Area Life

Between the stitches

Quilt exhibition beginning at SAMA

For the first time at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Loretto, the 2D and 3D quilt artworks of Studio Art Quilt Associates will be exhibited in "Textiles Unleashed."

The exhibit showcases and highlights the diverse styles and techniques of an art form that prioritizes aesthetic value over utility.

Studio Art Quilt Associates Inc. (SAQA) is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt: "a creative visual work that is layered and stitched or that references this form of stitched layered structure." The organization has

4,000 members of artists, curators, collectors and art professionals, according to its website. (For more information go to saqa.com) The exhibit was co-curated by SAQA-PA Exhibition Coordinators Meredith Eachus Armstrong of Danville and Sharon Wall of Altoona.

"Textiles may be considered to be fabric, thread, yarn, natural and synthetic fibers. Many of the artists represented in the show dye, paint and print their own textiles," Wall said. "Others use improvisational sewing techniques with fabric. Some of the artists have created 3D fiber art pieces. The name of the show, 'Textiles Unleashed,' reflects the unique ways that the artists have used textiles to create their fiber art."

These art pieces show how the artists use traditional quilting techniques in many creative ways, she said.

Jurist and artist Isabelle Wiessler selected items for the show from over

100 entries submitted by current members of SAQA-PA and those that have listed Pa. as their second region.

Wiessler is a mixed-media artist who lives in Germany synthesizes what she sees and feels, Isabelle creates abstract stitched pieces that explore texture, surface and space using a variety of materials. Wiessler selected about 60 artworks that represent SAQA artists from the Pennsylvania region.

"It was also very exciting to experience so many different approaches as to how the artists kept their own sensibility and individual voice. I was impressed by some most accomplished works, both traditional and contemporary," Weissler said in a statement.

"Working with fiber stretches back to ancient times and has grown and developed across the centuries into a vibrant art form encompassing a variety of materials and processes from low to high tech," Wall and Eachus Armstrong said in a written statement.

"The Textiles Unleashed fiber artworks are the modern-day descendants of traditional utilitarian quilts. They are a hybrid of quilt 'structure' and fine art. In many of the artworks, the viewer may recognize a connection to traditional quilt techniques or patterns, but that is where the similarity ends. The SAQA fiber artists approach their work as artists and designers, creating original one-of-a-kind pieces."

Exhibition works show examples of textiles that have been dyed, painted, printed, bleached, bound, cut, stitched, pieced, appliqued, knotted and recycled. Some artists have also incorporated unexpected media and materials with fiber or in place of traditional textiles. On May 21, SAQA will be facilitating a roundtable discussion at SAMA Loretto from 2 to

4 p.m. This event, facilitated by the curators, Sharon Wall and Meredith Eachus Armstrong, will be in the Sullivan Gallery. For more information, contact Sharon Wall at stonehouseart@aol.com. Attendees do not need to register for this event.