Enlightenment

Name/Title

Enlightenment

Entry/Object ID

2001.11.01

Made/Created

Artist

Vickie Hallmark

Date made

2000

Place

City

Austin

State/Province

Texas

Country

United States

Continent

North America

Dimensions

Height

85 in

Width

85 in

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Artist Commentary

Label

“Following my training and practice as a research scientist, my approach to quilting is decidedly experimental. As scientists seek for truth and understanding in small, well-defined inquiries, quilters may piece together bits and pieces into an artistic theory." “My quilts are autobiographical in that real life issues are always represented in the overriding themes of the work, although it may not be recognizable to anyone other than myself. Indeed, the generation of real life solutions seems intimately connected to resolutions of artistic and technical problems during the art process." “As I work, I disassemble a problem and reassemble a solution, both in the quilt and in life. The name of any piece can immediately pinpoint a date, location, and concern in my memory.”

Label

"I make art for my sanity's sake. The creative process is a form of meditation - a way to busy the hands and mind and free the spirit to work through the serious issues of life. My art quilts are therefore unsurprisingly autobiographical. Although I may have no clue as to the overriding themes during actual construction, in retrospect the problems I was grappling with concurrently are inevitably represented in the work. Indeed, the generation of real life solutions seems intimately connected to resolutions of artistic and technical problems during the art process. Cloth and thread, cutting and stitching reflect my problem solving approach. Start somewhere. Anywhere. Cut the problem into manageable parts. Gain a clear vision of each part individually Be unconventional - invent and modify approaches as necessary. Then start patching things back together into the big picture. Be thorough - add lots of details invisible except on close inspection. Make sure the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Intrinsically, I work blindly, on a bit of the puzzle that I can grasp at the moment and leave other problems until I reach a point where they constitute the immediate roadblock. I also work on many quilts at once - life never seems to give me only one problem at a time! Some quilts flow smoothly from start to finish, announce their names near or at the beginnıng, and generally make me aware that I'm acting from a position of knowledge and strength. Other quilts creep along agonizingly, perhaps yielding only to years of self-introspection and periodic advances and recessions. Life's challenges are both straightforward and subtle. My goal in exhibiting my work is to allow viewers to experience my personal embodiment of these common life issues. I believe that any resonance that occurs between quilt and viewer is related directly to conscious or subliminal identification with the underlying themes."

Research Notes

Notes

Awards Won: BERNINA Machine Workmanship 2001

General Notes

Note Type

Materials Used

Note

Cottons, polyester, metallic threads

Note Type

Techniques Used

Note

Machine pieced, machine appliquéd, machine quilted