A review of Poetic License, published in 2010 by Suzanne Smith Arney .The retrospective, Poetic License: The Art of Joan Schulze, is accompanied by a hardcover book/catalog of the same title. In the introductory essay, “Looking back a decade,” Schulze writes, “A series, a stand-alone work, or the occasional experiment relates to all that has gone before.” This is true of four decades as much as one. Her reputation as a collagist attests to this belief in the power and value of cumulative understanding. It is a credo based on experiences and inherent disposition. Fabric used in one quilt reappears years later in another, an homage to her mother’s scrap coverlets; an early quilt may be reworked as a deeper meaning becomes clear; collages best represent the imperfect, subjective, fragmented, and fugitive makeup of our lives…
View pdf