Kathryn Baldwin Robinson has been creative since she was a young child. She enjoys combining a variety of techniques and elements into quilt collage to create her art quilts.
When was the first time that you remember realizing that you are a creative person? How did you get started designing quilts? Always an artist, or was there a “moment”?
It wasn’t until later in life that I thought or felt that I was a creative person and maybe even an artist. In doing a written exercise, I realized that I made things, many different things, starting from an early age.
I recalled making pies for my dolls in bottle caps and drawing floor plans for sailing ships and rockets.
I even created my own mobile library in which I took books in a wagon around the neighborhood, an activity that foreshadowed my adult career.
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What different creative media do you use in your work? How did you find your creative niche?
Through the years I took creative writing classes and wrote poetry, I took drawing and painting classes, photography and Photoshop classes, crocheted, made clothing and eventually started learning traditional quilting methods. My first quilts were traditional but when I took a class in which we used both bleach and paint on fabric while creating our compositions, I saw that art certainly can be made with fabric. That realization led to even more classes and experiments with cyanotypes, encaustics, fabric printing and dyeing as well as printing my manipulated photos on fabric.
Being able to combine several different elements into a quilt collage is what I enjoy the best. Sometimes the variety of elements might be fabrics created with different techniques (such as hand dyed fabrics and cyanotypes) and another time different elements might mean a variety of types of materials such as papers and dyed fabrics and photos printed on fabric.
When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?
Typically, I start out in a clean and organized space, with a basic idea, a sketch or a reference photo, a color scheme and fabrics pulled. That sounds very planned. However, that is just the starting point.
Somewhere during the process new ideas start popping up and I begin following wherever the new ideas are flowing. That’s when I lose track of time, the workspace gets very messy and usually the best work happens.
Describe your creative space. Working with many different media, how do you organize all of your creative supplies?
Having recently completed a long-distance move from Florida to Minnesota, my workspaces are still being set up.
The main space is a light filled room with multiple windows and a view of trees. It is large enough to have sufficient workspace and storage. It is well organized with bins for different types of materials.
What I still need to work out is a place for wet work such as dyeing and printing. So far, the most likely space is in the basement with access to large sinks and a long work counter. I will need to install some sort of under counter carts for storing paints, dyes and related chemicals.
Scraps. Saver? Or be done with them?
I don’t like to save too many smaller scraps. The exception are leftovers, large or very small, of favorite hand printed fabrics.
Are you a “finisher”? How many UFOs do you think you have? How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
It pains me to have unfinished pieces.
I like alternating work between just two pieces. Sometimes I might enjoy relaxing with hand stitching and other times I prefer working on a more complicated or messier project. There were a few early unfinished pieces that I just got rid of because I had learned so much more and they did not seem worth the time and work to finish.
Now I finish each piece I start. Either I am excited or at least satisfied with the piece or it is something I consider at the very least a good learning opportunity.
Every single work is a chance to learn how to make a better work, to improve the composition, or better use color, to improve stitching or to perfect your display methods.
Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you?
My favorite part of the process is when I am trying to make several different elements work together cohesively and I anticipate how it will work out.
Finishing the quilt with a sleeve is the part of the process that I enjoy the least.
Is there an overarching theme that connects all of your work?
Often the quilt is inspired by an emotion. It might be about someone who is missed, or something that is upsetting or recalling a moment of beauty. I also enjoy responding to group challenges based on a theme or a song title or on an agreed upon photo.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
One of the topics that artist Jane Dunnewold addresses is that of your Committee of Inner Critics who live in your head, keeping you from accomplishing your best work. Reflecting on that and then focusing on your own goals and projects is very freeing.
What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work?
Reading various textile periodicals and keeping up with new textile books, keeps me aware of new artists and new techniques.
Attending local art exhibits and joining local and national groups, allowing you to meet others with similar interests, is also very helpful in keeping motivated and inspired.
What is your favorite accomplishment? Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
It is especially satisfying when you successfully express what you want to say. Those are the pieces that become your favorites.
It does not mean that you don’t see how you might improve upon the piece, but rather it is a piece that tells what you needed to say.
One of those examples for me is a work called “Dad Don’t Go.” It was created after my father’s death and I needed to say something about who he was and about how hard it was to let him go.
The piece is made from collaged papers, postage stamps, commercial fabrics and fabrics on which I printed my own photos. Over this collage I used charcoal and acrylic paints to represent my father’s face.
While the piece has three layers and is quilted, it is gelled to a painted birch box. When the piece was shown in San Antonio, the poet, DaRell (Darrell Pittman), wrote and performed a moving poem inspired by this piece.
Where can people see your work?
https://www.kathrynbaldwinrobinson.com
Interview posted December 2024
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