Kathleen Sharp
"Mom's Kitsch."
35"h x 26"w.
Machine pieced, collaged, and quilted. Dishtowel, cotton, silk organza, various synthetic textiles. Polyester batting.
The quilt is titled 'Mom's Kitsch (en).' I had stashed away in a back corner of a backroom closet a bag of fabric scraps my mother gave me more than 15 years ago. I knew they were ugly (we had different tastes) and cheap fabric with dyes that would run etc (true, this piece can never be washed) so I never even looked at them. She has now been dead for three years, and I don't have much left of her. I was thinking about that apple pie and kitchens and I thought of smell. Kitchens are places of smells, and smell is both the first and last sense. (A friend whose Mom has advanced Alzeimer's goes to see her Mom in a home and she just crawls into bed with her and they smell each other -- it's all they have left.)
So I decided it was time to open the bag of scraps after all these years. I would restrict myself to using the Tea Towel and those scraps and working with smell. What I did not expect was that the fabric still had all kinds of scents, different from any that I recognize around my home. As I was ironing them, the smells intensified; It seems that I hit yet one more little pocket of grief because I suddently felt 'vaporized' by the process; this led to feeling and knowing again, more consciously, the boundlessness of early mother/child bonding, a gift I never expected from this work or from the scraps.
The rhino has appeared in two other recent pieces, and I have plans for more rhino adventures on the drawing board that I will work with this year along with the two other major veins I am pursuing in my studio.
As for 'Mom's Kitsch (en),' the only thing I supplied
is the steam, both literally and figuratively. The silk organza used for
the apple pie steam is the only fabric coming from my studio supplies;
and it was through my creative energy that the quilt came into being.
© 1999 Kathleen Sharp. 17360 Valley Oak, Monte Sereno, CA. 95030. 408-395-3014. katsharp@sharpworks.com
http://www.sharpworks.com/studio.htm
Return to Dishtowel Artist List
Turtle Moon Studios
Susan Shie and James Acord
Contact us
| Home | | Classes
| | Gallery | | Green
Quilts | |Links |
| Resume | | Stuff
to Buy | |Turtle Trax Diary |
| Visit Jimmy's Leather Studio
Web site design © Susan Shie and Jan Cabral 1997. All subsequent web site work, ©Susan Shie 1997-2005.
This page updated by Susan Shie, January 30, 2005.
Web site hosting by Key to the Web, Ltd. ©2005.