazio, whose classes I’ve taken online….) to try making a map–something they had never done before.  She sent them the projects in this book, and they each tried… and wow what they did… it is so much FUN!

As usual for me, I wish there were more more more of the information up front, and not quite so many projects, but that is just me.  The set up of the book is pretty standard for what you see in the quilty world, too:  information up front, projects in back, a smattering of art from other artists to illustrate the author’s writing, and resources, index, biographies of contributors, etc. in the back.  That’s just a quibble…I’m greedy:  I WANT MORE!   So thanks to this book, I’ll set off on my own map journey, which will include going to that sea monster site.  Now!   And oh yeah, in case you hadn’t figured it out, I can highly recommend this book, especially if you like maps, or if you just want a lark into a mixed media thingy that might just open whole new ideas for you!

Another thrill—I am one of a number of folks who have written for Quilting Arts magazine whose articles were included in The Best of Quilting Arts: Your Ultimate Resource for Art Quilt Techniques and Inspiration, edited by Pokey Bolton.

The Best of Quilting Arts by Pokey Bolton

My articles on edge finishes were merged, edited and included in the first of five major sections in the book.  The Table of Contents is impressive:

The Table of Contents, The Best of Quilting Arts

The five major sections are:

• 1. Starting and Finishing: Art Quilt Basics (this includes my article)
• 2. Trends in Surface Design:  Stamping, Dyeing, Printing, and More
• 3.  People, Pets, andMore:  Representation in Art Quilting
• 4. Make it Green:  Recycled and Natural Materials
• 5.  Embellishment and Mixed Media:  Too  Much is Never Enough

This page spread is the opening of my contributions.

After each section Jane Davila has written a “Professional Advice” article on various subjects, all of which are interesting.

One of Jane Davila's Professional Advise articles.

For anyone new to art quilting, this is a fabulous all-in-one-place resource, and it would be a useful addition to the newbies library and even for those who are at an intermediate level.  As always with Quilting Arts magazines and books, the layout, graphics, and photography are outstanding.  And for those of us who live in the boonies, there is a useful Resources list in the back along with additional reading suggestions and a useful index.

Sandra Sider's The Studio Quilt, No. 6: State of the Art

The Studio Quilt, No. 6:  State of the Art, by Sandra Sider, is a monograph that is part of a series featuring contemporary quilt art, all of which are available on Amazon.com (click on the title for a link to the listing).  The previous five volumes have each focused on a single artist.  This volume includes one quilt for 60 different artists–including (gulp gasp Who ME?) me!  To say that I am elated to be included in such elite company is an understatement of epic proportions.

Sandra Sider has been a well-known artist and curator in the art quilting world for a number of years (her curriculum vitae on her website is mind-bogglingly impressive), and is currently the President of the Studio Art Quilt Association.  The SAQA website states:  “Dr. Sandra Sider, a New York quilt artist and independent curator, has published articles and reviews concerning fiber art and other aspects of visual culture for three decades. Her graduate degrees include an M.A. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Her most recent book is Pioneering Quilt Artists, 1960-1980: A New Direction in American Art (2010).”

The volume is a slim, succinct snapshot of 60 artists working in textile art today, including Benedicte Caneill, Gloria Hansen, June Sowada, Jette Clover, Mary Pal, Virginia Spiegel, Grace Errea, Charlotte Ziebarth, Nancy Cook…the list goes on!   My portrait in cloth of our older son is the work included:

I'm artist 36 of 60 in this slim volume of contemporary textile art.

It is an honor to be included, and if you want a good overview of who is doing what, this is it!

Last summer and fall I read a book about David Hockney, True to Life:  Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney, by Lawrence Weschler.  It was a wonderful read (and yes, I’ve mentioned it before.)  I thought it might be fun to do a series of brief posts with quotes from the book that resonated with me for whatever reason. The book is arranged in chronological fashion, so you can see how Hockney evolves. These quotations come from the 1983 chapter, when Hockney was working with photography (remember those polaroid collages?).

“All you can do with most ordinary photographs is stare at them–they stare back, blankly–and presently your concentration begins to fade.  They stare you down.  I mean, photoraphy is all right if you don’t mind looking at teh world from the point of view of a paralyzed cyclops–for a split second [emphasis in book].  But that’s not what it’s like to live in the world, or to convey the experience of the living world.

  “During the last several months I’ve come to realize that it has something to do with the amount of time that’s been put into the image.  I mean, Rembrandt spent days, weeks, painting a portrait. …”  (p. 6-7)

This hit home for me, because look at how long it takes to make an art quilt.  A painting, by contrast, can be done in days… even the briefest of textile sketches takes that long, let alone a major work (or even a medium one!).

And then, later on (p. 10), discussing the use of multiple photographs in one composition:

Indeed, that’s what this collage finally looked most like—the very experience of looking as it transpires across. time.

…”From that first day, ” Hockney recalls, “I was exhilarated.  First of all, I immediately realized I’d conquered my problem with time in photography.  It takes time to see these pictures—you can look at them for a long time, they invite that sort of looking.  But more importantly, I realized that this sort of picture came closer to how we actually see, which is to say, not all at once but rather in discrete, separate glimpses, which we then build up into our continuous experience of the world.” [emphasis added by Sarah]

I’ll be back with more of these gems every now and then.  In the meantime, On my reading list:  Weschler’s book “Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees:  A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin.”  Until reading the book on Hockney I had never heard of Irwin, though he is apparently the contemporary of Hockney and of the same (ethereal, or at least exalted) stature in art circles.  It was, according to the inside cover blurb on True to Life,  Hockney’s reaction to that book that caused Hockney to telephone Weschler to “say that while he disagreed with virtually everything in it, he couldn’t get it out of his mind.”  Well, given how much I’ve enjoyed Hockney (as revealed through True to Life) I thought it would be useful to read that with which he agreed.  For now, I’ll pop in now and then with quotes from this book while I’m reading the other one (don’t hold your breath… it will take months–these are books to be read while alert and awake, not my usual evening condition when I have time to read).  Stay tuned!

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!