Category: Portfolio of Art Quilts/Mixed Media Textiles

TEXTILE & MIXED MEDIA WORKS
All works are shipped ready to hang. Satisfaction is guaranteed, with a full refund, less shipping costs, if returned within one week of receipt. For information on availability of existing works and current prices or to discuss site specific commissions for corporate, healthcare, public and/or residential interiors please contact the artist at mary@maryvaneecke.com.

We Came to America

We Came to America

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke

We Came to America

My paternal grandparents, Firmin and Lucie VanEecke, lived the great American Dream.  I have long let a quilt in their honor ‘percolate’ in the back of my mind.  They met and married in Belgium between the World Wars and came here in 1923 by ship, as millions of immigrants have done throughout our history.  World War I decimated Belgium, and they sought a better life here while feeling the separation and loss of loved ones left behind, most of whom they never saw again.  Lucie and Firmin  flourished in the US, had five children, nine grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren.  This work features hand-dyed vintage lace textiles, copies of their last letters home (in Flemish), and their wedding portrait.  The piece is quilted with the phrase We Came to America in the languages of many other immigrants who came to America.  In a private collection.

We Came to America, 45'' x 48'', 2015
We Came to America, 45” x 48”, 2015
We Came to America, detail
We Came to America, detail
Abuela’s Garden – SOLD

Abuela’s Garden – SOLD

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke

Abuela’s Garden, 2015

The Barrio Viejo (old neighborhood) of my hometown is home to many Mexican immigrants.  Their distinctive gardens are often surrounded by an ocotillo fence, a living fence made of a cactus-like plant.  The gardens will contain flowers like marigolds and sunflowers, and foods that remind residents of home.  Neighbors share seeds and cuttings, and other fruits of their labor.  What a lovely metaphor for migration and transplantation.

Materials include hand-dyed and painted handmade textiles (makers unknown), felted wool ropes, new fabrics, silk sari ‘yarn,’ window screen, felt, and machine stitch.   In a private collection.ABUELA'S GARDEN copy

Coin Toss

Coin Toss

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke

This quilt is inspired by the wonderful fabrics (a shot cotton in burnt orange, and a navy New Aged Muslin by Marcus Brothers) and the traditional quilt pattern Chinese Coins.  A link to a 1940s Amish version is here.  I call it Coin Toss, and every time I think of the name, I want to ask, What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss? 

The use of negative space and plain fabrics just begs for fabulous quilting, and I tried to keep the tension of the perilously stacked coins going with the navy-on-navy background quilting.

Coin Toss, 2014, 44'' x 27''
Coin Toss, 2014, 44” x 27”
Coin Toss, detail
Coin Toss, detail
Dining Destinations: Chopsticks and Edamame

Dining Destinations: Chopsticks and Edamame

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke
Dining Destinations: Chopsticks and Edamame, 2014, 45'' x 35''
Dining Destinations: Chopsticks and Edamame, 2014, 45” x 35”
detail, Dining Destinations: Chopsticks and Edamame
detail, Dining Destinations: Chopsticks and Edamame

This piece is another of my ‘Modern’ quilts.  It features commercial fabrics and improvisational piecing.  The digitized quilt design in the black areas is based on a traditional Japanese sachiko pattern called ‘steam.’  Edamame are steamed fresh soybeans.  I think there is a Pad Thai quilt in my future!

Chopsticks and Edamame will be part of the Studio Art Quilt Assciates’ Food for Thought exhibition.  The show will debut at the National Quilt Museum, Paducah, Kentucky, in April 2015 and will then travel to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England, in August, 2015.

It’s a Jungle Out There

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke

This whimsical piece uses my 3-D art quilt technique with commercial fabrics.  I call it It’s a Jungle Out There.  See this art quilt in IQA’s show in Houston in Fall 2015 as part of the SAQA travelling ‘Wild Fabrications’exhibition .  You can learn these techniques in one of my classes, or in my upcoming book, Wild and Wonderful 3-D Quilts.

It's a Jungle Out There, 47'' x 33'' x 7'' installed. Monkey included.
It’s a Jungle Out There, 47” x 33” x 7” installed. Monkey included.

 

 

It's a Jungle Out There, deta
It’s a Jungle Out There, detail

Modern Love

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke

I love the so-called ‘Modern Quilt’ aesthetic:  clean design lines, simple fabrics, negative space (=quilting space, IMHO).  This is my first attempt at such a piece.  It is raw-edge fusible applique on a field of gray muslin.  Yes, I cut a hole in it.  I call it Modern Love. 

Modern Love, 2014, 64'' x 40''
Modern Love, 2014, 64” x 40”

Modern Love detail

The Big Reveal….

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke

The Radical Elements show is in Washington D.C. today at the National Academy of Sciences.  A link to information on the current venue is here.   Since the embargo on publishing photos of the works has been lifted, I can post a full view of the piece now.  Drum roll please….

Samarium 62: No Relation, 36" x 24"
Samarium 62: No Relation, 36″ x 24″

Painted archival Tyvek embedded with silk fibers and medical gloves, layered with window screen with acrylic paint and medium screened into it.  The piece features cutouts and a 3D element, an S curve composition, and is quilted with magnets.  Embellished with electric guitar strings.

detail, 'Samarium 62: No Relation'
detail, ‘Samarium 62: No Relation’

Samarium 62: No Relation

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke

Samarium 62:  No Relation.  This piece is part of the Studio Art Quilt Associates’ Radical Elements invitational exhibition.  A photo of the entire work is embargoed until its debut exhibition in May 2014.  It is made from materials other than fabric and thread, and ‘quilted’ with magnets.  The piece overlaps two series:  Samaras and Circlesss.

detail, 'Samarium 62: No Relation'
detail, ‘Samarium 62: No Relation’

What’s the Alternative?

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke
whats the alternative
“What’s the Alternative?” 2013, 13” x 16”

 

This piece is a small ‘quilted’ collage made from window screen, kozu and lace papers with digital and hand-printed images, layered and stitched.  With cutouts and found objects.

Lucina Lighting the Way

Posted on by Mary Vaneecke
Lucina Lighting the Way, 2013, 24'' x 24''
Lucina Lighting the Way, 2013, 24” x 24”

Quilt for Change  recently asked me to submit a piece for their Light, Hope, and Opportunity Challenge.  The project raises awareness about the Solar Sisters program, where African women entrepreneurs are given loans to start their own businesses.  They buy inexpensive rechargeable solar lights to sell in their communities.  This means fewer costly and dangerous kerosene lanterns in African villages.  What a great cause!  The exhibition will start in Geneva next month, and hopefully travel to the US.

I have been thinking about burning the edges of a piece for a while, and this seemed like an excellent opportunity.

Here is my artist statement for the piece:

Lucina Lighting the Way

Lucina was the Roman goddess of light and childbirth:  She who brings children into the light.  Here, the pregnant goddess holds a golden orb.  The lively color scheme and bright shapes evoke a hopeful spring.  This quilt is a tribute to modern-day Lucinas, our Solar Sisters, who are bringing safe, affordable, solar-powered light to their friends and neighbors.  The singed edges are a reminder of the dangers of kerosene lanterns, which maim and kill users across Africa each year.  Hand-dyed, and printed linen, painted silk, layered and machine stitched.  Techniques include cutwork with a burned-edge finish.

detail:

'Lucina Lighting the Way,' detail
‘Lucina Lighting the Way,’ detail