September Artist of the Month Laurel Izard

Rhino Horizon, machine quilted assorted fused fabrics, 24” x 27.5”, 2020

Laurel Izard currently lives and works in Michigan City with her artist husband Edwin Shelton and two cats. She received a BA from Northern Illinois University, with majors in art and anthropology, and a MFA in Ceramics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After collage Izard and her husband started a ceramic business called Izwin, and wholesaled colorful whimsical tabletop wares to galleries, boutiques and department stores throughout the country. After twenty-three years of self-employment she taught art in numerous after-school and summer programs. Her art-teaching career culminated in nine year of teaching art at Marquette High School. Her philosophy as an artist and teacher is that an integral part of being human is to be creative, and continues to teach others how to discover their inner artistic resources. Currently she works part time as the education coordinator at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts and creates art full time. Izard is an award-winning artist who exhibits her artwork throughout the country.

The Magic Bringer, quilt with hand appliqué, hand embroidery and quilting. Made from contemporary fabric, vintage quilt tops, and glass beads 28” x 35”, 2019

The Kagu, Hand embroidered, painted and quilted vintage quilt top. 37” x 26.5”, 2020

Endangered Birds of North America, hand-embroidered, dyed and quilted vintage quilt tops, 59” x 36”, 2020

Making art, for me, is both a meditation and dialogue with the materials and the elements of art. I make art of some kind every day, because it feeds me emotionally and spiritually. My studio environment is filled with a large assemblage of artworks, rocks, fossils, pottery, and old lunchboxes that have been collected over the years. Collecting has influenced my work beyond visual cues and such things, as vintage books, ephemera and old textiles become the materials in my work. I am a collector of images as well and have over 50,000 images of art, science, science fiction, quilts, animals, artists work and you name it stored on Pinterest. My background in anthropology has always played a big part in my art, and interest in how we see the world physically and spiritually. My work has been exhibited in galleries, and art centers all over the country, and I have won awards along the way.

A fascination with sewing and textiles started as early as I could hold a needle, but I never really considered it as my main art making material until 2011. Since then I have spent hours creating small intensely embroidered images loosely based on the archetypes of the tarot. 2019 has been the year of the quilt as I have embarked on a project to portray animals, particularly endangered animals on art quilts. Now I have an even better excuse to collect old quilts and exotic fabrics.

Thought and Memory, machine quilted assorted fused fabrics, 22.5” x 55”, 2020

Egyptian Vulture, hand embroidered, painted and quilted vintage quilt top, 24” x 30”, 2020

Laurel Izard

bluedreamingbear@gmail.com

web site: laurel-izard.com

Instagram: @izardlaurel

Facebook: Laurel Izard-Fiber Artist, https://www.facebook.com/IzardFiber

Florida Scrub Jay, Hand embroidered and quilted vintage quilt top. 9” x 8”, 2020

Animal Quilts

I have always had a deep concern for the planet and all the people, animals and plants living on it. It is only recently that I have begun to address the mass extinction of animals by portraying them in my art quilts. As I do the research for each artwork I learn quite a bit about the factors underlying the perilous edge many of these animals exist on. It is my hope to evoke these “edges” as I portray endangered animals in my quilts.

I have chosen to use vintage quilt tops because I find the old fabrics and patterns in them endlessly varied and beautiful. On an emotional level I appreciate the abandoned nature of these quilts, for someone had spent hours hand-piecing hundreds of bits of fabric and yet never finished their project. Most quilts have spent decades in storage and are now given new life off the bed and hung on the wall as endangered animal quilts. Symbolically quilts make me think of mothers, grandmothers, home, safety, and protection. I like to think of sending that sentiment out into the world in my pieces. Another aspect of these old quilts, that I reflect on, is that when these women were stitching them, 50 or 60 years ago, the animals were not yet endangered. I look at each sewing session as a kind of prayer offered up for each animal’s survival and for the greater wisdom and stewardship by the humans involved. We can’t go back in time, but we can adopt behaviors that will support world ecosystems and animal survival. I believe that this will take the dramatic changes on a global level, and this is but one small step in that direction.

Bat Twilight, machine pieced, fused fabric, hand and machine quilted, 47” x 32”, 2020

Blue Dreaming Bear, hand-embroidered and quilted vintage quilt top, 11.5” x 11.5”, 2019