The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.
― Mary Catherine Bateson.
Artist Statement
My fiber/textile art is created with a single or ongoing story in mind. These stories originate from my life experiences, observations, struggles, dreams and hopes. The earth and its inhabitants are very precious to me and I want to do work that contributes to environmental conservation efforts. I primarily use recycled textiles in my art to include recycled clothing, textile manufacturing samples and scraps, and discards from others quilt-making. My focus is on improvisational design: The fabric itself and creative inspiration guide me to allow the piece to evolve organically and become what it wants to become. Currently I have four (4) story series for my textile art: Recycled Hope, Color Stories, Special Stories, and Nature Stories. You can view my Art Quilt Story Series on my Art Quilt Stories section.
Art Quilt Stories
Currently I have four (4) story series for my art: Recycled Hope, Color Stories, Special Stories, and Nature Stories.
RECYCLED HOPE
The Recycled Hope an ongoing series of improvisational art quilts using recycled materials to include denim as the primary fabric on many of the pieces, combined with other recycled materials. “Hope” and the interpretation of the word “hope” is the primary theme of infused into these pieces.
Most of the fabrics were not reusable as clothing or home decor and were destined to end up in a landfill. Reimagining recycled clothing and other materials into art quilts satisfies my hopeful desire to honor the environment and make art that is eco-conscious. Ending up in an art quilt is a better outcome than ending up in a landfill.
RECYCLED HOPE I: RECYCLED ROAD
Photographed by Tierney Davis Hogan
18” W x 40” L, recycled jeans, various recycled clothing, and recycled home decor fabric
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
The story of this art quilt from recycled denim and recycled clothing is the story of the many roads traveled by the creative spirit.
The road in this quilt represents one of many roads traveled by our creative spirit. The “pathway” starts at the orange corduroy boundary between the multicolor “road” and the plain gray “road”; and continues beyond the top edge of the quilt. It has no boundaries beyond the limits we set on our own imagination.
Seeking a bit of adventure in working with recycled clothing, I used an old pair of faded and threadbare gray sweat pants to create the edges of the road. I hand quilted the piece to give it an organic feel. Hand quilting the recycled fabrics was an unique multilayered and meditative tactile experience.
OWNED BY PRIVATE COLLECTOR
RECYCLED HOPE II: RECYCLED DOOR
Photographed by Marion Shimoda
18” W x 40” L, recycled jeans, various recycled clothing, and recycled home decor fabric
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
Inspired by a door on Australian door and window manufacturer’s website – Brisbane Timber, I imagined a door made with recycled textiles instead of wood for my Recycled Hope series.
This door can open anywhere – to ones hopes and dreams, to futures yet to be realized, or to sweet recycled memories of the past.
OWNED BY PRIVATE COLLECTOR
RECYCLED HOPE III: WINDOWS OF CONVERSATION
Photographed by Tierney Davis Hogan
55” W x 59” L, recycled jeans, various recycled clothing, and recycled home decor fabric
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
This textile creation in the Recycled Hope series, was inspired by my hope that in order to move forward as a country we need to foster open windows of conversation and respectful dialogue between peoples of different cultures, socioeconomic statuses, ages, identities and life experiences.
OWNED BY THE MASON & MAIN APARTMENTS IN SEATTLE, WA. DISPLAYED AT BUILDING A, L7 OF THE MASON & MAIN RESIDENT COMPLEX
RECYCLED HOPE IV: RECYCLED WINDOWS
Photographed by Tierney Davis Hogan
18” W x 39″ L, recycled clothing, recycled denim, and recycled home decorating fabric
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
If you peek inside the window to my creative heart you will see it filled with a desire to reuse, repurpose, and reimagine materials which otherwise would have been discarded. Part of my Recycled Denim Stories Series, this piece blends a corduroy shirt and pants, denim jeans, sweat pants, a tweed jumper, an old curtain, and home decorating fabric sample scraps into an assemblage of window-like structures.
CURRENTLY PART OF THE NEW MEXICO ARTS, ART IN PUBLIC PLACES PROGRAM
RECYCLED HOPE V: RECYCLED LOVE
Photographed by Tierney Davis Hogan
18” W x 40″ L, recycled clothing, recycled denim, and recycled home decorating fabric
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
The first law of thermodynamics states that the total amount of energy in a system cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.
A quilt is made from changing the existing “love energy” from the quilt maker’s heart into a pieced textile; ultimately recycling that love energy into the quilt’s recipient heart.
AVAILABLE, PRICE UPON REQUEST
RECYCLED HOPE VI: BUSINESS CASUAL
Photographed by Tierney Davis Hogan
48″ L x 27″ W, recycled jeans, wool blanket & menswear wool suiting scraps
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
Working in a downtown Seattle office in the 1990s the required dress code was dresses, skirts or suits for women; and suits and ties for men. The concept a less formal, more comfortable dress code known as “business casual” was slower introduced in the late 1990s and eventually evolved to become the standard dress code in the 2000s.
Using recycled materials, I wanted to create a piece that represents the transition from formal business attire to business casual, which in my employer’s office today includes blue jeans.
AVAILABLE, PRICE UPON REQUEST
RECYCLED HOPE VII: ALL THE TRIMMINGS
Photographed by Tierney Davis Hogan
72.5″ L x 57.5″ W, recycled cotton fabric scraps
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
Missing my Quilting Community during the 2020 Coronavirus Quarantine and inspired by Amanda Jean Nyberg’s pattern “All Sizes”, I created a quilt from 15 years of scrap triangles collected from my quilting friends at quilt retreats and “sew dates”.
Most of the scraps in this quilt are from the trimmings of blocks by many quilters as they made their quilts. Instead of going into the trash, nearly 600 scrap triangles from the trimming of quilt blocks compose this cozy quilt.
This piece gave me hope that someday I can return to attending quilt retreats
NFS
RECYCLED HOPE VIII: SEATTLE SCRAPPY
Photographed by Tierney Davis Hogan
56″ L x 56″ W, recycled cotton fabric scraps
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
“Seattle Scrappy” is a quilt I pieced from a friend’s scraps she brought for me to at a Seattle, Washington quilt retreat in January 2020 (pre-Covid pandemic) in a free form log cabin quilt style. I took over a year to hand quilt it; and after I finished hand quilting it, I asked the tierneycreates blog readers help me select the best color of binding fabric for the quilt.
The colors in the quilt reminded me of the gray skied and rainy winters in Seattle while I lived there for 8 years and during the quilt retreat I attended early 2020. The rain inspired my hand stitching which I stitched to mimic the Seattle winter rain.
NFS
COLOR STORIES
The Color Stories series of art quilts are vibrant colored compositions, created from cottons or recycled textiles including silks, wools and linens.
Many of the recycled silks and linens are from samples and remnants from couture fabrics from the 1990’s European textile houses of Ratti, Braghenti, Castellini and D’Este.
COLOR STORY I: FLYING TRIANGLES
45 ” W x 44.5″ L, silk & linen garment scraps pieced on muslin foundation
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
A large assortment of recycled colorful silks and linen samples laying before me inspired this piece. All the colors, patterns and textures all spoke at the same time and suggested numerous exquisite combinations. At times my mind was working faster than my hands could put combinations together!
PART OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE’S PORTABLE WORKS COLLECTION
COLOR STORY II: SILK LANDSCAPE
36″ W x 23″ L, silk and linen garment samples
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE
While creating this piece I imagined a recycled silk and linen landscape of a dense magical forest of color.
PART OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE’S PORTABLE WORKS COLLECTION
COLOR STORY III: RANDOM NOT SO RANDOM
24″ W X 33″ L , linen and silk garment samples
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
The story of this piece is one of experimentation in assembling random pieces, which became less random and more cohesive in design as the piece progressed.
This might mirror the human experience as we piece together our lives in what feels like a “life experiment”. Events in our life journey might appear random but on deeper inspection or in hindsight are not random and become cohesive.
OWNED BY PRIVATE COLLECTOR
COLOR STORY IV: COLOR CHANGE
53″ W x 73″ L, linen and silk
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
I was ready to change my color story – I had been working in a bright and bold palette of silk and linen garment samples and scraps for the “Color Story” series.
While looking through the entire collection of Italian silk, linens and wool scraps, I noticed a pile of brown silks that another textile artist put aside for a piece she was working on. This pile of inspired me to change my color story and explore dark deep rich colors with brown as the focal color.
PART OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE’S PORTABLE WORKS COLLECTION
COLOR STORY V: ABANDONED WATER STRUCTURE
40″ L x 18″ W, recycled silk garment scraps, specially dyed cotton fabric
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
An abandoned power plant along a river in Oregon and the austere decay of the weather worn structure inspired this piece. It inspired my piecing of recycled silk garment sample scraps into a gray tonal variegated cotton background; I wanted to capture decaying structure and the water flowing around it from the original photograph. As technological progress is made and people migrate to urban areas, there is beauty to be found in the historical weather worn abandoned structures left behind.
PART OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE’S PORTABLE WORKS COLLECTION
COLOR STORY VI: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG – THE VESSEL
33″ L x 26 1/2″ W, recycled silk garment scraps, specially dyed cotton fabric
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
We could consider the human experience as interconnected yet individual vessels moving through time and place. The iridescence in the piece reflect the light that shines within each of us, growing brighter as we share our collective experiences.
Although we are all interconnected, at some point in each of our lives we may experiences the sensation of floating alone in space as a solitary vessel filled with our unique and private experiences. This piece represents those moments, but in a positive perspective.
I used bright and bold colors of silks with iridescence and light and a background of specially dyed graduated light to dark cotton fabric. The light that emanates from this piece represents the iridescence that shines within each of us. When we share this light, we connect our vessels to the other human vessels floating by.
The quilting was designed to elicit the feel of something old, discovered deep in the earth, as during an archeological dig.
OWNED BY PRIVATE COLLECTOR
COLOR STORY VII: IT’S GETTING WARM IN HERE
29.5” W x 20.50” recycled cotton fabric scraps and beads
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
Warm and bold colors evoke the sense of a rising heat.
Strong reds, oranges, yellows evoke rising heat in their improvisational design, while blues and purples cool down the piece slightly so the heat does not build too quickly.
OWNED BY PRIVATE COLLECTOR
COLOR STORY VIII: THE LOUD COLOR SHIFT
18” W x 14.25” L, recycled silks and linen remnants
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
I floated miniature square-within-a-square log cabin blocks in recycled bright fuchsia raw silk.
The color loudly “shifts” in this piece from quiet soft muted browns to vibrant blues, yellows and a loud powerful shocking fuchsia pink.
OWNED BY PRIVATE COLLECTOR
SPECIAL STORIES
The pieces in this series were created specifically for themed events/shows.
LANGSTON HUGHES, PIONEER POET
This quilt is part of the Women of Color Quilting Network’s Traveling Show – “Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West”
52″ W x 52″ L cotton, cotton flannel, image transfer fabric
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
This quilt shares the opening four lines of the poem’s first stanza which challenges “let America be the dream it used to be (for)…the pioneer”. These four lines are followed by a powerful statement in parenthesis: “(America was never America to me)”, summarizing the plight of African Americans historically not having access to the “American American . The entire poem is powerful and worth a full reading (poem resource: Poets.org).
NFS: Touring in national exhibit
THE LESSON & THE EQUATION
This quilt is part of the Women of Color Quilting Network’s Traveling Show – “Visioning Human Rights in the New Millennium: Quilting the World’s Conscience”
50″ W x 50″ L cotton
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
“Article I: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” – U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article I of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights resonates the values that my father instilled in my siblings and me, as young children. My father grew up in the segregated South in the 1940s and embraced at an early age that change comes from respectful dialogue, not violence.
He taught us that regardless of what adversity we faced in life, we must face it with grace; and treat others with respect, dignity, and brotherhood. The foundation for a life lived embracing the values illustrated in Article I, begins at home, modeled and mentored by the adults in a child’s life. (THE LESSON)
In this quilt, a father (modeled after my own father in the 1970s) is teaching his children, on the main blackboard, THE EQUATION to achieving a world in which people are Free and Equal: Reason + Conscience = Spirit of Brotherhood.
The two individual blackboards, “Dignity” and “Respect”, are the building blocks of the Free & Equal equation. I am from a family of educators, beginning with my great-grandfather. The blackboards in the quilt honor that legacy.
My father also taught us another key lesson, which is best expressed in the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet”.
NFS: Touring in national exhibit
GIANT AMONG THE SEQUOIAS
This quilt was part of the Women of Color Quilting Network’s Show – “Yours for Race and Country: Reflections on the Life of Colonel Charles Young”
40” W x 40” L, Recycled cotton batik fabric scraps, batik cotton fabric, recycled cotton and polyester batting, ink
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
Inspired by Brian G. Shellum’s biography, Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment: The Military Career of Charles Young (Bison Books, 2010), this piece honors the legacy of Colonel Charles Young, the first African-American Superintendent of a national park.
Floating among the trees in a mythical scene inspired by an image of a section of Sequoia National Park and by Brain G. Shellum’s book, are phrases describing the work that this groundbreaking leader accomplished during his time as Superintendent of General Grant (now Kings Canyon) and Sequoia National Parks:
- Overseeing Operations
- Park Superintendent
- Clearing Trails
- Providing Leadership
- Stopping Livestock Grazers
- Park Patrolling
- Protecting Against Poachers
- Road Building
- Respected by the Community; and
- Inspiring Youth
In the center of the piece, a giant Sequoia tree with Colonel Charles Young’s image surveys and protects the park. Adding a bit of whimsy to the piece, an image of a real U.S. Forest Service sign in Sequoia National Forest was creatively edited.
This piece also honors the precious natural environment of our national parks and is made primarily from recycled materials (batik fabric scraps) that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill.
AVAILABLE, PRICE UPON REQUEST
JIKO’S SECRET ROBE
17.25” W x 40.25” L, kimono panel, cotton fabric
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
This piece was inspired by Ruth Ozeki’s Novel – A Tale for the Time Being.
In the novel, the protagonist Nao’s great grandmother, Jiko, is a humble and wise 100+ year old Buddhist nun who wears simple robes and lives a simple life. Jiko however carries in her being – powerful history, mysteries, and depths of understanding of her place in the universe.
Beginning with a printed kimono panel, this piece represents Jiko’s “secret robe” – a robe not visible to the eye but visible to the soul. It represents the complexity, turmoil and beauty of her spirit, her experience, her wisdom and her great compassion for all beings and the earth upon which they dwell.
AVAILABLE, PRICE UPON REQUEST
SEEDS
My Women’s March banner, Seeds, is based on a Mexican proverb and the banner is currently in a national traveling exhibit called Still They Persist: Protest Art of the 2017 Women’s Marches. It is featured in a book about the exhibit by the same title published by the FemFour.
NFS: Touring in national exhibit
NATURE STORIES
Nature Stories is an ongoing series of art quilts exploring the natural world or human nature. Reoccurring themes are natural structures such as trees; and natural experiences such as growth and evolution in relation to a human’s intellectual, emotional, and spiritual journey.
NATURE STORY I: TREE OUTSIDE MY WINDOW
48″ W x 68″ L cotton and cotton batiks, inks
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
Every morning I have a cup of tea and sit in the front window looking at the trees outside my window and a sense of peace washes over me.
This piece began with a series of small experiment blocks using muted colors. Expanding the blocks, I added in trees created using fabric surface design techniques, and framed the blocks in an abstract wood grain-like fabric.
AVAILABLE, PRICE UPON REQUEST
NATURE STORY II: TREE OF NO HURRY
25.5” W x 27” L, cotton fabric, embroidery floss
THE STORY OF THIS PIECE:
How often do we hurry about in our lives attempting “to do” everything we feel we must accomplish?
This quote by ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu reminds us that a force as powerful as Nature (with a “to-do list” greater than we could imagine) does not hurry and still gets the important stuff accomplished.
NFS
All images and works are property of Tierney Davis Hogan, and cannot be used without her permission. ©
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