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Threads of Meaning at The Salt Exchange |
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Written by Martha Marques
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Saturday, 02 January 2010 13:44 |
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I was invited to do an exhibit of my quilts at The Salt Exchange at 245 Commercial Street in Portland last winter. The Salt Exchange hours are 12:00-2:30 for lunch and 5:30-9:00 Tues-Thursday, 5:30-10:00 Friday and Saturday. It is such a significant thing to see so much of my work in one place. I can easily see how one piece led into and influenced the others, how no quilt exists on it's own really but rather is created by the ones that came before it. I have said before, "I make the quilts and the quilts make me." That is so true, and evidently they make each other as well.
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The one above is called Conversation and is 10 feet square. The birch trees are life sized.
And here is Le'ia which is the Hawaiian word for Abundance. Again Le'ia is 10 feet square and the leaves and fruit of the Ulu (breadfruit) are life sized. Ulu is the symbol of plentiful food, family and happiness in Hawaiian culture
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This image is of one of my earlier Hawaiian quilts and is entitled Li'i Li'i Ahi Pua o' Lehua (Little Flame Flowers of Ohia). It is a more modest 7 feet square and the fabrics are not hand dyed. I have a particular fondness for it because it has a faintly Celtic quality, in spite of being a Hawaiian quilt. Sharon Balai, one of my accomplished Hawaiian quilting friends from the Big Island called it "Irish Hawaiian Quilting" and thought it perfectly reasonable that my ancestors should be influencing my quilts in subtle and pervasive ways.
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And here is a close up of Cotton, again a 7 foot square quilt. You can read more about Cotton on this site.
I am so grateful to my loved people at The Salt Exchange for having given me this opportunity to show my work.
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Last Updated on Friday, 28 January 2011 08:43 |
Quilts
