Inspiring others – 2015.10.19

In September, I was approached by a teen librarian at the Philadelphia Free Library, seeking permission to use the image of my graffiti quilt for a flyer.  During November, the library has a program for teens to make a graffiti quilt that will be auctioned off to charity.  I think that’s a really cool idea and I love to think my art can inspire others, so I said yes, they could use my image.

I originally created this quilt in 2013 for a SAQA challenge to create a quilt with the theme of text, containing at least one visible letter or word.

After considering many ideas and concepts about text, I decided to focus on the most colorful and creative form of text I could think of – Graffiti. My graffiti wall is made of fabric, but is intended to replicate the appearance of painted words and images on a concrete block wall. I fused the graffiti elements to the gray background, then machine stitched the block pattern over everything.

I see some similarities between graffiti and quilting. Graffiti reminds me of a scrappy, improve-style quilt – many disparate colors, patterns and styles – while competing with and overlapping each other – can create an eye-catching cohesive whole. Like quilting, graffiti is an emerging and sometimes controversial art form.

The size is 24 by 25 inches.  The quilt was not accepted into the SAQA show, but has since been accepted into two juried shows.

Here’s my quilt ‘The Writing is on the Wall’, and the flyer for the teen program.