Piece of Pie is a quilt completed in 2016 for an expert pie-baker (and her new baby).
I love improvisational curves! There's so much room to make mistakes.
Banana-shaped free-motion quilting to go with the upcycled sock monkey bedsheets.
Quilting lines, seen from the back.
The seal of approval.
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Manhattan. Acrylic on unstretched canvas, 30 x 30 inches, 2015 by Sarah Atlee. $1,800
For purchase inquiries, contact Ro2 Art at (214) 803 9597 or visit this piece on Artsy.
Are you in or about Dallas, looking for the perfect cup of coffee? Look no further than Magnolias Sous le Pont. And while you're there, enjoy a gathering of succulent still life paintings by Sarah Atlee!
Put this on your calendar for next year (and every year): September 29 is National Coffee Day. Magnolias celebrated this year with a day of music, art, and endless cups of that heavenly brown nectar. They were also nice enough to interview me about my work and process.
Still Life will be up at Magnolias (map link) through 7 January 2017.
Home. It's a nebulous concept, one that's been on my mind a lot lately. These mini quilts are an expression of longing, rootlessness - perhaps "home" is a part of us that we always carry, though it may drift to the bottom with the kleenex and loose change.
[The Home quilts were created for my top-tier Patreon patrons in 2016. I closed my Patreon page in 2022.]
Following is a more detailed look at the quilt construction process:
Notes on construction, quilting patterns.
Drawing a general outline onto the batting.
Sewing the pieces directly onto the batting, as part of a quilt-as-you-go technique.
The first one with all three layers (top, batting backing) assembled and quilted.
Quilting lines look so cool on the back.
Moving down the assembly line...
Finished blocks, photographed on a convenient hedge.
Quilting creates such wonderful textures.
More stitches. I'm not a fan of stitch-in-the-ditch, but I love getting right up toward those ditches.
home-blocks-closeup-3-500
Hand-finished binding, always perfectly imperfect.
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This post first appeared on my Patreon page. Join today to see everything first!
"Whatever happened to Spweet?* Are they still aggregating Kuhfwangles?" "No, they pivoted."
In the tech startup world, pivoting is "a structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth." (source)
Or to paraphrase Steve Blank: Fire the plan, not the CEO.
I painted so hard in 2016. And 2015, and 2014, and on back. I love the paintings I painted. But I'm tired of painting.
They Grow Around Roads. Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, 2015 by Sarah Atlee. Available at Ro2 Art.
I've been a painter for 20 years. It's been my pastime, my course of study, my profession, and a big part of my identity. It's been easy to answer the question,
"So, what kind of art do you do?"
Well, that's a good question. Right now, I'm not interested in making paintings. So how can I tell people I'm a painter? You know what I'm doing now? I make quilts.
Why Make Quilts?
Quilts inhabit an interesting space between two and three dimensions, comprising both image and object.
Quilts are largely functional works of art, meant to be touched, used, and worn over time. I make quilts that should be used - no hands-off museum mentality here.
Across cultures worldwide, quilts are created to mark time and record history, both public and private. We make quilts to commemorate birth, marriage, transition, sickness, even death. A quilt can simultaneously signify the history of one person and an entire people.
Quilts are a way to make old materials new again. They embody the age-old practice of making do, ever more relevant in our consumer culture.
Are quilts art? The debate plods along. I have the opportunity to expand the conversation about “craft” or “functional art” in “fine art” spaces. As one educated in the traditional art school system, making quilts feels at once radical and yet completely appropriate. Of course quilts are art!
Have I hung up my paintbrushes for good? Certainly not. I need some time to create in this other vein. I think I will return to painting through some side door that I can't see just now. It's going to take new practices and strategies to continue my art business with this new hat on. I'm definitely up for the challenge.
So now, when someone asks, "What kind of art do you do?" I tell them: I make quilts.
I'm a quilter, y'all.
* Okay, you would not believe how many nonsense words I auditioned for this sentence, but it turns out they are already in use, most of them as tech startups. Rejected words include: sploof, tweenge, treeve, alboo, florp, gloove, traeve, fween, spang, splot, ofen, crangle...
Martini: Head Clog II. Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, 2016 by Sarah Atlee. $1,080
For purchase inquiries, contact Cerulean Gallery at 214.564.1199.
This post first appeared on my Patreon page.
I would like to thank the fine folks at Cerulean Gallery for hosting my paintings these last few weeks; I’m honored to be working with you. I would also like to thank my Patreon patrons for your ongoing support – you guys are the best!
Martini: Head Clog II (Detail view 1). Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, 2016 by Sarah Atlee.
Remember that first head-clogging Martini? Here's round two.
About the Glitch Series
In the Glitch series, I use vibrant acrylic paintings to reimagine traditional still lifes for the digital age. My recent compositions combine tempting, succulent foods with "glitches" painted directly onto the canvas. An avocado is interrupted by the irregular curves of a cracked screen. The natural beauty of an heirloom tomato is marred by low-resolution errors and broken pixels.
Historically, still life paintings are windows onto impossibly perfect worlds. This illusion of perfection continues into our daily lives on the Internet, as we live from one Insta-worthy moment to another. Why not use the flaws of online technology to break into that illusion?
Martini: Head Clog II (Detail view 2). Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, 2016 by Sarah Atlee.
Thanks to everyone who came to see the show!
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