Saturday, January 22, 2011

Ever dream about careers in quilt history, then wonder what are they?

Have you ever wondered what people do who call themselves "Quilt Historians".  Have you ever dreamt about making a career in  the ever widening fields of quilt history, costumes, or quilts? I wondered  how  women went about becoming quilt historians when this field didn't even exist until the last quarter of the 20th century? Who were their mentors and role models?

I invite you to look into the lives of said women (and one man so far, another on the way,) on my Getting to Know Today's Quilt Historian pages.  Many new women have been added this month, while others have updated their interview and more are working on theirs now. There is great joy for me to bring their history to my readers. Please let others know about this and share the joy!

What motivated me to interview women who have helped  make the field what it has become today was my curiosity about what motivated them to get involved as they did.  Who were their mentors, what peaked their interest, what was their favorite job or research project and  what do they still want to do. What I learned is that their imagination and dreams grew as they did. With each step they took a leap of faith driven by a love of quilts, fabrics, or history which kept them going. At the end of each profile is a comprehensive bibliography of their publications, lectures, exhibits, and so forth. Use it also as a  reference guide should you need it for your research.

Today we follow their tracks to a certain extent. These women and men can be your mentors, Read their interview online.  One thing led to another and their dreams became larger and wider, and so can yours. My interviews show creativity in action as well as educate us about the broad field of quilt history.

While you're on the page, take a look at the second photograph. I took a picture of the entrance to the International Garden of Peace. It is the Peace Portal at Meditation Mount in Ojai California. Then I played around with the digital photograph to make it look like a stream is running through an Asian doorway on a hot day. In reality, there is no water, it's a path through a garden under a  blue sky on a typical day.  It's fun to play this way.

I hope your new year is wonderful so far. I  started my mixed media collage class again. This semester we are focusing on line and we'll learn to use gesso in various ways. I am surrounded by accomplished artists in this class and learn so much from them as well as the teacher. We make collages in class and share them for her critique at the end. Mostly we make abstract collage with papers, fabric sometimes, and other flat embellishment. We use a great deal of clothing pattern paper. The  printing on the tissue paper are examples of line to be  used in creating action, interest and leading the eye along.
Tell us about what  creative adventures you are up to this new year?

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1 comment:

  1. I'm enjoying your blog, but have to add a note to this entry. Although the majority of people involved in quilt history are women, there are also a few men. I'm one of them. :)

    Cheers!
    Bill Volckening, aka Willy Wonky
    Portland, Oregon

    ReplyDelete

Your comments, questions and answers are welcome! It may take a little while for them to show on my blog - I like to see them first. Thanks for sharing.