2010 Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit Favorite

The 2010 Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit will be hung at the American Sewing Expo this week. This is the fifth year that I've run the exhibit, and the third year that it has served as a fundraiser to help a fellow artist raise funds for a cause.

The 2008 exhibit benefited Virginia Spiegel's Fiberart for a Cause project (which raises funds for the American Cancer Society), the 2009 exhibit benefited Bernie Berlin's animal shelter A Place to Bark and the 2010 exhibit is benefiting Claudine Intner's Art Now for Autism (which raises funds for Autism Speaks.)

The exhibit this year is small but it is very mighty. There is a lot of emotion and beauty packed into the 30 quilts that will go up for exhibit and I'm once again honored and humbled to organize an event that helps bring them to the forefront for others to see.

Each year an exhibit favorite is chosen and this year, the quilt is "Phil's Temple" by Holly Kreag:




Here is Holly's artist statement: This quilt is dedicated to my nephew, Phil, who was recently diagnosed with autism. He lives in Japan, and visited me in the U.S. last year, just prior to his diagnosis. At the time, he repeated almost everything that was said to him. He has since progressed and moved out of the repeating phase. I wrote a haiku (a Japanese poem) about my memory of his visit. Creating this quilt was a comfort to me, and made me feel closer to Phil.


The haiku that is on Holly's quilt reads:

Phil
Repeats what you say
Not sure what he's thinking, but
answers your questions


As in past years, I'll be putting together an online and print catalog of the show. If you are in the area this weekend, please stop by the expo and take a look at the exhibit!