This last weekend I was in Ohio at the opening reception for Quilt National at the Dairy Barn Arts Center. It was so wonderful to see so many artists/friends after the pandemic years. We recorded my talk on Art and Activism, and that video will be available later this week. We will also have the show catalog soon. Contact Customer Service if you are interested in a copy!
Memorial Day is considered the start of the Summer season here. This is my favorite time of year in Colorado, when the foothills are green from the Spring rains, and the peaks are still white with snow. On my way to work each day (my 1 mile commute) I appreciate the view and am grateful to be able to live in a place of such natural beauty.
Sometimes the world around us is not so beautiful, but we can learn to look for beauty in everyone we meet, and in everything we see. Some quilt artists literally focus on capturing and expressing inner and outer beauty, and Galla Grotto is one of those artists. You may recall her Mother Earth quilt which was in the exhibit I curated – “For the Love of Gaia”. It reminds me of a Russian Madonna icon painting. Which is not surprising because…she is Russian. I met her and first saw her Mother Earth quilt at Quilt Canada in 2017.
Galla fled Russia for her artistic freedom, and ended up in Ukraine, but then she had to leave again for similar reasons. She ended up in France, and that is how I finally met up with her again, at the quilt festival last month in Nantes. When the war started, she had to help evacuate her daughter from Ukraine. She has certainly seen a lot of ugliness in her life.
However Galla is known for her beautiful stylized portraits of women. You can see one of them in the image above, set in a collage of eQuilter fabrics. I am uploading images of her gallery in Nantes for you to enjoy. (You will see one image of her Mother Earth, and my Stardust Mothers, hanging side by side in this show.) The good news is that she will also have a gallery at the Quilt Festival in Houston this Fall!
Galla is hand-carrying her exhibit to Houston 2 weeks before the show, and she is looking for teaching opportunities in the US while she is waiting those 2 weeks in October. She is very well known as a teacher and artist in Europe, but she is just being introduced to the US this Fall. Would your guild possibly be able to host her for a workshop? If so please send us an email so we can connect you. (She would need a translator from French, Russian or Ukrainian.)
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Sharing your love of fabric…and color…
Luana and Paul
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Check out our Video pages for interviews and show reviews.
Travel/Quilt Calendar:
June 6-11 – Quilt Canada – Halifax, Nova Scotia
July 4-12 – Helsinki & Savonlinna, Finland
August 18-24 – Bear Camp in Alaska (via Homer)
Sept 28-30 – AQSG Seminar – Louisville, KY
