Liz Kettle

Liz Kettle

AFPBP-37

Liz Kettle

Karen Musgrave

3/17/2008

Monument, Colorado

Emily Bianchi

Kim Greene

Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave and I am doing a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Liz Kettle. Liz is in Monument, Colorado and I'm in Naperville, Illinois so we are conducting this interview by telephone. It is March 17, 2008. It is 11:29 in the morning. We are doing a special Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories based on the exhibit Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece. Liz thank you for doing this interview with me and tell me about your quilt "Tears Of--" which is in the exhibit.

Liz Kettle (LK): I don't know where to start. My great aunt taught me how to sew and she is my family member that had Alzheimer's and while the illness is devastating of itself, I kept coming back to thinking about my uncle who kept her at home almost the entire time until the very end, way longer most people can keep their loved one who is suffering from this disease, at home. What was remarkable is that he was definitely not a family kind of guy. he was not the naturally the loving caretaking, he was the one being taken care of all the time until my Great Aunt got sick. It was an interesting turn of events. Right after I heard about the Alzheimer's project I was visiting a friend who was a pretty new acquaintance and her husband had a short term memory loss trauma caused by a stroke and after talking to her and listening to what she had to go through every day to take care of this man who had no short term memory it was heartbreaking. He was just not functional and it was so similar to the Alzheimer's caretakers that I started thinking about caretakers in general and one of the things that struck me so deeply is how they give more than anybody can possibly image and they are so much in the background. People don't really think about how much effort it is to take care of somebody with a devastating brain disorder. Quite frankly this is one of the few times an image for a quilt has come to me almost fully intact, a vision for it, which is not usually how my stuff works. [laughs.] I usually have to work through process after process for my current work and this was like I was given a gift of the vision of how it should be.

KM: Tell me about the quilt.

LK: The central image is a big heart, which is also an image I never, ever use and I kept resisting putting this heart in. But I kept coming back to the whole idea that the caretakers give all of their heart and soul into taking care of their loved ones. I just kept wondering who fills their heart back up because it is a constant drain of energy and emotion and it never gets better, which has to be the most frustrating thing. You know going into it that it is just going to get worse and worse and worse every single day and I like I said I had this vision of this heart with all the blood dripping out of it, all the energy dripping out of it and the huge empty hole that wasn't getting filled by our society, by our community. The heart is kind of similar to an hourglass where it is all beaded on the bottom probably third maybe a quarter with red beads and the beads are dripping out the bottom. The top part of the heart is covered in small X's like cross stitch X's in a heavy thread to be reflective of the wounds that they must have. Wounds every day, the little things you regret or if you lose your temper or the sadness because you can't help or change what is going on with the person that you love. On the outside of the heart I stitched words in thread and I just adore using words in my work. I tried to balance the words between the deep sorrow and regret that the caretakers feel with the words reflecting the compassion and love that they are giving at the same time. I wanted the audience to have a balanced picture, not just a negative picture of how draining it is to be a caretaker, but also to know that sometimes it can be really fulfilling to do that kind of work even though our society doesn't pay to much attention to it. The stitching that I did is all in variegated threads that go from red to black and I did kind of a wave pattern to simulate brain waves, the paths that our thoughts take in our brain and I tried to do synapses but I just couldn't get those down. I have some of the stitching fading out into the black background so sometimes the stitching can hardly be seen and sometimes it is really there bright red and alive. The stitch lines cross each other reflecting the way our memories are all intertwined and the negative space show the big gaps of memories for Alzheimer's patients.

KM: There are beads coming off of the words also, right?

LK: Yes, I used tear drop shaped beads coming off of the words to be tears, because I think that a caregiver just must constantly be close to tears, even if they don't cry outwardly. I know that every day their heart is breaking because it is so difficult to watch your loved one fade away like that.

KM: How did you feel when it got accepted into the exhibit?

LK: I was really excited, I was really excited. I kind of felt pretty sure it would be accepted, which is also very unusual for me, every time I ever enter anything I'm always a nervous wreck but I had a peace about this that work. It would be accepted. So, I wasn't surprised that it was accepted, but I was so excited because I knew that it would affect people and it has. I'm amazed at the feedback that I get from people, and not just people who are dealing with Alzheimer's, because I kept it fairly generic and I didn't address the memory loss very dramatically. It is more about caretakers in and their struggle so anybody who has done any kind of caretaking would relate to it. I knew someone who was going through a very serious, messy divorce and this man just started crying when he saw it--he didn't even see the quilt he just saw a photograph of it. I've talked to some people who just started crying once they saw my quilt. I am not saying that I like making people cry, but at the same time I know I'm touching them even if they don't have somebody close to them who is dying of Alzheimer's. They may have been a caretaker for someone with cancer or somebody with a mental illness and it is very rewarding to know that people are being touched by my work.

KM: There is a CD that goes with the exhibit and we were all required to record our artist statement. Tell me about that experience for you.

LK: That was very hard for me because when you write your words you are a little bit removed from them, but when you speak your words it, you can't help but connect with the emotion that is right below the surface. I had to record it quite a few times to have my voice not break too much during it because it made me want to cry just talking about my piece. I get emotional now when I talk about it and I haven't seen it in two years. I don't even look at pictures of it very often because it makes me cry. [laughs.]

KM: What are your plans for the quilt when it comes back to you?

LK: I'm not really sure. I would like it to be seen somewhere in a permanent collection, possibly in a situation where it can help those who are caregivers feel that somebody understands them, somebody knows, even if they never talk to me or know me. I just want caregivers to know that somebody understands what they have gone through and so I don't know where it should go, but it should go somewhere that it can help people.

KM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking.

LK: I just figured out the other day that I have been quilting almost thirty years and that was really scary for me. [laughs.] How did I get that old? I started quilting when I was a teenager. I came from a hand stitching background, cross stitch and embroidery, so my first quilt was a cross stitched pattern and I still have it. I show it very rarely because it is so bad. It had a printed diagram on it, the printed cross stitch pattern and the quilting pattern lines where you are suppose to quilt it and they were about a quarter inch apart. I thought that was where you were suppose to quilt on those lines, just like the cross stitch lines, so the stitches in the middle of the quilt are pretty big. Somebody clued me in that the stitches were supposed to be a lot smaller. It took me a long time to finish that quilt, but right at the time I finished it I was pregnant with my first son and started doing baby quilts and it just kind of snowballed from there. I've done just about every kind of quilting and have gone more into art quilting these days, but I also still do some traditional quilting because I find the rhythms and the peace of traditional quilting very calming and soothing when my life is filled with extra chaos.

KM: How many hours a week do you quilt?

LK: It is pretty variable. I try to dedicate Sundays to quilting, the whole day. It is my day to do anything that I want. I have three boys, I home school two of them, they are teenagers and I have one grandson so I have kind of a crazy busy life with some part time jobs and teaching quilting classes thrown in. I don't get a whole lot in, but I try and do probably get in about an hour a day. If I can't get actual quilting done I'm at least working on a design or thinking about a process. So, probably an hour a day and then all of Sunday unless something else major comes up, a holiday or a class I take somewhere.

KM: Do you belong to any art or quilt groups?

LK: I do. I belong to Front Range Contemporary Quilt Group and it is the most unique group of quilting artists that I have ever heard of or been in. It is such a giving group. It is a huge group and the talent is amazing. They are so giving and they share their techniques, they share their work, they share their thought processes and we have fabulous guest speakers come in all the time. I am very fortunate to be in an area that is really focused on quilting.

KM: Do you think of yourself as an artist or a quiltmaker or do you even make the distinction?

LK: I think of myself as an artist. It took me a long time because I came from a totally traditional quilt background and it took me probably two years to be able to stop calling my studio a sewing room, but now studio comes off my lips as the norm. I think that the distinction between traditional quilting and art quilting is really a mote point. Anytime, art is about communication and intention, putting intention in your work so as soon as you put any intention into your work it becomes art and you are speaking in a language of fabric and color and design. Even if you are using a traditional design, putting your own pieces in, making your own color combinations, then it is art even if it is very traditional. I think that if you compare it to the paint world, anytime someone is doing a still life, that is not particularly imaginative, it is not something very out of the box, but that is still art even if it is a still life that they have been doing over and over again, so I think that we need to get away from thinking quilting is not art. If you are doing a kit that somebody else picked all the patterns and somebody else picked all the colors and all the fabrics that isn't art. There is nothing wrong with making kits, one may just happen to go in your kid's bedroom but that is not art. Anytime you are doing the choosing whether you realize it or not you are making art. A lot of people disagree with that, but it is just my opinion.

KM: Works for me. You mentioned having a studio so describe it.

LK: Disaster is probably the best word that comes to mind. I'm a piler by nature so my studio tends to be piles. I guess I like to nest because even my desk is piles of books and piles of papers, I just can't seem to put those things out of sight. My studio is in the basement so I don't have very much light, but it is a fabulous room because it is mine. I have a Pellet stove down there so it is toasty warm in the winter. It is incredibly crowded because I have gone from just traditional work to a more art quilt, mixed media format, I've been incorporating a lot more mixed media, so in addition to my fabrics and all my cutting mats and tools I have to have paints and all kinds of bazaar stuff for printing on fabric, and stamps and inks and dyes. [laughs.] I've got lots of metal doodads and old jewelry and just anything you can image, so my studio is kind of bursting at the seams and creeping into the hallway outside of it. I've gotten my family to the point where they know they just need to send me down there every once in a while to get some work done when I'm getting kind of cranky.

KM: What are your favorite techniques and materials?

LK: That is a hard question. I'm a Gemini and I truly fit that description in that I love everything, I love traditional and I love totally abstract work, I love to do just about every technique except maybe paper piecing that is not my favorite. Of course I'm in the middle of this huge paper piecing traditional quilt [laughs.] that is more difficult than I should have started. I don't have a favorite technique, I love to learn all the techniques out there in mixed media as well as in traditional quilting and I like to mix them up. I like to pull from all the different tools in my box and say I need to appliqu this, or this needs to be pieced, just to get the effect that I need. The more tools I have in my box the better. As far as supplies, man I adore fabric, I have since I was a little kid, my mother couldn't even take me shopping because I would have to touch every blouse, every fabric that we walked by in a clothing store and hide in the racks and just kind of revel in that fabric all around me. Fabric is my first love, but I love to paint on fabric, I love to alter it, I love to stamp it, I love fibers on top and beads, of my gosh I adore beads. [laughs.] I kind of like everything. I have a very messy studio. [laughs.]

KM: I'm glad I'm not alone. Whose works are you drawn to and why?

LK: Well, it goes along with saying that I love to do every kind of quilting and all kinds of mixed media work that I'm drawn to so many different artists. One would be Laura Cater Wood's work. I love her work, it is so organic and abstract, I love that and if you look at photos of her environment you can see her quilts, how she is influenced in her pieces. Leslie Riley is another one and I like to work in her style also, I love that whole feel of vintage and layers in her collage type of work. So those are the two that spring to mind the easiest, fastest, but quite frankly I've yet to see a quilt that I don't like. [laughs.]

KM: What advice would you offer someone starting out?

LK: Find your own way. Learn the rules but don't get so hung up on the rules that you are afraid to try something that is not perfect. Perfection is really not what our lives are about, learn what works for you, what ways you like to stitch. I'm a perfectionist by nature so it took a huge amount of time for me to be able to find my own style of quilting, my own ways, because I was always trying to be perfect. The traditional quilt world, the way their shows are judged, kind of lends itself to that. Don't get hung up on that, perfection is all fine and good, but you have to learn how to just enjoy the process, quilting is a wonderful art form and it is so rewarding, just incredibly rewarding, so keep doing it.

KM: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today?

LK: I think it is probably part of what I just talked about, the getting away from all the rules to make it something that you can call your own. I think the more computerized our world gets, the more we need to get back in touch with art and self expression and if you get stuck in that world of perfection and perfect stitching and perfect points, you lose track of that communication aspect of art and so that is why I think the art quilt movement is so important and why it is growing so fast, because once you can start putting your own thoughts and emotions into a piece that you are working on, it is so much more satisfying and so much more rewarding. So I think that breaking away from, not tradition necessarily but from the structure that we have imposed on the tradition to be able to create your own is necessary. If you look at the Gee's Bend work, they started with tradition but brok away from tradition because they had to make do so they have ended up with these beautiful works of art because they put their own thoughts, emotions, and intentions into the pieces and did what pleased them, not what was fitting a set of arbitrary rules.

KM: I'm not sure they knew there were rules.

LK: Well maybe not.

KM: Which I think is also very liberating.

LK: It is very liberating. I just took a watercolor class this weekend and we weren't given a whole lot of rules and it was very liberating because it is very intuitive, you just keep trying things and if it doesn't work out, oh well you put another layer of paint over it or put it away for another day and you will come up with some other use for it. I think you can learn a lot from other art forms where it doesn't always have to be structured and it can be play. I think we don't play enough as a society, we get too caught up in producing and consuming that we forget that art can be about playing. I think so many people are drawn to quilting in the first place, because it is functional, well most of them are functional, and you can start off making something functional because people accept that more than if we are just going to go play and make art, it is still a problem in our society. I don't think art is valued as a process.

KM: I think in the United States we are very product driven and not process driven.

LK: Yes, we are very end result driven and that is how we got into this whole perfection dilemma to begin with in the quilt world. If you forget about the end product and just work on the process you will have so much more fun and you will take more risks and you will put more of yourself into your work.

KM: Do you take a lot of classes outside of the quilt world? You mentioned the watercolor class.

LK: I do, I do, I take quite a few, the watercolor one is a new one for me, it is a collage and watercolor class and that was pretty scary because I didn't have a clue, thank goodness most of the class didn't have a clue either. [laughs.] In the quilt world we don't do a lot of experimenting, classes are very product oriented instead of process oriented. All the classes I've designed are process oriented. You may end up with a product and you may not, but they are not designed to teach you how to make this end product, it is designed to teach you how to go do it on your own with just the elements and principals of design, and we don't get that very much in the quilt world, so I've gone to other media to find some of that. I take a lot of classes in mixed media, using metal and found objects, using all kinds of alternative materials, kind of altered art work. It is very freeing to work in something that is not your media and you can learn a lot and then sometimes you can bring that stuff into your chosen media and that is really fun.

KM: You mentioned liking to use words. Tell me more about how you use words in your work.

LK: A lot of times I will stitch words into my work. Usually on the surface where it is seen, not usually where it is hidden. Sometimes I will put words on fabric and stitch them down as a collage element because I make a lot of collage. I kind of work in two different styles, very contemporary and collage, old feeling. A lot of times I will use words to tell a story. I love to tell a story. I don't tell the whole story in words usually, but I like to use a few words that suggest a story or suggest an emotion for a piece. There are a lot of people are using words in their work these days and there is some discussion whether that is making the work to obvious and therefore less significant in some esoteric art discussions. I think anytime you can increase communication with just a few words you add a deeper meaning to the piece. As a whole, our society isn't used to thinking in art symbols and metaphor these days. I think you need to make art more accessible to people and sometimes some words can help them understand the piece, or understand what you are trying to say in a piece.

KM: You signed on the front your name to "Tears Of--" Is that typical?

LK: Yes, yes, I always sign my work right on the front. I don't do the label thing on the back. One it is a security issue, somebody could take out all those little tiny stitches that I signed my name in but they aren't likely to. You can easily take a label off the back of the quilt and put another label on and no one would know the difference. I think even if you are making a Log Cabin quilt for a bed, sign your name on it, it is your work and it also helps for remembering for posterity who did what when. You should be proud of your work; you should put your name right on front. Now, I didn't always do that, I used to put my labels on the back and hid my name, but now I automatically put it on the front of everything.

KM: What do you think makes a great quilt?

LK: I think that really the elements and principals of design are really important in making a great quilt, you've got to have good design, balance and rhythm, color value, texture, you have to have all those pieces there. Sometimes people make great quilts not knowing that they are using those elements of design, but once they look at it and you point out what they are they are all there. I think a piece that can communication, whether it is communicating, like a Log Cabin quilt made out of flannels, that speaks on its own, it speaks of warmth and caring and love and comfort, or maybe a real political art contemporary piece that speaks out about something. If it can communicate a thought or emotion, I think that makes it a successful piece.

KM: Why is quiltmaking important to you?

LK: I think that part of the reason I'm so drawn to fabric as a medium for expression is that it is so accessible to people. If you work in watercolors or oil paints or even drawing, most people don't relate to that. Everybody knows about fabric, we know how it feels, we know how it smells, it touches all of the senses. It is so hard for people at quilt shows not to touch these quilts because that is part of who we are and I think that that is part of what I like about it so much, it is so accessible to everybody. We all understand the medium, as opposed to oil painting. I can enjoy an oil painting, but it some how is removed from me, I don't understand it so I don't relate to it quite as much as I do to a fabric piece. Fabric and stitching have been with us pretty much since man first started clothing themselves, so it is part of our history and I guess that is the best way I can explain it, it is I feel very connected to other people through that medium as opposed to paints or ceramics.

KM: What does your family think of your quiltmaking?

LK: My husband is an engineer [laughs.] and these three teenage boys, well one not a teenager any more, one young adult and two teenagers, so they just think it is something that mom does. They don't really know what I'm doing. They will say, oh that looks nice, or that kind of thing, but they don't really get what I'm doing. I'm kind of the balance for all of the left braininess in this house.

KM: Have you ever used quiltmaking to get through difficult times?

LK: Yes I have. Yes I have. Sometimes I can't do it in the moment because the emotions are too raw, but I will very often work through something in quiltmaking. Sometimes it is a very small piece, you know postcard size even and that helps. Quilting helps because, number one it is a process where you are working by yourself and you are free to think and as you are working with the fabric it is so soothing and meditative that it really helps you to get closer to your brain and your emotions and understanding what you are dealing with and to let that stuff go, let it go, and sometimes it is obvious in my work, sometimes you can go wow this thing is a sad piece or an angry piece but it is really nice to have a place to let it go, otherwise if you keep it in your brain it just eats away at you and you worry about it and you've just got to let it out.

KM: Have you sold any quilts?

LK: No I haven't sold any. I've given away an awful lot.

KM: Do you sleep under a quilt?

LK: No. [laughs.] That is funny, the paper piece quilt is for my bed, is really crazy complicated. I keep looking at this, why did I pick this complicated pattern? I've been working on it for seven years now. I can only do a little bit at a time. I told you I don't really like paper piecing, why I decided to do a paper piece quilt for my bed, I don't know. My kids sleep under my quilts, but not me. [laughs.]

KM: Do you have a lot of quilts in your home?

LK: Not a lot, well, you know when you start looking around you go, oh there is another one, there is another one. Yeah, most of my walls are decorated with my work and I've got at least one in my mom's house and there are quilts here and there. Snuggle under quilts. Like I said I still like to do traditional snuggle up quilts just as much as I like to do art quilts.

KM: Which I think is wonderful. That is one thing that I like about the quilt community. You can do it all, or a little part of it.

LK: Yes, you can do all or just a little and you are accepted by the community.

KM: Do you think that your quilts reflect your community and region?

LK: In some ways yes, especially some of the work that I've been doing recently, they are not actually quilts. I've been doing some pieces that are fiber books, fabric books and some of those definitely reflect where I am, especially this time of the year. I am at 7200 feet so we get a lot of snow but we have these incredible blue skies and it is very dry so our grasses and trees are olives and browns so I tend to use those colors a lot in my work this time of year. I'm very influenced by the time of the year.

KM: I find that in the winter my work gets very colorful.

LK: That happens sometimes too.

KM: Because I crave color.

LK: Yes. I do, I kind of go back and forth between these very muted pale pieces in the winter and very bright flowery things, which are not my usual style, but sometimes it is like I just need some bright color. [laughs.]

KM: Usually before I end, I like to offer people an opportunity to share anything that we haven't touched upon that is important to them, and so this is your opportunity.

LK: I think I got in most of the things I'm really passionate about. Be free in your quilting, don't let the rules stifle you and just play, we don't play enough. Sometimes I will just sit down at my machine and stitch on a piece of fabric with no premeditation or thought or anything and it is sounds bizaar but its so soothing and it can get me ready to work on a bigger piece or it can just satisfy that need to create something now and I'm always surprised what comes out from under my needle, it is usually something pretty interesting, shapes that I didn't know I was thinking of until I see them and go, oh well there it is right there, what I've been thinking about all along.

KM: Now you write.

LK: I do.

KM: Tell me about your writing and the relationship to quiltmaking.

LK: Right now I'm writing for Quilters' Home Magazine. I write articles with my partner, Debbie Bates, she is in Canada and we have been friends for about twenty years now, and I taught her how to quilt and she taught me how to have fun. We write a smattering of different types of articles, but no matter the topic, we are always trying to get quilters to think a little differently, to think that they can have fun, they can play and it doesn't all have to be work. Try to have a little fun with it. We are working on a book about creativity for quilters because a lot of the creativity books out there really don't address the differences in the quilting genre from other genres like writing or painting, they are very specific to those art forms. Our book is designed to help traditional quilters, move to the world of art quilting. How do you let go of all those rules, especially if you are a pacifist or I mean a perfectionist. Sorry not pacifist, perfectionist. How do you make that leap and it is such a smaller leap than you would think.

KM: Who wants to be pacifist too, you need help. [laughs.]

LK: That is true, that whole negative self talk it is hard.

KM: Exactly.

LK: Really hard to get out of that. We do that to ourselves. To help break that habit, I teach a journaling class for fiber artists, for quilters, which his a lot of fun and I teach them that they don't have to journal in words, you can journal in fabric, you can journal in textures and the harder the whole process of going into that more art quilt world, it is really learning about yourself and I think every traditional quilter should be an art quilter and I think every art quilter should be a traditional quilter too because both worlds have so much to offer and they shouldn't be separate.

KM: Where do you teach?

LK: I teach at my local quilt shop which is a fabulous little shop called Wild Heather Designs Heather Thomas bought out our traditional shop about a year ago. Unfortunately for my pocketbook since she has lots of great mixed media things to add into your quilts and paints, and she teaches all kinds of different surface design and other different quilting techniques.

KM: Where do you think quiltmaking is going to go?

LK: I think it is here to stay as an art form. But, I read a lot of quilting forums and there is always a lot of talk about quilting dying or not and I think that as a community, we have got to embrace those younger people coming in and we need to encourage them and we need to accept that they are not going to quilt like we quilt, they don't really want to know all those rules, they just want to know how to make what they see in their heads. I think that we need to really encourage young people, from middle school up and maybe even younger to learn how to sew and to quilt because being connected with fabric and thread and needle is centering. I think it really balances the whole computerization of our society; it is so tactile where the computer world is so non-tactile and I think it helps you to always have to have something that centers you, that balances you. So I'm hopeful that this next generation of quilters coming up is accepted. I know I've talked to a few that have not had good results in quilt stores. They feel like they are watched for shoplifting more than viewed as the future

KM: I used to manage a quilt shop and I would say that when the younger people came in the owner was very nervous about that, but I always embraced the younger people. The tattoos and the piercings and all of that stuff never bothered me.

LK: I'm like, come on in I want to.

KM: Exactly. I was always fascinating by why are you here you know.

LK: I want to understand you and there are some great stuff going on out there, it is all kind of underground though. I try to look at the Threadbangers' website pretty regularly because they are doing some really fun stuff. I think they have a Discovery or Learning Channel show. I'm not even sure where it is from but it is some kids doing really fun stuff with fabric, altering clothes and making it their own, so I think it is good for our industry.

KM: Do you think the move toward really quick things, things that can be accomplished quickly, do you think that is a reflection of trying to get younger people involved?

LK: No I think that is more of a reflection of the product focus that we have, rather than the process focus. Most of these quick things are still designs with the traditional world I mind and not necessarily appealing to the younger kids coming in. As a society we want everything fast, we want it done now, we want it done yesterday, quilting isn't like that, it is probably the most labor intensive art form out there. In my watercolor class over three days we were working on two separate projects. Most people had at least one finished piece, sometimes two or three, totally finished, ready to frame. That doesn't happen in a quilting class, it just takes so much longer because of the medium and that whole get it done quick, fast and easy, I don't think that is going to help society, I think we need to realize there is value in slowing down and doing hand work. I am so excited about the new embroidery coming out. There are a couple new books on modern embroidery, hand stitching and I think it is great, because that slowing down gives us time to think and if everything is fast and easy and quick, then we don't have any time to think. But if it gets people in the door sometimes that is good too.

KM: We have spent forty-five minutes together.

LK: That goes fast.

KM: Yes it does go fast because you are having fun. I want to thank you for taking this time to do this interview with me, and we are going to conclude our interview at 12:15 p.m.

LK: Thanks Karen it was a lot of fun.

KM: You are welcome.