High Fiber Diet returns with quilts galore
Photo by Ryan Jones.
High Fiber Diet isn’t just what the doctor would recommend – it’s also a collective of artists who focus on fiber work, specifically that of quilt art. And it’s not quite what your grandma would sew, or quilt, but rather something more.
A subgroup of an artists’ guild called Columbia Fiber Arts, High Fiber Diet meets once a year as a group to choose a theme for an upcoming show. This acts as a challenge of sorts, as each theme comes with parameters to adhere to. The past couple years the themes have been colors; this year, the color is green and the parameters include a requirement to use 25 percent re-purposed material.
For some of the artists, creating work for “It’s Not Easy Being Green” – now showing in MHCC’s Visual Arts Gallery – this was a real challenge.
“Re-purposing is the hardest thing for me,” said Sherri Culver while discussing her piece in the gallery, titled ‘Experiencing Life.’
“I usually know what I want. I can find it or I already have it, but this time I was forced to go out and find things,” she said.
In her piece, viewers see a re-purposed dollar bill sewn into the quilted portrait of a young woman. Atop her head is a flower crown from re-purposed fabric that Culver held onto for a long time, and the background is a thrifted scarf. Most interesting is what Culver refers to as the work’s values: “When you think about it, people don’t just have a nose or something on their face, it’s all shadows.”
She got the idea from watching her son work in Photoshop, and began to break apart values in the shadows of images into different fabric shapes, she said. As a whole, it looks like a face, and up close it almost appears terrain-like.
In talking with a handful of the two dozen or so artists in the “Diet” gallery reception held Oct. 6, each had their own interpretation of “green.”
“To me, green is the color of healing. It’s the color of the heart chakra. And my piece is about opening my heart and keeping it open, no matter what,” said Toni Smith about her piece, ‘Heart in Motion.’
“I’ve always been fascinated with green men. I’ve been to England and Europe several times and a lot of the old buildings have these little gargoyle shape, type of green men,” said Pam Pilcher on her work, titled ‘Green Woman.’
All the pieces in the gallery show were chosen through a juried process, which includes votes from artists outside the guild, said Pat Fifer, a High Fiber Diet leader.
“It’s always good to be chosen… to know that someone else likes your art as much as you like your art,” Anita Kaplan said about her piece, ‘Retail Therapy, the Pearl.’
“It’s Not Easy Being Green” will remain in the Visual Arts Gallery through Oct. 27.
Photo by Ryan Jones.
We HFD artists appreciate the coverage of our exhibit. This is a smashing photo – my quilt is the long thin one on the central column. We love showing at your campus and hope to have another exhibit to share with you soon.
I love that you are writing about quilts. But do you realize what a trite and hackneyed phrase “not your grandmother’s quilt” is? It makes quilters roll their eyes and read no more. Which is what I just did. Too bad because the artists seem really cool.
I’m a grandma, btw.