Karen Thatcher won second place at the National Juried Show in the Original Abstract Design Pictoral category last year, and she didn't get fully on our radar. When she won an award in one of our member's challenge, someone did some digging and Ms. Thatcher got noticed. We are so glad that we can bring this amazing CQA/ACC member to the forefront!
Karen Thatcher is a remarkable woman and after
a traumatic brain injury where concentration, short term memory and
organizational thinking were compromised, Karen needed a tool to move her injury
forward. That tool was quilting. After some time the lessons
learned at Brain Injury rehab helped Karen understand that solutions could
easily be adapted to quilting needs.
Karen’s
latest project is a series entitled “My BC”.
The “My
BC” series by Karen Thatcher.
I live in a
small ski community where everyone plays outside. Most of my friends
participate in at least 4 sports, even at my age and you are more likely to
find me on a hike than in a mall. So “My BC” quickly became how and where
we play in BC. I knew that my friends might not have been to my hiking
trail but surely they would have been to one just like it. My mantra
quickly became “everyone recognizes this place.”
Biking BC
Working
with silk for this series was a different challenge but after I contacted J. Pattison
Group. (a large Canadian conglomerate), about 4000 ties were donated, from
their employees
I received
the ties and took a month to prepare them and then to categorize each into
color and value. Some ties came with a Windsor knot still
tied. All were clean and some were never used. Actually there was
one tie that had a $350 price tag on it and it was still in its wrapper. Only
two needed to be tossed out. In order to use them the silk needed to be
stripped from the tie stiffening fabric. This doesn't sound like much but it
takes about 2 minutes per tie....add it up - 4000 ties.
Fishing in BC
17 bulk paper boxes came
over 3 or 4 months, and in some of the boxes also came other very beautiful
things. There were a dozen handmade silk shirts all new, which I matched
with a beautiful tie and took to the local employment center. My thought
was that they were far too usable to be chopping up. There were 3 or 4
handmade kimonos. Again, far too expensive to destroy so I gave them to
women with breast cancer. One woman gave her wedding dress. There were
two layers of beautiful fabric measuring at least 7 meters at the hem.
I was
recently standing next to one of my quilts at a gallery, and I overheard two
people talking about the whereabouts of ‘Hiking BC’ and the two were convince
it was local. I can tell you that it is nowhere. It is just a
figment of my imagination, memory and a couple of pictures “smooshed” together.
Hiking BC
All of the “My BC” quilts have the
same history. Each quilt progressively builds on the last, hopefully adding to
my technical skill base making each quilt better.
Because I am not a professionally trained artist and because of
the brain injury my techniques might be a little unconventional and sometimes
inconsistent.
All my quilts have an idea or theme, hiking, fishing, sailing and
are started with a roll of brown paper and a fat black felt pen both found at
the local $1 store.
I usually have a bunch of inspirational photos around...stuff I
like, places I've been and paintings either masters, magazines or locals.
I decide what kind of trees and where they should go...maybe a mountain
behind. If I've seen a picture I particularly liked, maybe the layout or
color catches my attention I might use that information.
For the BC series I did not use any specific photos. Keep in mind
my outcome is never the same as the original. The original rough drawing
is the size of the finished quilt and is much like a child's drawing. All
of the artistic bits are figured out as I work. My work table accommodates a
4'x7' and everything fits flat on that and I try for less than 44" width
for obvious reasons. I work as large as I can and then cut back after the
quilting is complete.
Ski BC
I attack the piece in two ways. I often start with drawing a
rough design on fusible batting and migrate color chunks right to the batting
following the drawing lines. Sometimes I migrate chunks of color to precut
pattern pieces. These pieces are cut from pellon and then transfered to regular
batting. Usually this is determined solely on the piece and what supplies I
have. Once the background is complete, I add the shapes, layering things
farthest away to closest. Deciding to add or not to add is always the best
part. Most times the placement has less to do with the original plan but
how the background worked out. I finish with whatever ever needs to be done,
extra leaves, branches and even the occasional house might be added. Rarely is
the finished piece similar to the original. In ‘Fishing BC’
the original didn't have long grass or tree root.
Written by Karen Thatcher. Edited by Barbara Spence.
