User:LLPPK/sandbox

One of the leading figures in the art quilt movement, he is best known for his graduated color, strip-pieced quilts. He is currently the ... at UNL.

Several factors contributed to James's /switch from painting to quiltmaking/change of heart toward his chosen media/that influenced the direction of James's career. With the arrival of his son, he spent more time in the family's living space and less time in his painting and printing studio with its attendant toxic chemicals. He also began to believe that he "had nothing original or important to say in painting. And given the direction that the art world was going in at the time, it seemed clear that painting was not going to remain in the ascendancy...."

Quiltmaking, however, as a part of the craft revival of the 1960s and with the approach of the bicentennial in the early 1970s, was rising in popularity. There was a growing interest in crafts in general and quilts in particular, and a sense of nostalgia for the past. During the summer of 1971, July 1, 1971 to October 5, 1971 as James wrapped up his undergraduate career and prepared to begin his graduate studies, the influential/seminal quilt exhibit, “Abstract Design in American Quilts”, was mounted at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The show featured the Amish quilt collection of Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof, presenting the quilts on the wall as works of art. James later remarked in The Art Quilt, "The idea that quilts can be art may not have occurred to me had I not seen Amish quilts.”

James attended a lecture by Holstein in 1973 that reawakened his interest in quiltmaking.

James made his first quilt as a diversion from his undergraduate studies(?) and came back to fabric in 1972. He and his wife, who had a sewing background(?), began making and selling patchwork pillows. P.21, 22, 24 Smithsonian

“For many, the careers they pursue today as quilt artists and quilt scholars began as a result of seeing that exhibition.” (Abstract Design, forward by Shelly Zegart, p.9)... Joined the group of quilters who took the quilt off the bed and hung it on the wall.

Phases

 * 1949—1973: Early Life, Education, and Early Career
 * 1974—1978: “Apprenticeship Period”/ “Classic Phase” (Smithsonian, p.41)
 * 1978—1981: Artistic solidification
 * 1980—1990: Strip-Piecing with The Grid Period
 * 1990—1992: Disillusioned and frustrated
 * 1992—1995: Strip-Piecing without The Grid Period/”Fourth Phase” (Smith, p.42-43)
 * 1995—2001: Style Change/Less emphasis on Strip-Piecing Period (Smithsonian, p.43-44)
 * 2001—Present: “Final”/”Most Recent”/”Digital” Phase