Is it possible to be passionate about pattern and colour and texture and complexity, and yet make simple, even austere, quilts? Barbara Todd’s lecture will follow the evolution of her practice, showing how she has transformed her many and disparate sources of inspiration into coherent bodies of work. Her sources range from a child’s drawing to a stone carving from 2,500 B.C.; from a poem by Nelly Sachs to yesterday’s phone conversation; from a meticulously detailed 18th century marriage quilt to casual snap-shots. Her media are also wide ranging—from woolen fabric to cut wood, steel, and glass.
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Like all great arts, textiles recreate our visiton of the world. We hold them up as exemplars of skill, ingenuity, creativity, and ambition. Textiles are poetic metaphors woven from ideas just as much as they are physical items woven from fibres.