Quilt Assignment

In keeping with my anti-blog blog(which essentially means that I have a blog), I find myself with an assignment topic that I have never really been interested in -- quilts. Specifically the Obama quilts on display in the Cafritz gallery.On a certain level, I understand why quilts are so cool – colors, designs, cultural significance, details, family heritage and all sorts of great stuff all wrapped up in one creative package (that we talked about in class). I understand how intricate and time consuming they are. But quilts have never been my thing – perhaps because they are so intricate and time consuming that I would never have the patience to actually create one myself. But looking at the Obama exhibit, I like most of these. In fact, I can’t really pick a favorite. The ones I like best are colorful and intricate – a little bit crazy in some cases and some with complex thinking and symbolism. I’m drawn to the three quilts by Susan Shie – whoa, so much work, color and detail, but most of all the thinking behind the images and the words written on the quilts bring me into the rather primitive artwork. There are others I like – again with color design and tons of work to simply create the stitch work. My students select other quilts to write their blogs about. They seem go for the symbolic quilts that represent the importance of Obama being elected and his role in history, his significance and the hope he represents. (This post has been revised, but not because I was told to)