Stitches & Stuff: Quilt artist offers words of wisdom
Tuesday, May 2, 2006 7:19 AM PDT
By Melisse Laing, columnist
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E-mail this articleIn February, I was privileged to study, again, with quilt artist and teacher Nancy Crow. I've studied with her almost annually since 1993 and continue to be challenged and inspired.
Nancy's advice, though directed at quilt artists, is applicable to many other techniques. First, be passionate about what you do. Make it the important endeavor in your life. Experiment. Study. Think. Focus.
Finally, work, work, work! .
In Nancy’s improvisation workshop, she emphasized composition. She shared four stages to good composition:
• Outline -- and keep the critic at bay.
• Rough in. Again, no critiquing.
• Refine. This is where you bring the critic in.
• Sew together.
In our student critiques, Nancy made us think about our work with such questions as, "Did you pay attention to developing an overall configuration? Were you sensitive to variety in sizes? Were you sensitive to how you cut edges of shapes and lines?
Did you process information and then work efficiently and effectively? Was your composition successful? Why?
Nancy's exercises are timed, and she continually pushed us to work faster and more efficiently. She considers these workshops equivalent to a graduate class and continually challenges us. "It is a given that you (the student) will often feel anxiety because you will not know what you are doing. You will feel uncomfortable.
"Get used to this feeling," she told us. "It is part of the process when you work improvisationally."
Even as we improvise, we are expected to be sensitive to spatial relationship, how we use repetition, size relationships and movement. This is what makes a composition energetic.
If you are unfamiliar with Nancy’s work or classes, I suggest you check her Web site, www.nancycrow.com There are also several books of her work including a new book entitled "Nancy Crow," now available in bookstores.
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