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Hope I'm not too late as I'm finally writing this on a very wobbly train on the way to Montreal from New York; realising the day will be different, OZ being ahead. I have been thinking continually, had it written and revised many times but now I am starting from scratch yet again.
I read with extreme interest the article in the latest OZQUILT newsletter on Judy Hooworth. I greatly admire what Judy is doing and liked the questioning approach Sarah took. Personally then, I felt the need to try to organise and make some sense of the divisions or classifications referred to in the article. As quiltmakers, particularly art quilters, we find ourselves continually and perhaps unfairly categorised. The first division, the most obvious, has to be the traditional quiltmaker versus the art quilter. Most of us can easily place ourselves within one or the other groupings quite cleanly - even if we may choose to jump the fence.
Secondly we have the hobby quilter who may crawl, or leap, across boundaries into the more creative category of individual expression. These quilters take steps to move away from the safety net they perhaps started with. Generally it's one way traffic.
Thirdly we have the vexing contest of the quiltmaker versus the artist. When does a quilt become art? Often this is a very subjective, blurred division and as time goes by quiltmakers are more regularly seen as "artists" proper. Just as the larger division between the art and craft has existed and blurred, so does quiltmaking as a craft sometimes make the leap into acceptance by the art world. We also see the experimenting artist forced into 'stepping down' into tutor/writer/educator mode to promote their work with a more conventional approach; a deeply worrying necessity for some, a pleasurable bonus with no complications for others.
Finally, we have the need for individual expression conflicting with commercial needs. Desire, or need, to earn a living and the choice of making a career out of doing what we love rather than earning our keep away from the quilt world is a dream of many. Are we lessening our art by making money from it? Just as quilt-making encompasses a myriad of techniques and styles, with many of us crossing over the categories, the way we perform as quiltmakers has a similar lack of boundaries. The diversity of our medium is equal to the diversity of quiltmakers working within it.
Categorising helps us to make sense of the world. It also tends to set up rigid systems for us to be judged within. I classify myself as an art quilter working with individual expression, an artist who chooses to work commercially making my living helping others 'move up' into the individual expression category (as I 'step down'?). Categories and how we categorise others cannot be stagnant.
In the future I expect this current profile to shift, as does the work I agree to accept and the mediums and methods I choose to employ. I do not expect to be criticised or regarded less highly because of the categories in which I exist. Perhaps by the simple process of untangling and listing some of these divisions we can perhaps more easily understand then encourage the blurring of them.
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