Quilter's Hall of Fame: Nancy Crow (long)
b*g...@*iquest*.*net*
Hi all,
I just got back from hearing new Quilter's Hall of Fame inductee give
a retrospective of her quilting career at our Celebration '97. It was
great!! I am not an artist (though I have been making quilts for
about 15 years) but I am in awe of people who are! If you have never
seen Nancy Crow's work in person, please take the chance. I have
loved her abstract lines and shapes and her bright patterns for many
years, but in person .....
they GLOW!
The show was sooo cool. She started out with her first quilt -- made
for her first son, a red and black (no baby-pastels for her even back
in 1971!) nine patch with circles. Ms. Crow has never done her own
hand quilting -- she said her first attempt with that quilt cured her
of ever wanting to do that. Marla Hattabaugh, who does most of her
hand quilting now was here too, and my -- is she fast!!! She showed
us a quilt that Nancy gave her on June 30th -- it looked about 45X60
inches -- and she has the quilting DONE (!!) Now all my UFOs are
mocking me and making fun of me.
The best part of the show was having the artist herself there to
explain what she was thinking as she desgined each quilt. Ms Crow
went around the exhibit more or less chronologically describing how
she started with all templates -- even for log cabin blocks -- and
progressed to using striped and geometric fabrics (she said she found
tiny flower-prints boring) to finally hand-dyeing all her fabrics.
During the 70's and early 80's she had to use decorator fabrics to get
the colors and patterns she wanted. Her poor hand quilters! I guess
I had realized that she makes "series quilts" but as she pointed out
bits of strip-pieced fabrics that continued from one quilt to another
in addition to the shape and color designs that evolved, I was in awe.
She said that a common mistake that students in her classes make is to
try to get *everything*, every design idea you have into one
"masterpiece" quilt. She said that we should let go of that and let
each quilt have one main idea and then let that idea branch and
develop into other quilts.
My 13 year-old and 10 year-old sons were with me and they even liked
the quilts! The 13 year-old has made a quilt, and is an artist and
his colors and pattern choice were very much like Ms. Crow's. He
noticed that and thought he must be pretty cool.
The other main thing I learned from the talk was that she doesn't use
a ruler any more!! She said in 1990 she almost gave up quiltmaking
because she felt like she wasn't a real artist because her lines were
all hard and her colors all opaque and there wasn't depth to the work.
She said she wanted to keep with her vision of the craft of quilting
-- the pieced top and the hand quilted look, but didn't know how to
proceed. Then she discovered dying her own fabric -- giving
gradations, and making prints using a resist process -- and she got a
"eureka" that her lines could curve and her corners didn't have to
match. Well, the quilts since 1990 look very different than the ones
before. I have never dyed fabric before, but I will have to try now.
The effect is gorgeous. I can't imagine giving up my security-ruler,
but I might try after this ......
I have always had a dream of interpreting abstract art in fabric, but
never had the "guts" to try. (I can't imagine having the color and
shape/line sense to create my own -- but an interpretation would be at
least *partly* mine, wouldn't it?) But maybe now after being close
enough to almost (no I didn't touch) be able to "pet" the quilts, it
seems more possible.
Thank you Nancy Crow for sharing your work. My soul is filled.
(can you tell I don't get to quilt shows much?)
Yours,
Beth Gualtieri Goff
b goff @ iquest . net
(spaces added to reduce spam)
DianaCNP
I have to agree that Nancy Crow really gives back to the quilting world.
She is very controversial, and people have notions about her that most
likely just aren't true. She hosts (with Linda Fowler) every year the
Quilt Surface Design Symposium in Columbus, Ohio. She does many countless
an unmentioned activities to promote newer artists. She still honors the
traditional quilting roots of Quilt Art. If you hear anything negative
about Nancy Crow, reserve judgment until you have the opportunity to meet
her and see the wonderful things she does to promote quilting as an art
form while maintaining the integrity of traditional quilting in America.
Diana in Worthington who had the opportunity to attend my first QSDS in
June, 1997 and recommend it highly.
The Washburns
b*goff*@*iquest*.*net* wrote:
Thank you so much for sharing this with the group. I wish I could
have been there!
Lisa in Texas
Helen Smith
Dear Beth,
Thank you very much - I really enjoyed reading your description of the
Nancy Crow talk you went to. What an inspiration - imagine discarding
the ruler (oooh help!) - but it must be very liberating..... I wonder
what would happen if I tried that, hmmmm.
Thanks again for sharing,
Helen, from England