Art Quilts: Rivers

The idea of making quilts that, when hung next to each other, resemble a river flowing from one to the next has been done before.  I saw an exhibit of these quilts at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival a few years ago.  PAQA-South recently revisited the idea in a joint exhibit with quilters from Taiwan. 

The participants were told the size of the finished quilt and where the river should begin and end.  The rest was up to them.

This is how they looked hanging in the Cary Arts Council building.

 

The exhibit had already been on display in Taiwan.  All the information cards were in both languages.

 

I took a panoramic picture with my i-Phone camera.

 

The quilts were so different and had so much going on that the river flow effect was not very dramatic.  But the quilts were lovely.

Some did a landscape or "townscape" with the river running through it.

Live and Work in Peace and Contentment, by Lin Mei-Hui




Boulder II, by Denny Webster

Others took a completely different look.  This one with huge flowers barely showed the river behind it.  But it sure was pretty!

The one with the raindrops added a more symbolic approach, while the winter scene was a change of pace.

 



Favorable Weather, by Chen Yen-Chiu, Solace, by Ann Flaherty, and Growing Continually, by Chuang Huei-Lan



 

 

The snowy owl was a splendid fellow!

 

 

Another one that was very unique featured very abstract fish in fabulous colors.

 

 



Ease and Comfort, by Huang Ming-Mei



The next one is a mountainous landscape with farm, but the river is depicted by suspended triangles that indicate movement.

 



Moving Water, by Mary Beth Bellah



 

 

One of my personal favorites, the next one is very "painterly" and serene.



Is There Life in the River's Depth?, by Christine Zoller



 

And I guess I liked the next one best of all, with its jewel colors and turbulent flow of water.  And wouldn't you know, I could not read the picture of the information label from the photograph.

 

 

Great show, PAQA-South!

Next time, some show-and-tell from The Whacky Ladies Bee and then on to the Charlotte Quilt Guild show, which I quickly toured last Friday before heading north to the mountains.