I have had photos of my quilts in magazines before, but I always had to send my own photographs for those. This was the first time someone came to me to photograph my work. In fact, they sent two people. Azuree Wiitala was the photographer, and she spent most of the time running around my house and yard taking photos. Trevor Holloway took my quilts, one at a time, and very respectfully and gently styled them for the photos. He also did a great job of light-shifting, which mean that he held up big reflectors to help move the light to a better position during some of the photographs. I ran back and forth from being the subject of the photo to consulting with the quilts and assisting Trevor. It was kind of mind boggling, the number of photos and the number of quilts, just to get a handful of really great ones that made it into the magazine. And it was fun!
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| Azuree Witala, I managed to snap a photo of her in my studio while she was photographing me. |
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Trevor Holloway, holding up my quilt, One Earth, on my deck and hiding behind it so that he won't be in the photo.
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Me in front of my newly completed quilt top, Rainbow Gardens.
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Here are a few more of my favorite out-takes. The first three are the required "have the quilter pointing at something" shots. Although the pointing thing may be interesting, to me it is significant and special because the artists hands are what make the quilts. Love these shots!
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My absolutely favorite part of making these batik panels (aside from the colors) were the painting of the hot wax to make the white dots. From my quilt, Butterflies.
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| Again, this dotted fabric was made in my batik studio. I drew every white dot with hot wax. Very contemplative experience, and I like the way it looks, and I 'needed' it for this part of the quilt, Caterpillars. |
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| A random stack of my journal quilts, which helped me in my journey to become an art quilter. |
There is a picture of my cat, Pumpkin Pi, in the last few pages of this issue, but I like this one better. The little photo bomber is standing on his cat shelf, next to the little cat quilt,
Innocence.
The antique desk just under the little quilt was a gift from my neighbor, Lucy Milliron. She was also an artist and made the most exquisite watercolors of the natural world. When she died, it broke my heart. We were very close friends and she had become a part of our family. She was 88 and her husband had died a full 10 years before her. They used to travel a lot and I used to keep a watchful eye on their house while they are gone. I am still doing that even though they don't live there anymore.
There is another part of Lucy that stays in my studio, also captured by Azuree. This photo is significant to me because it captures so much in one small photo:
When Lucy died, I kept her paint brushes. They are sitting in yellow wooden blocks that her husband Walter made for her by drilling in holes of different sizes for her brushes. Such a sweet gesture, one of love and support. And, though you can't quite see, there is a framed photo sitting between the rows of them on one of their fishing trips to Rockport, TX. I think of them both every time I grab a brush.
In the very front is a framed postcard made by my good friend Frances Holiday Alford. She invited me to join the Art Quilt Bee. Our bee members used to meet at her house (until she moved to Vermont) and make group quilts together. So many fond memories of our times together! And, it was a nice surprise to see her quilt in the same issue. She has a quilt in the section on the Texas Quilt Museum.
The paper figure of a girl was an exercise from a class I took called Lifebook. I learned a lot about mixed media in that class and have gone on to continue making mixed media pieces to play with design. After I get a thick stack of pages, I bind them together into books. Now, I also love making books!
I also like this staged photo of me using a tjanting tool. It is a batik tool that allows me to put fine lines of liquid wax on a piece. It is very different than stamping designs with a tool. It is much harder to control and requires a lot of patience. It is more fickle to things like temperature control and composition of the wax. In the picture below, I would never use this tool on the piece that is front of me (that one is made
by stamping with an object, in this case, a piece of cardboard packing material from something that was shipped to me). I am holding a folded paper towel to catch the drips. It is THICK with many many drops of wax.
This tool was used to make the next two quilts.
This next set I like because the light, color and angles were so very good!
And, last is a photo of my quilt, Bloom. It was hanging on the zip line outside when the sun peeked through. All afternoon we had been chasing the light. A great photograph is made with a good photographer, a good subject, and perfect lighting. That afternoon we were fighting intense glaring sunlight. It finally paid off for this one because it backlit the quilt. And, we can see the other side which is my quilt, Seeds! Perfection!!
That's about it for the photoshoot. You can see more photos on my Instagram and Facebook accounts. I will say that working with Quiltfolk was a dream. They were so incredibly professional and the process of putting together a story was seamless. I really like that they did copy checks/fact checking with me about both the stories and the photos. I have had that go wrong on many occasions with other publishers who skipped this essential step. I also like that I was included in the social media promotion. And, I liked that they sent me a free copy of the magazine. This used to be an industry standard. However, the world is changing, and this kindness and respect is rarely offered to artists. My hat is off to you Quiltfolk! Respect and appreciation!
You can get a discount in April, May, and June if you use the code below! Cheers!
This tool was used to make the next two quilts.