to celebrate the opening of the exhibit of:

Reminder:Exhibit reception tonight, 530 at The Arts Center

Every other year the Benton County Historical Museum and Mary’s River Quilt Guild organize the popular Quilt County, and The Arts Center participates in this event. However the work on exhibit here in the Main Gallery is not strictly quilting as it is generally understood; a technique where smaller pieces of fabric are stitched together to make a blanket or cover. Many smaller pieces make one larger whole, if you will.

In the work of Mark Perry and Nancy Pobanz we see the same principle, but Perry is a printmaker and Pobanz a fiber artist mainly working in paper. It is remarkable how both their processes have such parallels with quilt making.

Perry has chosen the square as his predominant format. Working in etching, woodcut, intaglio and collograph printing techniques, Perry is interested in layering, sequencing, color and variation. He seeks ways to appropriate printmaking into an installation display; not to have the individual prints stand alone, but to let a number of them form a new composition (a larger whole). The grids he uses have strong similarities with those used in quilt making.

Pobanz’ work is steeped in revealing/concealing. Writing deeply personal thoughts, purging herself and using the produced text on paper or fiber materials in a disguised manner gives her the opportunity to both reveal and conceal herself. The writing cannot be read in the literal sense, but the piece as a whole can. Her compositions are directed by grids.

Pobanz makes her own pigments and fiber materials, which are selected for their color, texture and blending characteristics. The underlying topic of the piece guides the materials selection. She uses paper as fabric, and fabric as paper.