Confronting the Moon
Hand Dyed Fabric, Machine Pieced and Machine Quilted
Terry Jarrard-Dimond
This fall I will have the pleasure of teaching at Quilting by the Lake 2 at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, New York. As part of that event I was invited to send a quilt for the show which will be held this summer during Quilting by the Lake. I selected Confronting the Moon because it is one of my favorites and hasn't been shown that much.
The folks at Schweinfurth requested we write a statement to be included with the work as an additional educational component of the show. This is what I wrote about this piece:
Shape and the relationships between shapes has played a large role in my work for several years. Confronting the Moon is a simple "story" about confrontation and how the perception of size and power can be altered by posturing and intimidation.
Wow! So that's what I was thinking! Well, no it wasn't exactly what I was thinking when I began the piece but that is what the piece says to me today. This little experience of writing that statement has made me realize that I need to do that EVERY TIME I COMPLETE A PIECE and then again in a month or a year or some passage of time. I had to do this in graduate school but I have not been doing this recently and I believe I have been missing out on some important information and insight. While some artists may begin every work with a specific goal or intention or idea, that is not true for me. My work can start from may different point and the "meaning" surfaces as the work is created. I think that makes it even more important that I pay more attention to my thoughts when a piece is complete.
Some months ago I did an Artist Profile on Arturo Sandoval. I don't ask for a huge amount of information from my artists but Arturo sent me a wonderful packet of statements that he has written over many years. I sat down and read them all and it was a great read. It gave me some excellent insights to his thinking and this type of information is historically significant both for his specific work and for what artists are and were thinking at a given time.
So, my intention is to write some type of statement about each new work and then revisit that statement in the future. I encourage you to do something along these lines. I know you will be surprised at what surfaces and what you learn about yourself and your work.
Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7 and I always love to hear from you.
