Opening Reception – Patricia Guthrie: Not Your Grandmother’s Quilts

“A tradition is kept alive by something being added to it.” Henry James

Quilt making is a traditional women’s craft. For Not Your Grandmother’s Quilts, Patricia Guthrie’s interest is focused on lines. Many quilters, particularly traditional ones, rely on patterns with predetermined straight lines. Instead, Guthrie uses patterned lines in a totally different way – she does not use patterns and straight lines. For this show, Guthrie’s quilts were made using curved lines with no patterns. And while traditional quilters often use fabric remnants, Guthrie’s quilts are made with fabric selected for their color and texture. Each quilt is unique. Nevertheless, she uses elements from traditional quilt-making when creating her abstract quilts. Among other similarities, both traditional quilts and Guthrie’s are sandwiches; they contain a top layer, a middle filling (cotton or wool), and a bottom layer. The layers are held together, or quilted, by hand or by machine stitching.

Bio:
After retiring from work as a professor and department chair of Human Development and Women’s Studies at Cal State East Bay in Hayward, Patricia Guthrie decided to actively engage in some form of visual arts. She began taking community-based art classes – drawing, photography, quilt making, and designing and printing fabric. Quilt making and all its aspects has since become her passion. Guthrie hopes her quilts encourage viewers to move beyond art that is merely pleasing to the eye to seek a deeper meaning. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally including Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, New York; International Quilt Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Tuch + Technik Museum, Neumünster, Germany.

Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 – 5 pm (and by appointment)
Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: August 1, 5 – 9 pm

Image: Patricia Guthrie, As The World Turns, Textile