June 2013 By Hand Gallery and Gallery Walk

Walk the Walk: Art Lives 

Paper Art Quilts: 2013  

By Hand Gallery

Exhibit dates May 23 - July 18, 2013

 101 WEST KIRKWOOD #109
FOUNTAIN SQUARE MALL - DOWNTOWN BLOOMINGTON

In honor of the 10^th Anniversary of the Bloomington Downtown Gallery Walk, we can celebrate the indomitable spirit of the Arts in our community. From the small seed of an idea, shared and nurtured by a committee of persistent individuals, The Downtown Gallery Walk was born and has evolved into the community institution that it is today. As part of the June 2013 Gallery Walk we celebrate those artists who create and present their work and those patrons who, on first Fridays, “walk the Gallery Walk” and partake in the rich diversity of the visual arts in our downtown gallery spaces, proving that “Art Lives” in Bloomington.

Mary Hambly, a founding member of that committee of persistent individuals in January 2003, is honored to present a selection of “Paper Art Quilts: 2013” at the By Hand Gallery as a contribution to this celebration.

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Hope to see you on June 7th at the Gallery Walk Reception 5 - 8 pm

The Paper Art Quilt is a joining of contemporary art and traditional craft, a blending of individual elements in such a way that the joining allows for a richer and more meaningful whole. In the creative process stenciled, marbled, printed, and over dyed papers are cut, pieced, and then stitched using a zig zag sewing machine. The resulting “quilt blocks” are then laid out in a composition, sometimes born out of the repeating pattern concept of traditional quilting, sometimes not. The “quilt” is then completed with a border, also of paper, and the result is a one of a kind image. 

The rich and exotic papers which form the foundation of each Paper Art Quilt provide the opportunity to forge complex and unique combinations of design elements: dark & light, pattern & variation, harmony & discord, hard & soft, cool & warm, symmetry & asymmetry, flat & dimensional. Each element of color, texture and pattern retains its unique individual character yet is enlivened by the union of the whole. The result is a modern art form grounded in a rich textile tradition of process and design.