Lecture Subject in Houston

Next Wednesday evening is the premiere night of this years Houston International Quilt  Festival at George Brown Convention Center. This Festival is so large it uses the ENTIRE convention center.  I am not nervous or anything ( LIE).   In the hour before the Festival doors open, I will be giving a lecture discussion with a sizeable number of attendees.   The subject? ... the creation of this very quilt which is also in the show.

I usually work from my own photos.... but in this case, this quilt  came from several years of oggleing (?sp)  a photo  in a gallery exhibit in Mexico. After annually visiting this gallery each summer for 7 or more years, 2 summers back I happened upon the  photographer visiting the gallery as well. We struck a deal. I purchased a (fairly pricey) photograph in trade for being authorized to interpret this image as an art quilt. I felt the joy of these 2 little village girls the entire time I worked on this piece. It is entitled "Best Friends" in line with what these 2 young ladies are!

 Interpreting anothers work requires original artist authorization and acknowledgement in competitive entries.  Because such work is acknowledged NOT to be totally original, know that using anothers work as a source is often not as competitive as an original image of the art quilters own doing.  BUT... in this case, it just didn't matter to me as I loved the joy in the faces of these 2 young girls. Friendship is more valuable than MONEY!

This is a good sized piece (35 x 48) on display next week in Houston Click on photo for enlarged view.

 (c) copywritten image - (c)Tomas Spangler original source photo