A Documentary About Women’s Work
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007No, it’s not about cooking or cleaning or having babies (although those are very important things). It is about what has always been traditionally thought of as belonging to women but only now is really being considered an art form: quiltmaking. Oh, I know there are some guys out there making quilts. I have even written about them here but this video explores the notion of is it art or is it a craft because it has been associated with women. Or, is it our special medium.
Women’s Work: Making Quilts - Creating Art, which I found a copy of at my local library, is made by one of the quilters from The Faultline Studio Artists group who took part in the film. The 10 women profiled in the film are all very different but share a passion inside them that keeps them busy expressing their art through fiber. Some come from a background of sewing while others were artists who were found by the fabric. Most of them dye their own fabrics but there is one who is a recycler who likes to take the abandoned fabrics not necessarily meant for traditional quilting and create unique pieces of quilted art.
Some of the women are very easy to be jealous of with their stacks of beautiful fabrics, large work spaces and long, uninterrupted art time. But, you will see also, women who have other full-time careers, exceptionally small spaces to work in and walls that just aren’t tall enough for design space. One woman I felt paralleled with had her daytime job, her family to take care of and then try to find that limited studio time in a busy week.
This is a superb look into the lives of quilt artists and how the ideas of what is quilt and what is art are being molded and changed. See if you can find a copy at the library like I did or go to the website to learn more and purchase a copy for yourself. One element of the DVD that I enjoyed was that when it was over I could go back and watch a slide show of all the artists’ works which was simply accompanied by soothing music. What a great way to end the day with a cup of tea especially when you are too tired to actually get any done yourself. Then, you can go to sleep and dream of beautiful quilts….I mean artworks.
Question of the Day: Do you craft or do you make art or do you do both?
