The Art Quilt – A Regional Collection at the Center for the Arts

Creating a work of art often begins with a question. The artist might ask: What idea is important for me to communicate? What concept do I want to explore? What emotions do I want to experience and evoke in the viewer? Marco Center for the Arts “The Artists Question Answered in Fiber” Exhibition, which opens May 8th, answers those questions.

Here works are submitted by member artists in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Florida with the Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. (SAQA).

Juror Zak Foster, a quilt artist from New York City, selected 29 works from 74 entries by 52 artists. In his statement, Foster explained, “The pieces selected for this exhibit are honest and heartfelt questions artists are exploring in order to make sense of this life: how do we deal with the world changing so quickly around us? From California wildfires to the loss of a loved one, our life can change in a moment, often leaving more questions than answers.” He chose work “based on a few criteria: how well they reflected the brief, the nature of the question being investigated, and the manner in which artists explored fabric, color, line, form, and pattern in search of an answer.”

The quilts in this exhibit reflect the varied traditions and artmaking methods characteristic of contemporary art quilters. Included are original surface designs on fabric, hand stitching, machine stitching, hand embellishments, applique, and digital printing. Some works are representational and some are abstract.

Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt: “a creative visual work that is layered and stitched or that references this form of stitched layered structure.” The vision of SAQA is that the art quilt is universally respected as a fine art medium.

The Exhibit runs May 8th through July 3rd, with receptions on May 9th and June 13th.

La Petite Galerie presents Marco’s Lisett Lloren’s collection as part of the Center’s ¡ARTE VIVA! Exhibit from May 8th through May 30th. Lisett was raised in La Paz, Bolivia, but spent most of her life traveling around the world as the spouse of her U.S. diplomat husband. Lisett’s life has taken her on a fascinating 35-year odyssey that has included living in ten countries spanning five of the world’s continents. Her diplomatic life has allowed her to meet an incredibly rich and fascinating array of people. The diplomatic life has also allowed her to live in some of the world’s greatest and most fascinating cities, including Washington DC, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Vancouver, and Sydney. She also lived in Paraguay, Honduras, El Salvador, and her last post, Kabul, Afghanistan.  

Her life has been enriched by the splendors of the natural world. She has hiked the majestic Andean peaks and lush emerald rain forests of her native Bolivia, witnessed the midnight sun on the Arctic Circle in the Yukon Territory, swam in black volcanic-sand beaches in El Salvador, lost herself in the poetry of fly-fishing pristine rivers on the farthest reaches of Patagonia, and cherished the stark, harsh beauty and power of the Australian Outback. All of these man-made and natural places and experiences have greatly inspired her soul as an artist.

2023 Children’s Summer Art Workshops Registration. Sessions feature 25 classes over seven weeks, including a musical theater production of “A Year with Frog and Toad.” Reserve your space as soon as possible. Applications must be submitted to heidi@marcoislandart.org.