Art Quilts International: Abstract and Geometric

This book is now published and is available in all major bookstores.  You can also order the book from this link.  Judy Martin is one of the 29 featured artists that author Martha Sielman interviewed so very well.  She has the rare gift of being able to hone in on each artist's personal belief system.

As well there are 95 other quilts from artists across the globe including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, japan, latvia, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK and of course the USA.

Judy's article begins on page 80.  After a brief introduction by Martha Sielman, the text continues in the artist's voice.

Judy Martin
Manitoulin Island Ontario Canada
Known for her dense hand stitching, Judy Martin's art explores the process of making.  Working in cloth is a form of meditation, as thousands of stitches slowly cover the surface and piece together a new beginning.

Process not product

Making something slowly with one's hands is perhaps on of the most nourishing things a person can do.  Creating something from nothing - or better, creating something new from something no longer needed or wanted - is healing for the planet and for us.

Mended world   2012  94" x 94"
   repurposed linen and cotton damask, silk, cotton, hand pieced, machine pieced, hand quilted, hand embroidered.
  Made with community assistance as part of the Manitoulin Circle Project  

The Manitoulin Circle Project was a sewing circle that met every week to create four ninety-inch-square panels.  One of the four panels, Mended world, uses a variety of donated and thrift shop damask table linens string-pieced together, cut and pieced again.  Because of the multiple seams, the narrow strings often had to be mended using backstitching as they were being pieced together.  As I worked to mend an area of the central circle, the title Mended World came to me as a description of the form e ere stitching, as ell as a vision of hope for our planet.  I think that these panels give hope.  These panels are solid; they are real.  They are a tangible way to show our belief in a future.

Importance of solitude

Cross my Heart (detail)  2010  hand stitch on dyed linen layered on velvet 

Groing up in an isolated rural environment has greatly affected my life, my worldview and certainly my work.  I grew up on 160 acres in northern Ontario, miles from urban civilization.  Isolation is familiar for me and maybe its even necessary.   I grew up with my two siblings and a lot of solitude. Summers were spent under the willow trees daydreaming.

Cross My Heart  2010  33 x 35 inches  silk, linen, velvet, dye, paint, hand embroidered, hand quilted

Today I choose to live in the country and try to spend most days alone.  My work reflects this choice and often references what I live with here on Manitoulin island: large empty fields of grass, long views over ripples of water toward a calm horizon.

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