Donnell's quilts are distinguished by a bold, painterly, abstract expressionist approach to the use of color, line and pattern.

In Donnell's approach to her art she freely combines large scale printed fabrics cut in unusual shapes to create original, improvisational works

Quilt art, sometimes known as art quilting, is an art form that uses traditional quilting techniques to create art objects. ractitioners of quilt art create it based on their experiences, imagery, and ideas rather than traditional patterns.!"# $uilt art generally has more in common with the fine arts than it does with traditional quilting. %his art is generally either wall hung or mounted as sculpture, though exceptions exist &ecause of feminism and the new craft movements of the "'()'s and "'*)'s, quilting techniques, traditionally used by women, became prominent in the making of fine arts. %he transition from tradition quilting through art quilts to quilted art was rapid+ many of the most important advances in the field came in the "'*)'s and "',)'s.

-adka Donnell was born .ovember /0, "'/, in 1ofia, &ulgaria. 1he obtained a &achelor of 2rts degree at 1tanford 3niversity, a 4aster of 5ine 2rts at the 3niversity of 6olorado7&oulder and a 6ertificate of 2rt from the 4etropolitan 6ollege in &oston. In addition to her career as a painter, quilt maker and translator, -adka authored the book 8$uilts as 9omen's 2rt: 2 $uilt oetics,; a manifesto as bold and rule7breaking as the quilts she creates. <mphasi=ing the liberation and freedom of expression quilting gives her, -adka uses quilts to reach out to other women and enable dialogue about the body, emotions, and human contact. -adka's recent exhibition at the 3niversity of .ebraska included over two decades of her artwork and documented her commitment to women's issues.

>-adka Donnell's quilts break many of the rules that have governed how quilts were designed and made for much of the last two hundred years and longer. %hey pay little heed to grids or to symmetry. %heir colors are riotously and impulsively juxtaposed. %hey eschew fine stitching in favor of the functional and the no7nonsense. %hey avoid the familiar small7scale, genteel prints normally associated with quilts in favor of large7scale, graphically assertive patterns. %he bold surfaces of these fabrics compete with and against one another, in frenetic dances of exaggerated visual energy.> ?4ichael @amesA In her own words.. "More than 30 years ago, in Lawrence, Kansas, making quilts became an issue of liberation for me. Thinking and talking about quilts, learning about their s ecial nature as e!eryday ob"ects in our li!es and as women#s art, ha!e e!er since, been a conte$t for my search for the neglected art of myself and for a better human climate altogether. %n my work in cloth, % not only work out my longing for a more erfect contact and union with other ersons, but also stri!e to e$ ress uni!ersal human fears of o ression and death. Making quilts has become for me a struggle to secure a social s ace which is in!iolable, fecund and hos itable to a sense of self and of the human community nourished by the s irit of the &oddess, a new consciousness rotecti!e of what is left of nature on this lanet. %n the iecing, handling, and e$hibiting of my quilts, % ran u against all rohibitions % had recei!ed as a woman' not to reach out, not to touch, not to get attention, not to demonstrate lo!e, not to attem t to effect changes in society at large. To o!ercome these rohibitions, % had to budget my energies and time, and % decided to only iece the quilt to s by hand and by machine and to ha!e them machine(quilted. Thus, the credit for my roducing almost )00 quilts % share with *laire Mieke, who has machine(quilted my ieces since +,)-. .ided by odd "obs and my work as a

translator and day care substitute teacher, % ursue the making of quilts as a ersonal !ision and as a "oining of hands with other women making their cultural contribution in any walk of life and resisting o ression. To dramati/e the need for co(e$istence and difference among different indi!iduals and cultures, % bring together te$tiles of di!erse origins so as to make a !ital statement, cogni/ant of our s iritual, dee ly social se$ual nature. 0ithin the field marked by the quilts# borders and against the background of their traditional geometric block structure, % ha!e stri!en for my liberation as a erson by creating freer e$ ressi!e structures than % could ha!e in any other material. The format of quilts, si/ed by its reference to the body, allows me to bring in my emotions and body feelings also life(si/e, to create from the body outward and focused toward the body through the work of touch necessary to the iecing. The intimate connection between my emotions, the materials % use, how % touch these, and how the final roduct is used, namely, to warm and celebrate others1 all this hel s me to gi!e my best." -adka Donnell has remained active both as an artist and a teacher. 1he has produced nearly five hundred quilts over the past thirty years, authored a book, and taught a course on the history, theory and techniques of quilting. 1he writes, >I stepped out of the 'art scene' when I began doing my quilts. I have stayed with quiltmaking because it helped me to find wholeness and be open to enjoy, advise, and validate the creativity of other women. I believe we are all equally creative, and my happiest moment regarding art was when one of my students said about my course, 'It helped me reali=e that I am more creative than I thought before.' %his is my !current# objective, and if it does not make me an 'artist,' that's BC with me.>

Radka Donnell: The Work of Touch 2osted on 3003(03(04 02/07/2003 -- 03/07/2003 5adka 6onnell7s quilts break many of the rules that ha!e go!erned how quilts were designed and made for much of the last two hundred years and longer. They ay little heed to grids or to symmetry. Their colors are riotously and im ulsi!ely "u$ta osed. They eschew fine stitching in fa!or of the functional and the no(nonsense. They a!oid the familiar small(scale, genteel rints normally associated with quilts in fa!or of large(scale, gra hically asserti!e atterns. The bold surfaces of these fabrics com ete with and against one another, in frenetic dances of e$aggerated !isual energy. %n this res ect they challenge many of the com ositional rules of formalist art in general. %t is this daring to risk a earing !isually eccentric or uncontrolled or anarchic that makes 5adka 6onnell7s quilts so com elling and unforgettable. . art from their singular and idiosyncratic surface treatments the artist sees in her quilts testaments of identity, connection and healing. They become embodiments of the struggle, across time and generations, across gender, across race and ethnicity, to ma out a athway for the self that is com assionate, lo!ing, inclusi!e and dee ly human. The scale of most of these works reinforces that intent' almost all comfortably accommodate a full reclining adult form, and this embrace of cloth and the body affirms the artist7s humanist ers ecti!e. 8The body is mortal, it is the site of danger9: she writes in ;uilts as 0omen7s .rt. 89it is not one7s own creation but the work, at the start, of two authors.: The hysicality of the body, and of its origins in the most hysical of acts, is ne!er far from 6onnell7s conce tion of what a quilt is. <or the most art the traditional quilt acknowledges the rimacy of mathematical order and the logic of interrelated squares, rectangles and triangles. %t7s not by accident that quilts are so often e!oked when !isual meta hors for the artitioning of the land, es ecially the rural landsca e, are needed. ;uilts may be women7s art, but their structural organi/ation almost always conforms to a ur!iew ascribed to the male sensibility' square corners, straight furrows, neat and recise rows and e!er(continuing multi les.

The !iew from abo!e onto the endless mid(.merican landsca e, stretching neatly and orderly to the hori/on. The designs of 5adka 6onnell7s atchwork surfaces rarely conform to any mathematical limitations or formulas. 5ather, their buoyant and e$uberant energies flow out of a calculated disregard of the redictable and the containable. They may be ma s, but the territories they describe and record are not those of the !isible world. %nstead, they bear witness to the inner sychic world of se aration, loss, an$iety, difference and e!entual redem tion that qualifies each human life. <inally, 5adka 6onnell7s works are about touch, and the tactile quality and a eal of the quilt has rarely been so al able as it is in these constructions. 8;uilts are touchable,: she writes, 8they are made by touch. They refer doubly to the body, itself touchable and touching, to the erson as a body and the body of a erson9The eminently hos itable, comforting, and en!elo ing nature of cloth and quilts = their ur ose and their substance = make the quilt a solacing ob"ect. ;uilts recall and embody the first and greatest solacing agent in our li!es' our mothers.: This connection to the maternal is the fundamental, e!en elemental, link that connects e!ery quilt e!er made, and 5adka 6onnell7s quilts beautifully e itomi/e that association. They bridge the di!ides that ha!e isolated high art from low, fine art from craft, women7s work from male industry, and in their mediating ca acity they create a !isual e$ ression of affirmation, strength, and reconciliation. Michael >ames, *urator ?3003

>uly +3 5adka 6onnell7s quilts are not necessarily something that will e$cite the traditional quilter, sim ly because she breaks all the rules. @nlike the traditional atterns handed down from the .mish and Mennonites, these are not designed with re eating geometric sha es. Aer quilts may seem disorgani/ed at first, but the com ositions are carefully balanced, not with symmetry but with intuiti!ely laced color and form in an uncontrolled fashion.

This method connects to human emotion. Trained as a ainter and an art thera ist, 6onnell has said, 8Laying out and iecing quilts ga!e me a sense of wholeness and certainty that % lacked as a ainter.: %f she had continued ursuing ainting, she may ha!e been an abstract e$ ressionist. 6onnell came to the @nited Btates from Culgaria in +,-+ and later recei!ed her M.<... from the @ni!ersity of *olorado. Bhe was one of the first quilt artists to take a feminist stance. 8;uilt making olitici/ed me,: she has said. To 6onnell, quilts symboli/e warmth, the human touch and the rimal bond between mother and child. 8Cy its original closeness to a erson7s body, the quilt can become an icon of ersonal feeling and ho e,: she wrote in +,44. 8This is its nature, in!oking no absolutes, but o en as to a human embrace.: 0hat is closer to a human than the feel of clothD

Radka Donnell is one of the most im ortant and influential quiltmakers of the ast forty years. . ioneer of modern quiltmaking, 6onnell began making quilts in +,)- and has not slowed the ace of her in!ention and creati!ity since. Bhe was one of the first academically trained artists to ado t the quilt as her medium, and she has ioneered in e$ loring what quilts can mean and look like, challenging both traditional quiltmakers and the fine arts establishment with her !isually owerful and emotionally e$ ressi!e work. .n early feminist who says she was radicali/ed by quiltmaking, she is the author of the eloquent book Quilts as Women's Art: A Quilt Poetics and was featured in the classic +,4- film Quilts in Women's Lives by 2at <errero.

5adka 6onnell was born in Culgaria in +,3E and came to the @ntied Btates in +,-+. Bhe studied ainting at Btanford and earned her M.<... at the @ni!ersity of *olorado. Bhe began making quilts full(time in +,)- and says, 8Laying out and iecing quilts ga!e me a sense of wholeness and certainty that % had lacked as a ainter.: Bhe has created more than 400 quilts o!er the ast forty(three years, all of which she ieced together by hand or machine. Bhe has ne!er quilted her own work, which has instead been machine quilted by Missouri sewers *laire Mielke, Linda Crady, 5uth .le$ and .nn *arter, and the machine(quilted surfaces of her quilts were as radical and shocking to many early !iewers as were her abstract, ainterly designs. .lthough she always intended her quilts to be functional, 6onnell7s designs broke with tradition in many ways, and they remain unique today. Bhe has always worked quickly and intuiti!ely. Bhe uses whate!er fabric she has at hand, often cutting u clothing as well as ieces of cloth she has gathered or that others ha!e sent to her. .t first glance, her quilts can seem casual or e!en disorgani/ed, but they are actually carefully balanced com ositions, wholes that are decidedly more than the sum of their arts. Bhe has ne!er organi/ed her abstract designs around the re eating geometry and grid structures of traditional iecework. %nstead, she freely "u$ta oses sha es and colors she finds e$ ressi!e. The ieces she cuts are often quite large, and she fearlessly combines bold rints and !i!id solid colored fabrics in ways that would horrify a traditional quiltmaker. Aer quilts are in one sense fabric aintings, mosaics of irregularly sha ed and si/ed ieces intended to e!oke and elicit feelings and states of mind. 0hile 6onnell7s designs are decidedly modern, the meanings she finds in quiltmaking are dee ly traditional. Bhe has said that quilts are 8good ob"ects: which symboli/e and embody human touch, warmth, comfort, and the rimal bond between mother and child. Bhe says quilts 8are, and also stand symbolically for... the leasures of closeness with a desired ob"ect. They ro!ide a full and lasting though silent embrace.: Like all traditional bedco!ers, 6onnell7s quilts are intended to heal and connect eo le. .s Michael >ames, a longtime admirer of 6onnell7s work has written, 8FAer quiltsG bridge the di!ides that ha!e isolated high art from low, fine art from craft, women7s work from male industry, and, in their mediating ca acity, they create a !isual e$ ression of affirmation, strength, and reconciliation.: %n the early +,40s, 6onnell li!ed in *ambridge, Massachusetts, and her decidedly non(traditional quilts strongly affected many younger artists in the region, including Byl!ia Hinstein, Michael >ames, 5hoda *ohen, Iancy Aal ern, and her rotJgJs, Molly @ ton and Busan Aoffman. Bhe was also instrumental in securing and organi/ing shows of her own and other contem orary quilts, and in seeking res ect, recognition and reward for quilt artists on equal footing with those working in recogni/ed media. Bhe recalls, 8F0henG % first saw quilts in a museum, FtheyG were in back of the e$hibition rooms in the hall leading to the Ladies 5oom. 0hat % had dimly ercei!ed until then % reali/ed clearly and resol!ed to change' namely, the arts or crafts made by women were FalwaysG gi!en the rear entrance, and it was time to get them to enter through the grand, front entrance.: Aer +,4- e$hibition Kwith Busan Aoffman and Molly @ tonL at Aar!ard @ni!ersity7s *ar enter *enter for the .rts marked the first time quilts had been shown in such a restigious art gallery setting. Trained as an art thera ist as well as a ainter, 6onnell became a cham ion of quiltmaking as a women7s healing art. Bhe was the first quilt artist to take a feminist stance and s eak of quilts as

a Liberation issue. 8;uiltmaking olitici/ed me,: she notes. %n her lectures and writings, she eloquently articulated the e$ ressi!e ossibilities of the quilt and made a owerful case for the quilt as 8an associati!e field of the body,: a direct link to the most rimal human needs and acts. 8Cy its original closeness to a erson7s body, the quilt can become an icon of ersonal feeling and ho e,: she wrote in +,44. 8This is its nature, in!oking no absolutes, but o en as to a human embrace.: