Upcoming Show : Selections by Naomi Beckwith at Pro Arts Gallery

This is coming up fast so for those of you in the Bay Area, I hope you can squeeze it into your already crazy holiday calendar! My Riverside Foreclosure Quilt was chosen to be in Selections by Naomi Beckwith at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, CA.

It is such an honor to have my work chosen by Ms. Beckwith, Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. As soon as I know the other artists chosen, I'll update this post with links to their websites.

Riverside Foreclosure Quilt, 2012. 34" x 46"

The exhibition opens this Friday, December 7th with an Artists' Reception from 6-8 pm.  I will be there! The exhibit runs through January 11th. There will be an Artists' Talk on Friday, January 4th at 6:30 which I plan on attending as well. For more information on Pro Arts Gallery and the exhibit, see their website. They should be updating it with more info in the next few days so stay tuned. I hope to see some of you at the opening this Friday!

Foreclosure Quilt : Riverside, CA

I finished another foreclosure quilt last month and am finally sharing it with you! I have to say things have been quite busy for me the past month but it's all been good. I have numerous projects under way in the studio that I'll share soon enough. But I've also been busy in the garden. I'm trying to grow most of our own food this year, which ties into my concerns about global farming and the land grab. But back to the foreclosures ... Riverside, CA.

Riverside Foreclosure Quilt, 2012. 34" x 46"
Tea stained voile, cotton, linen, yarn and embroidery thread.

Southern California has been hit as hard as other areas in the US. As many of you know, SoCal is a very large swath of housing that just seems to go on and on. Zooming in on a particular area was quite a challenge.

Riverside Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2012. 34" x 46"
Tea stained voile, cotton, linen, yarn and embroidery thread.

I chose Riverside because it seemed there was no neighborhood in the city that was immune to foreclosures. I wish I could wander around the city to appreciate it more. One thing that was apparent is a lot of these homes that were foreclosed on in the past couple of years have been fixed up and flipped. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad? On the one hand, it's great that they are being spruced up and helping improve the neighborhood. But, who is behind the fixing up and flipping? A reputable company or someone out to make some quick money?

Riverside Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2012. 34" x 46"
Tea stained voile, cotton, linen, yarn and embroidery thread.

I heard an story today on NPR about companies that are buying up the foreclosures, fixing them up and renting them out. It works if it's a small business who is managing a few properties. But are companies biting off more than they can chew? It sounds like even renters need to do their due diligence before the sign a contract these days. Here we go ... into the next phase of the messy 'clean up'. Who knows where this will lead?

Work It: Artists Address Labor and Unemployment at Rochester Contemporary

Four of my Foreclosure Quilts will be part of a group exhibition entitled Work It: Artists Address Labor and Unemployment. The show opens tonight at Rochester Contemporary in Rochester, NY. The reception is tonight from 6-10pm. The other participating artists are Clarke Conde, Morgan Craig and Jonathan Stewart. From what I've seen of their work, it will be an excellent show.

There will be an artist's talk on April 8th at 1 PM and on April 21st at 1 PM there will be a poetry reading entitled The Rise and Fall of the Middle Class. The reading will be with BOA author Christopher Kennedy as part of CITY Newspaper's Culture Crawl 2012. 

Albuquerque Foreclosure Quilt, 2011. 35" x 47"

The exhibition runs through May 13th. See here for more info. I wish I could make it to the show, but if you stop by, let me know what you think! Thanks for your support!

Article in The Atlantic Cities : How Quilting Can Explain the Foreclosure Crisis

An interview about my foreclosure quilts came out this week in The Atlantic Cities. Let's just say I was quite surprised and amazed when Sarah DeWeerdt contacted me last week. I was already familiar with Sarah's writing so it was quite a treat to talk to her in person.

It was one of the first interviews that really delved into the planning and economic issues that I address in my work. She asked some wonderful questions. Head over to The Atlantic to read the article.

Modesto Foreclosure Quilt, 2011.

Within an hour, one of my former coworkers at Calthorpe Associates had just happened to open the site at work and was shocked to see a picture of me there. I thought my days in the planning world were far gone but I guess I just can't stay away!

Phoenix Foreclosure Quilt

Finally!! I can share with you the Phoenix Foreclosure quilt that I finished last month. First, the sunny weather got in the way of photographing it and then, surprise, I lost a crucial part of my tripod, grrr. I put it down somewhere in my studio telling myself I would find it easily here ... well, obviously my brain wasn't capable of remembering.

Phoenix Foreclosure Quilt, 2012. 22" x 52"
Shot cotton, cheesecloth, linen, yarn and embroidery thread.

So, this morning I rigged up a ladder and pinned the piece on the exterior of my new studio wall. It's not perfect but at least you get the gist. There are foreclosures all over Phoenix. It was hard to narrow down an area, I could do many pieces here. For now, I zoomed in on what looked to be a thriving neighborhood with a well-functioning K-8 school (the blue rectangle on the right). What must it be like for these kids to walk through this neighborhood?

Phoenix Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2012. 22" x 52"
Shot cotton, cheesecloth, linen, yarn and embroidery thread.

I chose shot cotton for this piece. Red seemed appropriate for Phoenix as well as the dire aspect of the crisis these days. I also used the cheesecloth again as an interior fabric, similar to Detroit. The cheesecloth continues to deteriorate each time I handle the piece, which is part of the point.

Phoenix Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2012. 22" x 52"
Shot cotton, cheesecloth, linen, yarn and embroidery thread.

I am almost finished with the Riverside quilt of which you had a peek here last week, just another week or two. It's shaping up to be one of my favorites.

Featured : Poppytalk and New American Paintings

I had the wonderful honor of being interviewed for two great websites last week, Poppytalk Handmade and the New American Paintings blog.

Lisa Solomon paid a visit to my studio last week and took some great photos of my space for the Poppytalk : In the studio feature, including a few wide angle shots which I've always wanted but didn't have the right lens. Thanks, Lisa!

Studio in February 2012. Image courtesy of Lisa Solomon

She asked some great questions as you'll see in the interview. I visited her studio a few months ago so we had some great conversations about our workspaces. We also have plans for trading some artwork, I'm so excited about that! Head over to the Poppytalk site for more images of the studio and a few more of my home.

Just before Lisa came over, New American Paintings blog contributor Ellen Caldwell interviewed me for their site.

Although we couldn't arrange a studio visit, we were able to have a great interview through email. Ellen's questions are wonderful and thought-provoking. Definitely spend some time looking back through her past interviews, great reads.

Work wall in January.

Besides all of this, I have been hard at work in my studio. I haven't been able to take any final images of my new finished piece, Phoenix for several reasons. Along with the sunny days, which make it impossible to photograph textiles, I lost a crucial part of my tripod! I put it down the other day and can't remember where! But, here is a glimpse of the finished Phoenix as well as the work in progress image of Riverside. Thanks to Lisa, you have some images!

Phoenix on the right, Riverside in progress in the center,
a Fog Linen Work runner in progress on the right. Image courtesy of Lisa Solomon

I'll keep you posted with some new images soon! In the meantime, enjoy the interviews!

Uppercase Journal and a view of my work table

I mentioned last month that the latest issue of Uppercase Journal would include my work. I'd been hearing everyone ooh and aah over their copies in the last week. I swear I had subscribed but perhaps I was dreaming. Finally, impatient enough, I walked around in downtown San Francisco one morning searching for a place that carried them. I gave up, went home and realized later that Anthropologie had them the whole time. How did I get my copy? My friend Myrna heard my angst and gave it to me as a present last Friday when I went to her studio. So sweet of her! My friend Claire Brewster's work is also featured. Be sure to grab a copy, now at Anthropologie!

I realized it's due time for another work table posting. It's been so busy around here that when I could finally photograph my latest finished quilt, Phoenix, I missed my chance. Frankly I can't complain, it's been sunny and summery here in San Francisco. I need a dry, cloudy day to photograph outside. It will happen soon! In the meantime, here's my work table (with a tiny sneak peek of Phoenix in red on the wall).

I became downright angry Thursday night. Angry because, still, little is being done about foreclosures. Yes, Obama did unveil his new mortgage task force last week but really, what he did before did little to stem the crisis. I actually pulled out my marremekko fabrics with the thought of making a 'scream in your face' quilt full of bright colors next to deep, dark blacks. It ended up looking a little scary and realized I needed to calm down. What I needed to make was a real scrap quilt.  To go back to those original depression era quilts that inspired me. I yanked out all of my depressing blue and grey remnants and started to make one.

This will be the inner sandwich piece of the next quilt. Which I'm thinking will be Riverside, California. I discovered just one of many blocks where pretty much all of the 64 lots had been foreclosed on in the past three years. It's downright depressing.

A lot of this inner sandwich will be exposed on this quilt. I'm randomly placing the pieces together and I'm still not sure what the top layer will be. It will likely become obvious once this panel is finished. I plan to spend my weekend gardening, thinking positive thoughts!

Foreclosure Quilt : Albuquerque, New Mexico

II hope everyone is having a nice holiday break this week! One of the things I think we are losing is the ability to relax and take a few days off every now and then. I managed to squeeze in one more foreclosure quilt before taking this week off and wrapping up a phenomenal year. There has been a sudden jump in foreclosures in the Southwest so my next few pieces will be focused on this region. This piece is of a newer neighborhood in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Albuquerque Foreclosure Quilt, 2011. 35" x 47"

This is one of my larger pieces at 35" x 47". I chose to zoom out of the neighborhood a bit  so you could see the large scale of foreclosures. You can find neighborhoods that look like this in pretty much any town in the United States these days. Clearly something is wrong but not much is being done about it.

Albuquerque Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2011. 35" x 47"

Most of the newer developments of Alburquerque are comprised of large scale arterial roads set up in a grid with smaller neighborhood streets curving around within them. Not the most pedestrian friendly way to live with those busy roads everywhere. The blue areas are either civic (schools, libraries, etc.) or unbuilt right of way (culverts, creeks, etc).

Albuquerque Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2011. 35" x 47"

All of the materials I used on this piece were scraps I had lying around in the studio. My next piece, Phoenix, is well under way and should be finished early next month. You might have seen a sneak peek in a recent post. I feel a sudden burst to make more quilts after reading all the news lately around the mortgage crisis.

Thank you Lari for pointing out this recent 60 Minutes segment on Cleveland, Ohio. One of my recent pieces was on Cleveland. Jim Rokakis has spearheaded so many projects there, he's an unsung hero in my book.

work table : Albuquerque and Phoenix

I don't know about you but when December hits, I go full swing in the studio. Something about nearing the year's end sets me off in a panic and I try to finish as many projects as I can before the holiday break. This is also a time of year, like most people, I reflect on what I've done over the past year.

work wall with Phoenix (left) and Albuquerque (right) in progress.

Having had a few sales of my foreclosure quilts (yeah!) means I don't have as many to pieces to enter into shows and galleries and that sets me off in a panic. What is really important to me about these quilts is to create as many as are needed and get them out into the public. This month and next, the foreclosure quilts will be featured in two magazines, Uppercase and New American Paintings. This means I need to have some new work to share with a broader audience.

Albuquerque in progress (detail).

Foreclosures are picking up in the Southwest again so I've spent this December studying New Mexico and Arizona. What I've found is shocking and doesn't take more than a few clicks on the internet to see just how severe foreclosures are there. The foreclosures are incredibly widespread in these cities. No neighborhood has been left unaffected but there are certainly focused pockets of devastation.

Phoenix in progress (detail).

I've discovered more data is being openly published about home sales throughout the US which brings to light even more foreclosures than are obvious on the maps from RealtyTrac.

Phoenix fabric study.

For example, what seems like an honest sale on the map, is really just a flip from one bank to another. Hmmm, is someone making money off of this? Of course! It's still happening and there is no regulation in sight to put a stop to it. To read the latest on the mortgage crisis, head over to my foreclosure series page and find links to the latest articles. Gretchen Morgenson has some new insights that are certainly worth reading.

work table : Albuquerque Foreclosure Quilt

Albuquerque was calling me. I kept seeing the name pop up in recent foreclosure articles. Foreclosures are up 151% there in the third quarter among other things. I came across this quick sketch I did last week. You know those sketches? When you make them you see so much more in the drawing than you see a week later?

You look back and wonder what you were thinking. This is often how I draw my initial ideas. I guess I'm a minimalist and anxious to just start making.

I like to piece things together the old fashioned way, with tape. I could do it on the computer but then I'd need a large format printer. I don't have the patience. And yes, that's my cat's tail sneaking in above.

Here was the initial idea, highlighting the large street grids you see as you fly over New Mexico and Arizona. I never understood why they laid the streets out like this. They're SO ugly and force everyone to get into a car to go anywhere. And then I realize I'm taking on way too much so I scale things back a bit, using just a portion of the overall area above.

Now it's coming together. The shaded areas are civic activities: schools, parks, right of ways. Seeing a high school sited in the middle of a foreclosed neighborhood makes me ponder what it must feel like to be a teenager these days. What do they have to look forward to? Not much it seems.

I start to dig around in my messy piles of remnants to look for fabric to use. Something dusty and drab is needed for this quilt. I find all my beiges and pile them into this bowl my mom started to make years ago. She never finished and it's nice to see the marks she made. I remember her as I work. I think she would have liked this one.

And I start piecing. Interesting, I just visualized the layout but hadn't counted up how many 12" x 12" panels there would be. What do you know? Twelve. My brain naturally likes order. I take a little break to finish off a side project.

I like to do a little traditional sewing on the side as it helps keep my sewing machine skills up to par. Now back to handsewing.

Eleven more panels to go and then I will add the other layers to the quilt. I'm really liking this one so far.

Foreclosure Quilt : Atlanta

There's nothing like a deadline to make one motivated! I finished the Atlanta Foreclosure quilt just in time to hang it at the SOMArts Gallery on Monday for San Francisco Open Studios. I left all of my red thread at home over the weekend, brilliant! So there was a lot of last minute sewing to be done once I returned.

Atlanta Foreclosure Quilt, 2011. 19 1/2" x 19 1/2"
Recycled denim, bleached linen, cheesecloth, yarn and embroidery thread.

This is my smallest piece as the size was limited by the gallery. All of the materials are remnants from my studio. The backing on this piece is my remaining hemp napkin from my Inhabit Project with Vanessa Filley. Quilting with denim and thick hemp is not easy. My fingers were certainly sore, especially after working quickly at the last minute!

Atlanta Foreclosure Quilt detail

The color variations are a pattern that relates to how many foreclosed lots are located within a block. The more foreclosures, the darker the color. Given that I was limited with reusing my materials, it almost works out perfectly. You can see process photos here.

Atlanta Foreclosure Quilt detail

You can see this piece in person at SOMArts Gallery at 934 Brannon Street in San Francisco from September 30th to October 29th. Regarding Open Studios, I will be showing at Clara Street Studios in San Francisco's SOMA district with my friend, artist Ruth Freeman on October 15th and 16th from 11 to 6 pm. I used to work with Ruth over a decade ago in the architecture world. The address is 185 Clara Street at 5th Street, Studio 102B. I will have three of my Foreclosure pieces on display as well as all of my Idiom Series from last year. I hope to see some of you there!

Foreclosure Quilt : Cleveland, OH

After a lengthy summer away from the studio, I jumped right back in and finished Cleveland over the holiday weekend. This is my largest piece yet at 60" high.

Cleveland Foreclosure Quilt, 2011. 25" x 60"
Voile, cotton, linen, denim and embroidery thread.

This was a challenging quilt to make for some reason. Perhaps it was the broad scale of the neighborhood that I chose to include or simply just a larger size than my others. And yes, there was a lot of cutting and sewing to be done here.

What is interesting about Cleveland's foreclosure development is they are ahead of other cities in dealing with this crisis. They say this is ground zero, it started here in 1997. What this provides us is a look of how other communities might evolve over time.

And there is a glimmer of hope here. At least 200 for-profit community gardens have popped up all over the city, planted on top of abandoned lots in neighborhoods struggling to rebuild.

The Forest Hill neighborhood has at least four of these gardens, some are quite large as seen above. Some are simply residential lots that have been turned into smaller gardens.

Having these has certainly created a sense of community for those residents who thought there was no hope for their neighborhoods. These are my interpretations of community gardens in embroidery and applique.

Does it look like a thriving garden to you? And can you tell I had fun making these? Learn more about Cleveland's gardens here and here. Data for the quilt was provided by Google Earth, NEO CANDO and Summer Sprout Community Garden program in Cleveland.

work table : inspiration

This is my first week back full-time in the studio since mid-June, gasp! I was able to squeeze in a solid week here and there but it clearly wasn't enough. There is no time to waste! I've had several deadlines pop up suddenly, all good, but a tad confusing. One of my deadlines included preparing some print ready images of my foreclosure series. Seeing them all lined up made me realize how much more work I have left in this series to make. Which is a sad feeling in one respect but a good feeling knowing there is a focus in my work right now. And where am I going with the next piece?

Hmmm, perhaps the Deep South. I'm looking into the cotton growing/denim making regions of the US. The South has certainly had it's share of foreclosures. I'm orginally from the South, so it's been an interesting journey to see what has happened to the states I once called home which include Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. What will this quilt will look like? Here are some of my inspirations right now, Japanese boro.

Image from Sri Threads.

Image from Sri Threads.

Image from Sri Threads.

Image from Sri Threads.

Image from Sri Threads.

Lots of great ideas lurking from the past, just calling out to be reinterpreted. I love being in this place in the process. Not sure what's next but excited to experiment.