Art show features quilts, food
Students will satisfy cravings for food with a trip to the Eccles Harrison Art Museum this spring.
A new exhibit at the museum entitled “Women of Taste: A Collaboration Celebrating Quilt Artists and Chefs” emphasizes the abilities of women as artists and chefs.
In association with Girls Inc. and the Smithsonian Institution the display is on a two-year tour around the country.
Vicky Rowe, education curator at the museum, said the exhibit is a wonderful way to accent the abilities of women.
“Each artistic work is done to show the abilities and nature of a different woman chef,” she said.
The artist spent hours with each chef to learn about them and then illustrated the experience through their artwork in the quilt, Rowe said.
“Some quilts are based on actual recipes and each has its own special story to tell,” she said.
One of the more well-known female chefs involved in the exhibition is Julia Child. Her mastery of the culinary world is portrayed in a quilt by Yvonne Porcella.
An interesting quality of the exhibit is that each piece of art is done with cloth rather than paints or clay, Rowe said.
“Each is an individual work of art, but they just happen to be made of fabric,” she said.
The quilts feature intricate work with different fabrics, buttons and beads. Many are stitched with traditional patterns while others are more abstract.
Some of the quilts are completely done by hand and others are done using a sewing machine.
“Some people used to frown upon working with a machine but it is now regarded as another type of art because of the difficulty of handling the machine,” Rowe said.
The artists themselves come from a variety of different backgrounds and each portrays the respective chef in a different way, Rowe said.
According to Women of Taste, a book describing each quilt and its background, Mary Mashuta lives in Berkeley, Calif., and didn’t start quilting until after earning two degrees in economics and working as a teacher. Her entry, “Mixed Greens,” depicts the talents of Annie Somerville, a chef in Marin County, Calif.
“Like in painting, each artist understands the aspects and values of light and use that knowledge to control where the eye goes on the quilt,” Rowe said.
She said each artist is trying to depict the feeling of the chef and the restaurant. Lindsay Hall, a student majoring in sculpture, works at the museum during the day to set up the exhibits and provide tours. She said she likes this exhibit because of its diversity.
“It is very different from what we have done here before,” she said. “It isn’t traditional, but it is very interesting because it incorporates something traditional, like quilts, with art.”
Hall said it is amazing some of them just look like art or a painting from far away but when seen up close look like a quilt.
It may take up to six months of intense work to finish one quilt, Rowe said.
“The time it takes, though, is relative. The piece itself may take awhile, but the emotion and experience behind the work has taken a lifetime for the artist to achieve,” she said.
The display will be available to the public March 2 through May 11 and is free of charge.