1974 to 2007, a Condensed History of Joan Schulze's Art Making

Step Lightly
2001
Collection of Faith and Jonathan Cookler

Beginning with her first quilt in 1974, Schulze altered purchased fabrics—dyeing (60s and 70s), painting and Xerox transfer (80s), photography and photocopy (70s), digital technology (90s) including an ongoing fascination with direct and glue transfer processes (80s to present). While her interest in technology continues, Schulze's main theme is poetry: the poetry of strange often surreal juxtapositions, elegant colors, eccentric surfaces and most of all, the element of surprise in theme and execution. Quilts from 2000 to 2005 reintroduce her interest in gardens and begin a new theme—her tea bowl collection. Her delight in cities is best illustrated by a commission Step Lightly, 2001.

- Joan Schulze 2007
Sunnyvale, California USA

Quilts - Joan Schulze, a 44-page exhibition catalog includes two essays and chronologically illustrates 34 quilts ending with the poem and quilt Late Rain, 2005. Schulze's 30-plus years as a quiltmaker are in a quiet way encapsulated in this catalog.

2006 —2008

Human Artefakts traveling
Richmond, Virginia USA
Lemont, Illinois USA

2007
Christchurch Arts Festival
New Zealand
Percy Thomson Gallery
Stratford, New Zealand


2008
Global Artists for Peace
internet exhibition and 2008 calendar
virtual.tart.co.nz



10 January - 28 February 2008

New West Coast Design: State of the Art Quilt
Artworks Downtown Gallery.
San Rafael, CA

January 2008
Out of the Box
Burnett Gallery at Gualala Arts, juried.
Gualala, CA

9 March - 9 April 2008
ArtQuilts RE:View
Wayne Art Center
Wayne, Pennsylvania

8 March - 6 April 2008
The Cutting Edge: New Works in Fiber Art
Acorn Gallery
Los Angeles, California

April 2008
The 10th International Collage Exhibition & Exchange
Real Tart Gallery
New Plymouth, New Zealand.
Internet Exhibition
http://outofsight.co.nz/Ice10/exhibit.htm

Collection:
Amarillo Museum of Art
Amarillo, Texas

29 October 2008 —February 2010

MASTERS: ART QUILTS – the exhibition
Invitational exhibition of one work by each of the 40 artists featured in the
Masters: Art Quilts book, Lark Books

29 October – 2 November 2008
IQF-Houston
Houston, Texas
www.quilts.com

17-19 April 2009
IQF-Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
www.quilts.com

24 - 26 July 2009
IQF-Long Beach
Long Beach, California
www.quilts.com

13 August - 10 November 2009
Museum of the American Quilter’s Society
Paducah, Kentucky
www.quiltmuseum.org

November 2009-February 2010
New England Quilt Museum
Lowell, MA
www.nequiltmuseum.org


1 - 30 June 2008

I-4 Corridor Exhibition
Harris House Gallery
Atlantic Center for the Arts
214 S. Riverside Drive
New Smyrna Beach FL 32168
386.423.1753

Peabody Auditorium
600 Auditorium Boulevard
Daytona Beach, FL 32188
386.671.3461


September 2008

SAQA: 12 Voices
Dennos Museum Center
Traverse City, Michigan
Catalog available.
www.dennosmuseum.org






8 November 2008 - 1 March 2009

Quilt Visions 2008: Contemporary Expressions
Oceanside Museum of Art
Opening Reception: November 8

Catalog available.
www.quiltvisions.org
visions@quiltvisions.org


4 April 2008 - January 2009 and beyond

Your Documents Please
A touring show organized by Alma on Dobbin, Rumi Tsuda and others, featuring personal identification papers created by 270 artists.


April 4 -20 2008The Museum of Arts & Crafts-ITAMIItami,Japan

April 26 - May 11 2008ZAIM
Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

November 2008
2B Gallery
Budapest IX, Hungary
January 2009GALÉRIA ZBratislava, Slovakiawww.google.com



15 September - 7 October 2007
iQUILT, iDRAW - The original fiction of Joan Schulze
Ararat Regional Art Gallery, Ararat, Australia, near Melbourne
RECEPTION Saturday 22 September
2pm
A limited edition catalog is available.
Contact: ACamm@ararat.vic.gov.au


3 October - 28 November 2007
Surfaces and Layers - The Fiber Art of Ahern, Stewart & Schulze
Community School of Music & Arts, Finn Center
Mountain View, California
RECEPTION Friday October 19
6-8pm
Contact: kwilliams@arts4all.org


16 October 2007 - 6 January, 2008
Saturn Returns: Back to the Future of Fiber Art
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
OPENING RECEPTION Sunday October 21
3-5pm
special events include studio tours featuring May, Cook, Content and Schulze on Saturday October 27
contact joyce@sjquiltmuseum.org for details.
exhibition info: www.sjquiltmuseum.org

The Idea of Quilt

I love the idea of quilt. The layering, the fact that it can be reversible, that you can plug into this great and varied history of bed covering and with a little push you can enter a new world of walls, ceilings, or installations. It is the best of all worlds for me.



Coexistence (detail)
1999
42.5h x 44w
Mixed media quilt
Collection of Adobe Systems, San Jose, CA


My choices in creating a piece usually come from my travels and can be read as pages in a journal. I am enamored with surfaces and how they disintegrate over time. I layer and scratch away to reveal what is beneath the surface, much like the effect one sees on old frescoes, illuminated manuscripts, and urban walls. These erasures and fragments are combined, manipulated and rearranged to form a new experience.

Quilting is still important. It now functions as drawing with echoes of the tradition.

- Joan Schulze,1996

Looking Back

Every year I look back to see where I've been in my work. Each year I am surprised at the range of ideas and kinds of quilts that have come out of this faith that a day's hard work will bring results that are visually interesting, maybe even exciting.

A Day of Working

A day working is a mirror of a year. I start to work by doing small things and suddenly it may be late afternoon. How can time pass so quickly? What I started doing in the morning often has become something else. This process of discovery is like living on the edge. Not a comfortable and predictable process but when things come together in unexpected ways that excite me and make me want to continue to find out more, I feel wonderful. The opposite is also true and dealing with that is also part of the process. There is no grand plan here. I just tackle each day and try to make it fresh and work with ideas that are interesting to me.

The Big Surprise

Now the big surprise after working like this since 1970 is that I have a career. I remember making my first quilt and knowing that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. So here I am, having a grand time, lecturing and teaching most of that time, traveling with my work, and more often sending my work to interesting places.

- Joan Schulze, April 1997

Is it More Than the Sum of its Parts?

Dancing Lessons
2006
40h x 40w


My camera is always with me. However, my favorite and most important camera is the black and white photocopy machine. Not being portable, it stays in the studio. For many years I used the copier to recompose and distort photographs, printing them onto cloth and paper for quilts and collages. In the mid 90s I began to use the photocopier to create line drawings by photocopying my stitched organza embroideries. This idea enlarged and invigorated my work. I made simple copies of the organza embroidery and printed the results onto silk. Later by folding and pleating the original, I found layered trompe l’oeil drawings. Enlarged, distorted and recombined copies created more complex mysterious drawings. Editing and working with the paper copies, I pieced them to build a larger drawing. The process goes back and forth from the originals to re-composed copies until I photocopy the drawings onto silk. The prints are stitched together. Layering the pieced drawing over batting and backing it is then ready to quilt. The quilting adds stitched lines that finish the photographed/photocopied line drawing.

These quilts sit quietly on the wall. When you approach, you may get involved deciding which lines are real and which are printed. I see these drawings as lines of poetry. Each line supports the other. When all the stanzas are finished the drawing asserts itself.

My final question is always—Is it more than the sum of its parts?

- Joan Schulze
January 2007

[Resume: selected collections, exhibitions, lectures, group shows, and publications]

ORGANIZATIONS
Surface Design Association
providing leadership in the field of surface design through conferences, a great quarterly journal and exhibitions.

San Jose Museum of Quilts
America's first quilt museum - since 1977.

The Alliance for American Quilts The Center for the Quilt
America's Quilt Home on the Internet

ARTISTS
Bill Gingles
Abstract paintings

ArielCollage
Mixed media collage artist

Outofsight sites
featuring assemblage artist Dale Copeland and many others...

Harry Gruenert
Painter

www.gerard-bertrand.net
Franz Kafka and Marcel Proust receive a double tribute in two albums of "recomposed photographs", in a rather surrealist spirit.

Jack Brockette
Dallas artist, Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship winner, teacher. Jack Brockette's Website. ** Under Construction **
Janet Jones
Assemblages, Mixed Media and Prints. Artist Janet Jones combines collage, assemblage and mixed media with monoprints, linocuts, etchings.

Cecil Touchon
Abstract paintings and collages

Sandra Ortiz Taylor
Collages and mixed media

FAVORITES

Venetian Red
Two working artists who conceived of Venetian Red as a vehicle through which they could examine art...

Selvedge
Selvedge Magazine
"The world's finest textile photography, unparalleled design and peerless writing"

studioNOTES
the journal for working artists... an independent journal supported by subscriptions... edited by Benny Shaboy.

Schulze 2004 interview for Q.S.O.S-Save our Stories:
Transcribed interview with Joan Schulze, August 8, 2004

Yoko Trading
Yoko Trading, selling on-line since 1998: Offering fine Japanese vintage fabrics,bulk vintage by-pound kimono and vintage kimono fabric by piece,lot and roll,antique textiles, fiber art ceremonial kimono and decor gift items; Secure on-line shopping.

Joan Schulze Showcase at
The Saatchi Gallery - Contemporary art in London

Charissa Schulze
Joan's granddaughter, Humboldt State University art student has her own page on Saatchi's student showcase section.

Revere Collectiion - A Gallery of Works by Joan Schulze
Works available at Penny Nii Collection

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