Artist Profile: Kristin La Flamme

Kristin La Flamme

Portland, Oregon

1. What kind of challenges did this theme present to you? With room for such broad interpretation, I had to consider which direction would be most authentic for me -- did I want to focus on the graffiti aspect, or the personal aspect? I suppose setting myself the parameters of using only materials and themes I have used before could be considered a challenge, but to me it was the driving force of the piece. I enjoy the puzzle of making do with what I have at hand.

2. Describe your studio space? I work in what was intended as a "Family Room." It's large enough for me to have storage shelves, tables for both my sewing machine and my computer, plus a large cutting table/work area. The best part is that it's a dedicated studio space and I don't need to clear out when guests arrive or dinner is ready.

3. Where can people see your work in the next six months? My tessellated gun quilt, 'Murica, is on view with Quilt National '15 until October 10, 2017 at the Historical & Cultural Society of Clay County, Moorhead, MN; "Death Shroud for Democracy" is on tour with SAQA's Layered Voices exhibit and will next be at Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater, OK, May 1- August 18, 2018. The Gallery tab on my website is always a good place to look for the widest range of my work: https://kristinlaflamme.com
 

4. Do you ever work in a series?  If so, what benefits or challenges does this present to you as an artist? Yes, I usually do work in a series, or at least a pretty straightforward trajectory. It's impossible to address all of one's desires in one piece, so a series allows the maker to try theme and variation. Some series are short lived, but I return to others in one way or another for years.

5. What other activities do you engage in that “feed” your creative energy? I enjoy drawing, especially from a live model, but recently I bought a fixer-upper house and have been spending all my creative energies working on it. Of course, pretty and intriguing images on Pinterest and Instagram always feed me as well.

Artist Profile: Karol Kusmaul

Karol Kusmaul

Inverness, Florida

1. What kind of challenges did this theme present to you?  I enjoyed this theme, gathering and playing with personal symbols and items meaningful to me.  My piece was challenging because of the varied materials used, and the thickness of the layers I had to hand stitch through. Also challenging was the fact that I only gave myself a few days to get all the applique and hand quilting finished.  Even though I knew about the theme and deadline for a year.  Mea culpa.

2. Describe your studio space? I am so fortunate to have a separate building next to my home.  Skylights, kitchen, bathroom, office space, and a pool – it would make a super mother in law house.  I have room for my 12 foot APQS Millennium.  Hubby wants to downsize, but I’m digging in my heels.

3. Where can people see your work in the next six months? I’ve formed an online international fiber artist group at:  https://www.clothincommon.com   and my website: http://www.kquilt.com and blog:  http://kquilt.blogspot.com/

4. Do you ever work in a series?  If so, what benefits or challenges does this present to you as an artist?  I’ve done series of portraits, figures, still life and landscapes.  The benefits include having work to exhibit, having plenty of teaching samples, working to achieve variety, and having work that plays (or shows) well together.  I also did a series of Journal quilts, which was good, because I had committed to make one a month.  The challenges: getting too comfortable and not wanting to venture elsewhere, not getting stuck in a  rut where your work is predictable.

5. What other activities do you engage in that “feed” your creative energy?  Anywhere I go, my creative energy is fed.  A ballgame, a visit to my dad’s assisted living facility, yoga class, vacation trips, church, a bike ride, even mowing the grass is good meditative time.  I so enjoy the visual treats that are everywhere.

Artist Profile: Lyric Montgomery Kinard

Lyric Montgomery Kinard
Cary, North Carolina

1. What kind of challenges did this theme present to you?  This was the easiest theme I’ve encountered so far and as soon as it was announced I had ideas in my head that quickly coalesced into a work. I’ve been working enough recently that I’ve settled into a current set of images and shapes and lines that speak to me as an artist. They are abstract to begin with and endlessly challenging. They have enough variety that I am still enthused and curious about where each new variation might take me.

2. Describe your studio space. Short story? Crowded. Long story? Right now it is more unmanageable than usual. I am in the process of moving from the small (about 16’ x 16’) ground floor room I’ve worked in for the past 16 years into the third floor walk-up attic. All of my inventory from up there is currently down here. So I’m dodging boxes and piles and sorting through bins of stuff to get rid of before I have to haul it all back up two flights of stairs.

3. Where can people see your work in the next six months. I am not going to be showing widely for most of 2018 as I concentrate on getting my new studio set up, get my current teenager graduated and out of the nest, and developing a new series of work. You can always follow my doings at www.LyricKinard.com to see if I get anything out there.

4. Do you ever work in a series? If so, what benefits or challenges does this present to you as an artist? I absolutely love working in a series! My Personal Iconography piece is a continues exploration of circles and grids, sometimes broken, sometimes whole. Each finished piece leaves me with design questions to be answered in the next piece. It also leaves me with a pile of scraps and materials that often inspire just one more iteration of an idea. I do get bored easily - so my series are rarely created in a linear fashion. I’ll jump back and forth between a representational series and an abstract manner of working to keep myself engaged and interested. A series might run for years with a work added to it only once a year - but eventually it creates a body of cohesive work.

5. What other activities do you engage in that “feed” your creative energy? I love watching science shows. I read fantasy and sci-fi literature for pure escapism. I garden now and then.  I especially love teaching and travel. The quilt world has allowed me to go new places, meet new people, and see new things while sharing what I love! I am as energized by helping a student to find their creative spark as I am by being in the studio.

Artist Profile: Susie Monday

Susie Monday
Pipe Creek, Texas

1. What kind of challenges did this theme present to you?  For a change, this theme presented little challenge as an idea but technical challenges to my hand.  Because I immediately saw how I could cut up an earlier piece that appeared in a Dinner @ Eight exhibit I had to figure out the best way to reassemble it. I ended up using my own version of a Boro running stitch to both re-quilt the piece by hand and to reassemble the different elements including new patches.

2. Describe your studio space?  I work in the studio of my dreams: a converted two car garage with a giant design table in the middle. I walk to work across the driveway and look out at the beautiful Texas Hill Country through the windows in the front. My wife retired this spring, so we have a lot of travel on the  calendar this year. Some of my studio time is spent with traveling art, small sections of hand stitch.

3. Where can people see your work in the next six months?  I hope to have a piece in the local Fiber Artists of San Antonio exhibit, I currently have a piece in Form, not Function and, of course, with all of you at the international festival! This is been a half year of experimentation and exploration, working more abstractly than I have in the past, so I'm just now getting some pieces finished to submit to exhibits.

4. Do you ever work in a series?  If so, what benefits or challenges does this present to you as an artist? I tend to work in a number of series all at once. Go figure. Some of the work I do refers back to series of work that I completed three or four or even five years ago. 

5. What other activities do you engage in that “feed” your creative energy? We just added a little river cabin to our (small) collection of Airbnb properties, so it seems I'm spending a lot of time, creatively, with chopping Prickly Pear cactus, stalking the thrift stores for furnishings, and a paint roller in the hand. but the kayak early in the morning makes it all worthwhile.

Artist Profile: Sue Bleiweiss

Sue Bleiweiss
Pepperell, Massachusetts

1. What kind of challenges did this theme present to you?  I struggled with the theme at first and spent many hours working through different ways to approach it in my sketchbook.  My original thought was to create a piece that played on the word graffiti but I just couldn’t get anything to come together.  Once I stopped focussing on the word graffiti to drive the content of the quilt the idea for Work In Progress came together quite quickly. I started with a few small rough sketches and then once I had a good vision for what I wanted it to look like, I drew it full scale. 

2. Describe your studio space?  My studio is on the third floor of my home.  It's about 500 square feet - one side is my office and the other has my sewing machine, workstation, ironing station and all my supplies.  It’s a well lit space with a window at each end and two skylights so I get a good amount of natural light.  I have a separate wet studio in the basement where I do all my fabric dyeing.

3. Where can people see your work in the next six months? I have several pieces on display at the Brigham City Museum in Brigham City UT.  You can also see my Inside Out quilt on display at the Houston International Quilt Festival in the Modern Quilt Showcase and in the traveling exhibit 'Threads of Resistance.'

4. Do you ever work in a series?  If so, what benefits or challenges does this present to you as an artist? A good portion of my body of work is part of a series.  Working in a series helps you avoid those painful “what do I do next” slumps that we all fall into at some point.  It helps you circumvent those moments because it gives you the answer to the what’s next question.  I have a sketchbook filled with pages of ideas for quilts in my tutti frutti series so if I’m not sure what to do next I review my notes, an idea is sparked and I’m off and creating again.

5. What other activities do you engage in that “feed” your creative energy?  I live on the East Coast so I spend a lot of time outdoors in the warmer months enjoying the break from the colder winter months when there is snow and ice on the ground.  My husband and I spend a lot of time canoeing and hiking and I always have my camera with me.  Birds are one of my favorite subjects to photograph and the river that we live along provides me with lots of subject matter. 

Artist Profile: Terry Grant

Terry Grant
Portland, Oregon

1. What kind of challenges did this theme present to you? To choose a beautiful, appealing subject that I could render using all my favorite, personal marks, symbols, and techniques on. I wanted something that is recognizable and would demonstrate that even a common, universal image becomes personal when it takes on an artist's personal visual language.

2. Describe your studio space? I am fortunate to have a small studio, built just for me, in a wooded area just steps from my house. It is filled with light and I am surrounded by my fabrics and tools. There is a small loft upstairs, with storage and guest space.

3. Where can people see your work in the next six months? I am very excited that one of my pieces is part of the SAQA Concrete and Grasslands exhibit that will be at the 9th Asia Quilt Festival, Shanghai, China: September 22 - 24, 2017. I also hope to have work in the local Beaverton Arts Mix in September and will have my studio open for the Washington County Open Studio tour, October 14-15. 

4. Do you ever work in a series?  If so, what benefits or challenges does this present to you as an artist? I have several series that are ongoing. Each gives me an opportunity to explore a theme or concept in depth and pushes me to continue to see things in new ways. I love it when my "series" suddenly overlap or intersect—always an exciting surprise and evidence that our brains are constantly working behind the scenes, making connections that we aren't even aware of!

5. What other activities do you engage in that “feed” your creative energy? I started knitting a couple years ago, and am learning bookbinding techniques, but I find that travel is the thing that most feeds that creative urge. Creativity is part of every culture and seeing that universal love of color and design is so inspiring. We are currently planning a trip to Morocco and even just looking at photos and reading about it is giving me new ideas!

Artist Profile: Frances Holliday Alford

Frances Holliday Alford
Grafton, Vermont

1. What kind of challenges did this theme present to you?  I had to think about this theme for a long time.  I had been developing a class with a similar subject, personal symbols.  The addition of graffiti made the whole theme so much more interesting...but it also required a deeper excavation into myself.

2. Describe your studio space?  I have the whole third floor of my house and an elevator to get there.  There is running water in a deep sink and a Kurig Coffee Maker and a small refrigerator.  I have covered insulation board on several walls for designing. The floor is 12 inch black and white checkered tiles which are great for measuring.   Because it is an attic, I regret that there are not more full sized walls.  I also use my basement for wet work.  There is a big double sink, several long tables, a washer and dryer for dying cloth and a cement floor.

3. Where can people see your work in the next six months?  You can always come by my house.  Drop by any time and I will be happy to show you.  I do not expect to have anything on display before the Quilt Festival in Houston.

4. Do you ever work in a series?  If so, what benefits or challenges does this present to you as an artist?  I love working in series.  If it is something that I feel is successful, I will return to it again even after a series feels complete.  Currently, I am most excited about the texture that happens from washing and drying quilted fabrics along the way.

5. What other activities do you engage in that “feed” your creative energy?  Travel seems to be the most fertile way to feed my creativity.  I like to take a lot of photos, to write and also to work along the way.  I also find that working with other artists in regularly scheduled activities is very important.