Quilts and Art

Wired
&

Patched

How Quilts Inspired Me  

~ CDGood

Painting by Erla Brubacher
  Quilt by Martha Smith Good  

 

There are only a few
different choices and I
could be talking to you

dressed in
traditional Mennonite

costume like this...

In my Mennonite culture
and religion, artistic

endeavours were often
seen as a hobby and
functional crafts more

than leading edge cultural
or emotional statements. 
One should not stand out
and one should always be
humble. Art History was
not really known about,  

Women should be silent in
church services and 

the faith was more about
inner beauty than
exterior show.

As I grew up I watched my
role models struggle with
self-expression and
leadership.  
In 1986 I left the area
and the faith.
 

When I returned in 2012, 
 I realised how much these

ways meant to me, and
was so grateful for these

roots. 
I was amazed to see how
much was really with me

all along. 

Tonight, I am sharing how quilts have impacted the
artistic investigations and interactive art projects

that I find myself involved in today.  

First of all, come with me back to
1980's, when Grandma showed me
the finished quilt that I had helped
design. It was a Lone Star Pattern.

I had been working on my BFA
( Bachelor of Fine Art) 

It was my teacher in high school, Dr. Walter, that helped me see the
doorway that the visual language opened. Art was a way to emerge

the wonder in the ordinary life through a self-reflective lens that
could help bring balance back to the world.   

As a creator, an artistic inquiry and an ever
questioning relationship with the Great Creator was

something that the arts principles gave voice to. 

After art school and internships in NYC, It became clear that Art was
for everyone not, just the elite.  So I created a line of wearable art
pieces that sold wholesale throughout North America. 

Thanks to many wonderful people, the line came together. The booths were
always wired and patched together. The floor and signs had magazine
paper like blocks or applique quilts. The pieces became networkers and
many people met over the next years that would not have ordinarily
discovered each other without the pieces they were wearing. 

As time ticked along... I started to show more of my paintings and
do freelance graphic design to support my family.  

After studying Restorative Justice, in Mission, BC. I started to see
community building as one big quilt. I reached out to other like minds and

we created community plays and a large octopus danced alive a
children's festival. Themes were about gathering collective wisdom, igniting

a trust in our inner soul power. (as taught by the Brahma Kumaris )
Stitching and arranging, wanting to comfort and find comfort. 

Sharing how pattern and thought relate, has been a joy, I have found
faux quilt collage maker sessions for foreign exchange students,. very
engaging as there is a visual language that all can understand. It gives
silence and integration time. It is a time to surrender and trust in a deep
inner GPS. To not follow a formula but stumble on a sense of rightness.

One of the services I
have offered is to

transform peoples travel
and ticket collections,
by cutting into tiny
squares and

collage them into a piece
for their wall. 

Another service that becomes a
product is to print out photos, cards,
brochures, and tickets and turn into
tiny durable paper beads. What once

was wholesale is now more
specialized and created in workshops

or private maker sessions. 
 

This is a "Walking Small."  
 

The Maker Session works through tough issues and transforms stuck feelings into a
story of overcoming. There a recording of the story on my sound cloud. The

outcome is a hand made object that carries a deep personal meaning. Ofter like a
quilt where you can trace the fabrics stories woven together.  
 

"Sequel" A paper drawing/sculpting Rhiah's Story. A way to weave the arts
technique that I invented. principles into a new path/story you might

want to create for yourself.

One of the biggest crazy
patch quilt was on a cement
floor in Waterloo. It was co-
created with Cheryl Ives,. Like

a quilting bee, it built trust
and established conversations
that would not have arisen if

we had not spent this time. 
see @paperbagflooring
FBpage 
 

photo credit C.A.Ives 2015

photo credit C.A.Ives 2015

It was part of a 900 square foot floor mural.
 

More recently, co-created, community
art has had momentum in interactive
art projects. This one was at Kitchener
Market. So many people came to add
their fabric piece. Many languages and

cultures were represented. 

We then created one in Philadelphia. This was a
collaborative work by many hands. 8 x 4 ft installed at
Reading Terminal Market ( fabric on Wood with polymer) 

Until April there is a feature of my work in a group show 
called "That's the Spirit" at Walter Fedy The Opening is
February 15th. RSVP [email protected]

Strange Birds, Kraggleys, walking Smalls and
recent collaged photography on metal and
wood will be showed with some paintings. 

Please Join my Wired & Patched e-list. 
[email protected] 

for bimonthly Newsletters and inspiring
activities and people to connect to. 

Never forget how much your eye for beauty
and light is needed in this world today. 
Follow that which delights your soul. 
Soon a world of balance and harmony
will be a reality. 
 

Call for a Maker Session or Group Project. 
226 ~ 978 ~ 4275

www.about.me/cd_good
 

"Everything is collage.
In a sense, the parts ‘give themselves.’

 Living the magical life
 means learning to recognize
and connect them to the whole.
We are translators and mediators in
the field from which our experience arises.
In this field, all is analogy, relation, revelation,
by the laws of correspondence.
Imagination is what opened the connection between one level and

another."
~ Suzi Gablik ( The Reenchantment of Art 1991)