film: quilts in women's lives & artist radka donnell

ever heard of the film quilts in women's lives?  it's a documentary from 1981 by a filmmaker named Pat Ferrero.  i found the film while searching around on the internet for more information about afro-american folk crafts.

the clip above on you tube is only 2 minutes long, but you can watch about half of the 28 minute long film on a really cool website called folkstreams, which is an archive/database of documentary films that are "A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures."

here's a bit about the film from the folkstreams website:

“This 15 minute excerpt includes the sections on artist/teacher Grace Earl, the artist and Bulgarian immigrant Radka Donnell, and the African American quilter Nora Lee Condra. The complete film includes the work of seven women and is available on a newly remastered DVD from The Quilt Complex (for home use) and from New Day Films (educational use).

Quilts was a ground breaking film used by folklorists, anthropologists and historians of art and womens history that presented the lives, art, work and philosophy of ordinary women in the days when few documentaries came from women filmmakers. This deceptively simple film won most of the major awards for independent films during the years after its release in 1981, including Emily Grand Prize, American Film Festival; 1st Place Fine Arts, San Francisco International Film Festival; Best of Festival, National Educational Film and Video Festival, New York International Film Festival, Margaret Mead Film Festival.

”Of the seven women seen during the course of Quilts in Women’s Lives, some are indeed painters using scraps of material for their medium, and they take traditional painterly attitudes toward their work. But over and above painting, quiltmaking develops into a metaphor of life itself. Quilts in Women’s Lives is visual anthropology. It examines by implication quiltmaking as a system of communication, record-keeping and structuring principle. The film, like the quilts, embodies the reassuring care, the forgiving attention to detail and the fascination of detail and emerging pattern that animates the best of life itself.”

—- Charles Shere for the Oakland Tribune.”

*** 

thoughts after watching the (15 minute long) clip:

i think the whole film, or at least what i've seen of it, is pretty great (though obviously dated!).  i am interested to see more of it; i ordered a copy of the film so i could.  i love hearing women (or anyone) talk about why they make and what they make and how they make it.  i love looking into people's homes or studios, especially those who are makers.  especially those who are quilters!  this is a total time capsule, too, you get to see the inside of the homes and workspaces of these women 30+ years ago...which is totally fun for someone who's into old crap and history like me.  :)  also, watching this film makes me want to say/feel/scream NOTHING IS NEW!!!  this whole recent movement of modern quilting (which i am a part of, somewhat, yes!) is not the first push to contemporize or redefine quilting in the 20th or 21st century.  it's merely the latest resurgence/manifestation of that movement, albeit with somewhat of it's own completely current ethos and aesthetic.  it's all related.

i was really really inspired by seeing the bit in the film about radka donnell and her quilts; i found a book called the contemporary quilt: new american quilts and fabric art  at a thrift store over memorial day weekend from the same era (c1978) that featured some of her work and i was really intrigued.  i was totally totally jazzed that she was featured in this film so i could learn more about her.  

have any of you heard of donnell?  she was a feminist, an activist.  her fractured, liberated, improvisational quilts would arguably fit right in with today's modern quilting ethos/aesthetic.  she considered her quilts art, but intended them to be used...ideas that seem opposing and challenging but really right on.  her work, in so far as her framing of her work and where her work was shown (in galleries, etc.) reminds me of the work of sarah nishiura, whom i wrote about last week.  both create beautiful, complex compositions that are at home in whatever context they are presented...on a wall or a bed.

*** 

who or what has been inspiring you lately?  

a peek into my studio on creativebug!

 a little peek into my sewing/quilting/making studio was featured on creativebug yesterday!  some of the photos above are in the feature, some were not.  a whole glorious mess of photos (these and more) of my studio can be found over at flickr.  enjoy! 

 (p.s. the pastelly giant star quilt is one i'm working on here and there.  it's features some "found" fabrics i got from etsy seller, whimsiedots, who sells a lot of vintage, recycled/found fabrics and supplies as well as creations of her own.  i love buying her big boxes of random scraps!  I'm trying to stretch myself and use fabric and colors i don't always use.  i'll probably give it to a special person for a gift later this year.)

sarah nishiura's quilts @ the hyde park art center

seen above: chicago-based artist/quilter sarah nishiura's quilts, which are currently featured in a show at the hyde park art center called abstracting the seam.  

i went to the show this past weekend with pete and the poppy in tow, and was really impressed.  the show features the work of other artists, in various mediums, more information about the show and it's artists can be found here.  the show is on until september 15th, so if you're in chicago or passing through and like quilts (and other stripes of contemporary art) i recommend dropping by for a look.

***

i've only recently discovered sarah's work, in the past year, after hearing her speak at one of the chicago modern quilt guild's monthly meetings.  she is/was (originally) a painter.  

she uses primarily secondhand textiles (like men's shirts) to make her quilts; the variation of colors and texture these factors give her finished pieces a tremendous amount of hand and visual depth.  most of the fabric used within is solid or monochromatic, but if you look closely you'll see that she periodically and thoughtfully slices in little slivers of patterned fabric.  i wanna say her quilts are more about the solids than the pattern fabric, but that's not really true.  the juxtaposition and proportion of the solids and the patterned bits or sections is so perfectly balanced.  when i heard her speak at the CMQG meeting she mentioned that she exclusively hand quilts them; i think the labor intensive process adds a charm to the quilts, and adds a vintage, handcrafted look that i feel adds to their overall aesthetic and perhaps monetary value.  

***

other related thoughts (aka, why sarah's work resonates with me):

-sometimes i think i prefer hand quilting to machine quilting though both have their pros (and cons).  i'm still trying to articulate why i feel this way.  which do you prefer?  does anyone else feel like sometimes machine quilting is too "machined"?  hand quilting often times has more of a subtileness, maybe?  in general i guess i like things simple or minimal too, when it comes to quilting (by hand or by machine).

-i really like the idea of not using so much "designer" fabric with really idiosyncratic designs...in opposition to the whole movement of people making quilts with said fabrics.  the results, to my eye, become more about the designer of said fabric than the quilter making them.  i know, that's what some people like, and that's great.  quilt/make whatever the hell you want.  but i like a mix of fabrics:  some new stuff that's pleasing, mixed with anonymous and found/repurposed fabrics, and solids of whatever manufacturer.  the jumble of it all pleases me and feels more "me".  if that makes any sort of sense.