HumorUs (SAQA Virtual Gallery)

Now retired from a career in medicine, Helen Blumen is a fiber artist and art collector living in the Washington, DC area. She describes her fiber art as eclectic, as it draws on her interests in photography, vintage textiles, and fabrics collected on her travels. She also makes functional quilts and wearable art. Her work has been exhibited regionally, as well as in a SAQA Virtual Gallery.

Andra Stanton makes two- and three-dimensional textile pieces incorporating surface design techniques that represent themes of emotional and physical healing. She stitches the surfaces of her pieces with patterns that suggest her history of disability. Each object represents moments of meditation on both the safety of solitude and the joy of connection to friends and nature. 

 She has come to believe pivotal experiences permanently alter a person’s path. Art is her attempt to show the balance between comfort and pain, beauty and distortion, and the endurance of the human spirit.

How do we define “funny?” That was the question we kept asking ourselves as we pulled up each of the entries to HumorUs during the jurying process. Is “funny” the same thing as joyful, lighthearted, whimsical, cute, clever, or fascinating? We were perplexed. Is a quilt funny if we merely smile when we look at it, or does the piece need to make us laugh out loud?

Surprisingly, we laughed out loud just a handful of times. Mostly we smiled, marveled, appreciated, and admired. Once again, SAQA members demonstrated their great skills and talents when it comes to fabric choice, design composition, quilt construction, and stitching configurations.

We learned so much from looking at these works. We learned that, while it’s hard to come up with a truly funny idea, it’s even harder to make a purely visual representation that adequately conveys that idea. Sometimes, the artist needed text, either on the quilt itself or in the artist's statement, to get the idea across. 

In our view, the funniest quilts showed us something that “doesn’t make sense yet makes sense.” Take a look at Beach Patrol….or Pre-Kåya…or Fresh Forest and you’ll see what we mean. In these and the other quilts we chose for the exhibition, it took a lot to come up with ideas like that.  And then composing a quilt that expresses one of them: it’s amazingly difficult!

So, we tip our hats to all the quilters who entered their artwork into this show. We might not have belly-laughed, but we certainly were delighted, and we feel very grateful for having had the opportunity to view these lovely creations.
 

Nancy A. Bennett-Karasik (Maryland, USA) - All In A Cats' Days Work
Deb Cashatt (California, USA) - Pre-Kāya
David P. Charity (Arizona, USA) - Raining Cats on Dog II
Julee Coffman (New Mexico, USA) - Woody’s Migraine
Holly Lei Cole (Virginia, USA) - Wahoo
Susan L. Davis (Virginia, USA) - Anchors Aweigh
Lana Dragon (West Virginia, USA) - Photo-Shoot Challenge
Cathy Drummond (Nova Scotia, Canada) - Bird's Eye View: Human Insignificance
Connie Kincius Griner (North Carolina, USA) - Wrinkly / Irony
Ann Horton (California, USA) - Housesitting
Barbara Lambrecht (Arizona, USA) - The Real Team
Eleanor Levie (Pennsylvania, USA) - Pretty/Messy
Beth Markel (Michigan, USA) - Waldorf Salad
Kestrel Michaud (Florida, USA) - Florida Beach Patrol
Suzan Ann Morgan (West Virginia, USA) - Fresh Forest
Sarah Ruiz (Texas, USA) - Perseverance
Cyndy Rymer (Colorado, USA) - Domestically Disinterested
Luanne Seymour (Washington, USA) - Forbidden Fruit
Debra Shaw (Ohio, USA) - Ouch
Candace Hackett Shively (Georgia, USA) - Zoomsick
Marijke van Welzen (Netherlands) - That beautiful Mill
Laura Wasilowski (Illinois, USA) - Armchair Gourmet
Rosanna Lynne Welter (Utah, USA) - Downhill Chicken
Zara Zannettino (Australia) - Absurd Birds