{"id":172,"date":"2019-12-09T20:07:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T20:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/birdworks.wpengine.com\/?p=172"},"modified":"2023-08-20T04:35:31","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T04:35:31","slug":"2019-12-9-july-8-july-24-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/?p=172","title":{"rendered":"Blanket Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Blanket Statement<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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San Diego Home\/Garden Lifestyles | Art & Artists, November 2010
\nQ&A with Charlotte Bird - by Mark Hiss<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTaking inspiration in everything from Mother\nGoose to Mother Nature, Charlotte Bird creates\na range of distinctive quilts, including story-telling pieces designed to comfort and amuse children, and meditative, evocative works of fine art. Her art quilts, which often feature ovoid shapes that resemble microscopic, cellular formations, have been exhibited throughout the country, as well as internationally. Bird, 63, also is president of Quilt Visions, which promotes and supports the art-quilt movement with exhibitions, lectures and workshops from its home base at Liberty Station\u2019s NTC Promenade.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQ: Do you come from a traditional quilt-making background?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNo, not really. I\u2019d been sewing since I was a little girl; my mother taught me to sew when I was quite small and we made my school clothes through high school.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQ: Were they fashionable?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIt would be sort of on the edge of fashionable, but my own take on stuff. I was never outrageous; I just wanted to be individual. I always sort of marched to a slightly eccentric drummer.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQ: Do you ever have a desire to do more traditional kinds of quilts?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNo, and as a matter of fact I\u2019ve never been able to do really traditional things. I am congenitally unable to cut a straight line, draw a straight line, walk a straight line. I did a few fairly traditional things and never finished any of them. I\u2019m also not able to hand quilt in any regular way. So all of those traditional things have never worked, so I just moved on to doing whatever I do.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQ: Is there a tension between the traditional quilt-making and art quilt-making camps?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe could talk probably for hours on that particular subject \u2014 and I advocate to you to, at some point, make a date to go to the Visions Art Quilt Gallery in Liberty Station and look at the art quilts that are hanging in the gallery. It will give you some idea of how broad the concept and definition of quilt has become. And there is a tension sometimes between traditional quilting and more contemporary artwork, because I struggle with \u201cwhat do you call it?\u201d Frankly when you say, \u201cI make quilts,\u201d more often than not, the next words out of whoever you\u2019re talking to are, \u201cGosh, my grandma quilted.\u201d And that\u2019s not where I\u2019m going. It\u2019s where I come from, but only because what I do fits the definition of a quilt. They\u2019re not for warmth and they\u2019re not for on the bed and they\u2019re not for wrapping up. They\u2019re for hanging on the wall as artwork.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQ: Does the contemporary art world know what to do with you?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThey\u2019re learning. But often they don\u2019t because quilts have been a traditional women\u2019s \u201ccraft.\u201d There\u2019s a hurdle you have to get over sometimes, but it\u2019s changing and it\u2019s changing quickly because, among other things, quilting is a huge segment of the craft world and what did I read the other day? Three-and-a-half billion dollars is spent on quilt stuff a year. It\u2019s huge; 17 million quilters (from do-it-yourselfers to artists) in the United States.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQ: And what about the artist vs. craftsperson argument?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI\u2019ve thought a lot about this. I am both, because you have to have a level of craftsmanship to be any kind of an artist. And I am a craftsman. It\u2019s important to me that my work be finished and clean and precise in those kinds of ways. So I\u2019m both a craftsman and an artist.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQ: So how is the gallery doing at NTC Promenade?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe had 14,000 visitors last year. We\u2019re really pleased, on two levels \u2014 both that the gallery and Quilt Visions have grown and thrived, and that the entire arts community there is growing. It\u2019s really sort of on the cusp of being something really important, competing in some ways with Balboa Park for visitorship. It just keeps on growing; it\u2019s really fun to be there.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking inspiration in everything from Mother Goose to Mother Nature, Charlotte Bird creates a range of distinctive quilts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-interviews","tag-san-diego-home-garden-lifestyles-november-2010"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/san-diego-home-garden-charlotte-bird-banket-statement-600x400.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/san-diego-home-garden-charlotte-bird-banket-statement-600x550.png","author_info":{"display_name":"birdworks","author_link":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/?author=1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdworksfiberarts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}