Another Thick Envelope
Last friday, the acceptance letters for Quilt National were sent out. I was most fortunate to be a recipient of such an email.
Structures #113 will be part of next year’s exhibit, which opens memorial day weekend in Athens, Ohio.
I’m not allowed to post images of the artwork until the show opens, so I’ll leave it to your imagination what the textile painting looks like. I will give you this hint, I used just a handful of colors from my hand dyed fabrics.
Above is a close-up of a close-up!
Why It Matters
While I rarely enter juried art shows (I stopped a few years back as I seemed to get into everything I entered and it seemed I needed to start setting the bar higher) this show is special and I’m likely to be entering it for a long time coming.
There is much debate in the art quilt world about this show as it seems to step upon many people’s toes.
A few thoughts on why I still care:
- In my opinion, the catalogs/hard cover books from this exhibit, are an important history of art quilts. No other show, group, exhibit, books, etc, capture this history with as much consistency. Many people would argue with me about this. Yes, some excellent artists do not enter or even get into the show. But it is consistent, long running, high quality and documented. I love being part of this history.
- Outside validation is always wonderful. Validation from a show that is extremely selective (85 out of probably close to 1000 entries) is very nice. This is my 4th acceptance into this show. I’m beginning to believe it’s not a fluke!
- It’s fun to attend the opening and meet many of the who’s who in the art quilt world.
- It’s pretty cool for someone to ask me for my autograph, the opening of Quilt National is about the only place that happens.
To those of you that entered and were not accepted, best of luck to you next year. Keep on making your amazing artwork.