"Demo in Austin 2019 3" --- Sold

Somehow I forgot to post this one. I am pretty sure that old clock is older than I am. Time is an interesting thing. We think it is linear. The future can never meet the past. Well, the clock tells us something different. Time goes in circles.

Form, Not Function 4 -- the Quilt National connection

When FNF was started, the show ran early in the year, but after a while the Carnegie Center decided to change the date.  Winter weather made faraway visitors think twice about driving, and the entry process was too close to the holidays.  So the show tried several different schedules -- February, March, April, July, May.  After visiting Quilt National several years ago, the museum director and curator thought it would be a good idea to overlap FNF's dates so people might be able to see both shows in a single road trip.

This year, there are many overlaps between the two shows, and not just in scheduling.

- Both shows opened on May 24. 

- Judy Kirpich, who was one of the QN jurors, won best in show at FNF.  (Judy also won a big prize at FNF in 2013.)



Judy Kirpich, Circles No. 6, FNF 2013

- Arturo Alonzo Sandoval's quilt Pattern Fusion No. 18: Motherboard 9, won a big prize at FNF.  Meanwhile, a quilt that looks like its twin brother, Pattern Fusion No. 16: Motherboard, won a big prize at QN.  (click here and scroll down a bit to see it)

- Margaret Black, whose quilt Curb Appeal 6 was a prizewinner at FNF, had the best in show quilt at the last QN two years ago, even though I wouldn't have known these two works came from the same artist had I simply seen them both on a wall.  (click here to see it)

I haven't had a chance to see Quilt National yet this year, although I hope to do so in July en route to a family reunion.  There may be other overlaps and cosmic coincidences yet to be discovered; if I find some, I'll let you know!

FNF is on display through July 20 at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, 201 E. Spring Street in New Albany IN, just across the river from Louisville.  Quilt National is on display through September 2 at the Dairy Barn in Athens OH.

"Demo in Austin 2019 4"

My Austin workshop seems eons ago. Many things have happened since then. We have put our house on the market more than a month now. So far nobody want to buy it. Very soon we will close another house. I remembered someone "advised" me when I decided to quit my job: "Qiang, please do not leave your job. Imagine you need to buy a house. If you are an engineer, you will get a loan easily. Well, if you say you are an artist, you probably will not get the loan you need." 9 years has passed. Unfortunately, this someone's advice has been proved TRUE.

This painting is available, please contact me if you are interested in.

Watercolor Portrait

Last week on Art With a Needle

After I wrote about the prizewinners at Form, Not Function, Vivien left a comment:  "Cool that you got to serve as a prize judge.  How did that compare to a time when you've been a juror?"

Good question, Vivien!  In the world of juried art/quilt shows, I've been all over the waterfront.  Several times I've been a juror, selecting which pieces get into the show, but not a judge, awarding prizes.  Once I've been a juror with others, and we all got together to see the quilts on the wall and agree on the prizes.  Once I've been a juror with others, but got to award the prizes all by myself.  Once I was the sole juror and also awarded the prizes.  Once I was the sole juror in a show with no prizes.  This year I got to award prizes in a show that I did not jury, and there may be one or two shows in there that I have forgotten.

The hardest part of jurying comes at the bottom end, the quilts that do or don't make the cut.  The top end is a no-brainer: the pieces that are really good and get chosen with hardly any discussion at all.  It's at the low end that the arguments and persuasion and horse-trading occur, either among your fellow jurors or with yourself if you're the only one.  It's hard to choose among three or a half-dozen pieces that are equally good, but you're limited to a certain number of quilts or a certain amount of wall space.

Sometimes the hard part of judging also comes at the bottom end, if the big winners are obvious but a half dozen seem equally almost-great, vying for three or four prizes.  Which one gets the money, which one gets the honorable mention?  But other times the hard part comes at the top end, when two or three are clearly the best of the bunch, but what order to rank them in?  As always, arguments and persuasion.

One important difference between jurying and judging is that jurying always happens from images, while judging often happens from the actual work on the wall.  I know some big shows, most notably Quilt National, select winners from images too, because they need the lead time to publish catalogs and summon winners to the opening, but I've always thought it's much better to be able to see the work in person.

So many times I've seen quilts on the wall after jurying them in, and been amazed at how they differ from my mental picture.  Perhaps one is much larger or much smaller than you thought (yes, you can read the dimensions, but the image up there on the screen has its own presence that is quite independent).  Perhaps one has sloppy craft or hangs wonky on the wall, qualities that weren't apparent from the great professional photo but greatly detract from its impression in the gallery.  Or the opposite, perhaps one didn't photograph well but is a knockout in person. 

On balance, I think it's harder to be a judge than a juror. Others may disagree.

Here's my favorite miniature of the week: