Name/Title

Dancing Deco

Made/Created

Artist

Liam Smietanski

Place

City

Kankakee

State/Province

Illinois

Country

United States

Continent

North America

Interpretative Labels

Label

When I think of the 20's I think of being taught about the "gilded age." How the parties and economic growth of the rich shadowed the difficulties of the poor and working class. Arts and Architecture, because of all classes, were able to experience exciting changes. I attended University in a town that is a ghost of these many stories from that era. Stained glass, mosaics, and building facades and ornamentation inspired many of my own works, including this quilt. Some of the finials on the buildings very much looked like Cleopatra's fan but the towns people Decatur said that the original architects were inspired by the surrounding cornfields, so I tried to honor that by making the center of the fan gold like the corn.

General Notes

Note Type

Techniques Used

Note

The entire piece has been hand stitched. The Flapper was appliqued on to the quilt and the quilting details consist of running, back, and chain stitches.

Note Type

Materials Used

Note

All of the stone prints are Northcott Stonehenge fabrics. The gold is a yellow tonal Batik. The Dancer is a metallic dot fabric. All threads are a cotton quilting thread with the exception of the gold metallic embroidery floss.