Color Wheel of Emotions: A Conversation with Maria Shell We are delighted to have your piece, “Under the Big Top” juried into the exhibit! Can you share your journey into working with fiber? Maria: I have always sewn. I started when I was four, and then at the age of ten I started using a sewing machine. For some silly reason, I thought I should do something more “intellectual” than sewing with my life, so I switched to writing and that was my creative outlet for many years. When our family moved to Valdez, Alaska, I took my first quilt class. It was as if I had been hit over the head with a rock. It all made sense. I gave up writing and took up stitching and have not looked back. As a stay at home mom with three young boys, I honed my craft during nap times and got used to working in a studio filled with legos and blocks. Now my children are all in school, and I have many uninterrupted hours of time when I can work. In 2009, the Rasmuson Foundation awarded me a project award to study with Nancy Crow for three weeks. That opportunity really expanded my knowledge of color and how important it is to my work. How has your style evolved over the years? Maria: I started out as a traditional quiltmaker, and my work is very much grounded there. What I do is piece and stitch much like any quiltmaker of a hundred years ago did. I love the traditional quilt block and am always returning to it as a source of inspiration. I am currently working on three series. Under the Big Top, the quilt that was selected for Color Wheel of Emotions, is part of a series of quilts that uses the chair as an object for telling stories. I am amazed at how this works. A chair is a simple everyday object, yet each one has its own personality. My Color Grid series features a simple quilt block that is repeated much like a traditional straight set quilt with borders. The use of free hand cutting, printed commercial fabrics from the last hundred years, and elaborate thread work make for very fun and colorful creations. I have most recently been exploring how I might use traditional free form cut quilt blocks to create abstract landscapes. When you heard about the Color Wheel of Emotions exhibit what caught your attention about this particular theme? How did you approach the design process for the exhibit? Maria: I was so excited to see a SAQA exhibit that focused on color as that is what I do. For this exhibit, I thought it might be fun to make a piece in my chair series that used color to create the shapes. I love that Under the Big Top seems to move in and out of just being color alone and then being color and chair. What other designs/projects are you currently working on? Maria: In the fall of 2012, I participated in the Bellevue Arts Museums Biennial called High Fiber Diet. For the show, I created nine new Color Grids that hung in a very large grid. The experience of making so many quilts the same size while working primarily without rulers was a very laborious process. After that, I needed a small break, which I called my sweater sabbatical. I began taking old thrift store wool sweaters and washing machine felting them and then patchworking them into new one of kind up-cycled clothing I am calling ArctiCouture. Essentially, I am combining patchwork, recycled materials, and a sub-arctic aesthetic to create a boutique clothing line. Up-cycled felted wool is an amazing new material for me to work with. I am also enjoying taking my patchwork in a 3-D direction. I have also recently gone back to using printed commercial textiles in my work. I have Nancy Bavor, Curator of Collections at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, to thank for this recent development in my work. I showed her some of my current work and she said, quite rightly, “You need to go back to working with prints.” I did and it has opened a whole new world of piecing opportunities for me. Where does your inspiration come from? Maria: My inspiration is really color and pattern. I love creating unusual color/print palettes. I jokingly tell people, my art is about seeing what happens when a traditional bed quilt goes on a psychedelic journey. What if Peter Maxx, or Jimi Hendrix, or Frank Stella made a quilt? That is what I am trying to find out. I want to make color vibrate on the wall--and the quilt is my chosen medium for doing that. Please describe your work space for us! Maria: I am so glad you asked that question! My working space is our home’s great room converted into a studio. This past year, my husband and I spent about three months gutting my old studio and reconfiguring it so that I can make both wool clothing and quilts. I have a long arm quilting machine and work station for one wall. The back wall is felted wool storage and cotton fabric storage along with a closet space for storing completed clothing I have designed. I have an old desk with two pullout side tables for sewing. On the opposite wall is an L-shaped cutting station and more fabric storage. You can see the transformation of my studio and the final result in this blog post I wrote about the experience. Have you ever created a piece of art that you were unhappy with? Did you take any steps to recover the piece or did you put it “out of sight/out of mind”! Maria: Basically a piece stays on the design wall until I am happy with it. There are pieces that go on and off my design wall for years. I will work on them, get to a point of frustration, pack it up and then bring it back out again years later. If I finish a quilt it usually means I am happy with it--at least for that moment. There are quilts that I do finish piecing, but they never get quilted because there are other better pieces I would rather spend my time on. Artists often work alone; where do you go for moral support, networking and/or artistic camaraderie? Maria: This is an interesting question for me. I live in Anchorage, Alaska which has an amazing group of fiber artists. I always tell myself I should get out more, but I never do. I have three school age boys and juggling that plus my art does not leave a lot of time for networking or artistic camaraderie. This is one thing that I think will change as the boys get older. I tend to work in complete isolation. Sometimes this is lonely, but for the most part it suits me. My friends and family are my support. But I have made some art friends from taking classes in the lower 48, and we do support each other via sharing our work by email. I do treasure those friendships. Where can people view your artwork? Maria: I have a website where most of my work is on display. I also frequently post about my process and new work on my blog If you visit those sites you can see my work and listing of where it is being currently shown. If you had just one tip or bit of advice for other fiber artists what would it be? Maria: Go deep instead of wide--meaning it is easy to get sidetracked by all of the exciting things that are going on in the fiber world right now, but the way you really grow an authentic voice is by selecting a process and exploring it deeply. And if I could give a second bit of advice, I would say do not be afraid to stand alone. In the beginning of my journey, there were few artists who were openly claiming the traditional quilt block as a legitimate form of artistic expression; everyone was running the other direction--trying to make their quilts look like they were not quilts. If I had followed, I would never have gotten to the place I am with my work. Just because no one else has done it, doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. And finally in the words of Nancy Crow, “Just do the work.” That really is the only clear path. Do the work, fail, lay on the ground and cry about it, get up, dust yourself off, and do some more work. Thank you for the great insight into what makes you tick as an artist and we look forward to seeing your next works of art! Maria Shell: mariashell4@gmail Anchorage, Alaska
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 12:46:52 +0000
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