Sally Ride Science

Les Éditions de Saxe featured a pattern of my quilt What We Keep (2008) in the Fall 2018 edition

On a bitterly cold day in February of 2013, I had the pleasure of meeting Krisitin Congdon at the Iowa State Museum in Des Moines, Iowa.  She was accompanied by Teresa Hollingsworth, my friend and co-curator of the show on view at the museum,  The Sum of Many Parts,  after it's year-long tour throughout China.  The exhibit had taken Teresa and me, along with four others, to Shanghai only a year earlier.  Teresa had mentioned my work to author Kristin Congdon, who later chose me, along with 3 other artists, for ethnographic chapters in her book,  The Making of An Artist: Desire, Courage, and Commitment .  My chapter is featured as part of Congdon's exploration of commitment as it plays out in the lives of various artists, and is based on her in-depth interview with me in my Iowa City studio. The book is a delightful and informative read.  It gave me welcome insight into the personal lives and struggles of some of my favorite artists.  Congdon'...

A nice feature in Quilt Country Les Éditions de Saxe ,  which includes a pattern of Smokehaus Rose (2010).

 I enjoyed working with Suzanne Labry for her thoughtful Quilts.com blogpost about my work. QUILT MARKET HOUSTON QUILT MARKET PORTLAND   Few objects are so loaded with meaning as a quilt, and it is hard to imagine another item that can encompass so many varied emotions. The quilt as an object can represent any number of things, both tangible—such as warm cover or wall art—and intangible—such as comfort or grief. As a medium for creative self-expression, the quilt offers seemingly endless options for articulating ideas, representing feelings, and working through internal issues.   Certainly that is what Erick Wolfmeyer has found with his painterly, abstract quilts. As he searches to know his origins—his mother relinquished him for adoption when he was seven months old. And he only recently learned the identity of his birth father (who died in 2005), Texas songwriter Jerry Lynn Williams —the quilt provides him a supple vehicle for coming to terms with his puzzleme...

I was pleased to spy a bit of my quilt Portmanteau in Michael McCormick's magazine Quiltfolk Issue 02 - Iowa.  Each issue of the magazine is less a periodical and more a luxurious book as the publication contains no advertisements.  My quilt is seen in the feature on the Iowa Quilt Museum in Winterset, Iowa.   Portmanteau  was there for the exhibit Art Quilts of the Midwest , on loan from the permanent collection of the Iowa State Museum in Des Moines, Iowa.

           Here is the original transcript of the interview questions I answered:   Information About Me...   I am a 49 year old, single man living and working in Iowa City, Iowa USA. My full-time day job is as a dispatcher and field trip coordinator for the local school district's bus service. I started as a part-time school bus driver in 2007, but have worked as full-time office staff since 2010. It can be a very demanding and intense job while I am there, but one I can leave at the door and it affords me generous time off and a modest living. I have a dog, named Laffy Taffy, who I brought home with me from the local animal shelter nearly five years ago. She is a great companion and makes her home in my studio, which is what would otherwise be a living room for most, in my small 565 square-foot home. Built in 1900 as railroad lineman's cottage, it is only a few hundred feet from the railroad tracks that form the south end of my property line. ...

Currently working on another colossal scale quilt (~8.5 x 24 feet), working title  Dreamer .  I've had the idea for some time.  I made a sketch while vacationing on San Juan Island in Washington state in early November 2016. I started mostly with fabric from my existing collection, as well as several pieces given to me by felllow quilter, Dawn Eckrich, of Iowa City, Iowa. This square was left over from Swim (2013).  The center piece (1x1") was not the right size for that piece. This orphaned square continued to inspire my fascination with concentric square work. 112716 120416 121116 121216 121216 121816 121816 122216 122216 122316 122416 122816 123016 123116 010817 011417 011417 011517 012117 012217 020417 021517 021817 030417 0311117 031917 Summer 2017 Dreamer , 99" (height) x 264" (width) As of early summer 2017, this is where I've landed with  Dreamer .  When I arranged the squares according to the original sketch, I soon realized, albeit ...