Scott Culley began sewing as a child. He started quilting after the birth of their son. Inspired by the modern quilt movement, he uses his architecture background to design complex paper-pieced designs.
How did you get started making fiber art?
My mother sewed things for us as children. As I got into my teens I exploded making things with her sewing machine. As I got older I started making Sock Monkeys from fancy dress socks and messenger bags from old suits. I didn’t get into quilting until after the birth of our son about 7 years ago.
Why did you choose that medium?
I had become interested in Modern quilts, I was interested that people were making very modern designs in quilting, something that I had always associated with a very traditional design language.
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Where do you find your inspiration for your designs?
At first, I wanted to quilt things that I like to see, but then it turned into drawing inspiration from things happening in my life.
How does your background in architecture influence your textile art?
I think it influences me mainly in the making of the pattern. I can take an image, take it apart, and make it into a pattern so it can instruct me or somebody else to put it back together.
What do you do differently? What is your signature that makes your work stand out as yours?
This is tough to answer because I just do what I do. I think what I see as the difference between my work and others’ work is I don’t shy away from really small pieces. I’m not bothered by the bulkiness in the fabric which lends two more detailed more intricate pieces.
How do you manage your creative time? Do you schedule start and stop times? Or work only when inspired?
I do have a pretty rigorous schedule. I’m the father of two. I have a day job as an architect and I want to spend as much time on my quilting as possible. I work for an architecture firm on the East Coast of the United States, which is six hours behind Berlin. I usually spend a couple hours in my morning doing my creative work and then around lunchtime, I start doing architecture stuff. In the late afternoon, I pick up the kids and make dinner. In the evening I return to architecture or quilting, whichever needs my attention.
Describe your creative space.
I work out of a space I’ve carved out in my bedroom. I have two workspaces for my two working jobs.
I have an old dining room table that I’ve cut a hole in for my sewing machine. Then I have another table with computers on it for pattern making and architecture work. I do not have a formal studio, but that would be a real goal of mine.
Do you use a sketchbook or journal? How does that help your work develop?
In architecture school sketchbooks were highly encouraged. Most of the time demanded.
I find myself to be very sketchbook-disorganized. I’ve got 100 sketchbooks lying around here and they’re all half filled. I have a really hard time sticking to one filling it and being organized with it.
Generally, if I see something that sparks an idea, I will take a picture of it. I have a lot of pictures on my phone. They are random things that give me an idea.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
A lot of times I will work in series. I’ll have a main idea and then manipulate it a couple of different ways. My projects usually take a good amount of time because of their size and complexity. I’m usually about six to nine months on a project.
Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
My latest piece, Shadow, was inspired by a local Berlin painter who did paintings of complex patterns with faces that would emerge from them. I was intrigued by them and I wondered if I could do them in fabric.
Wanting to try this technique, I needed to find a way to make it my own. I wanted to explore how I could make the subject more interesting by looking at the pattern when it is overlaid onto a human face. This led me to think about how we interact with people and their journeys, which brought me to my relationship with my father.
That’s how I came up with the image and design. As I worked on the project, I developed the technical part of the process. I created my images on the computer. I then overlayed lines to understand how I would piece it together. Once all my lines and my blocks were figured out, I took each block separately to make a pattern. Then it’s traditional foundation paper piecing from there.
Which part of the design process is your favorite?
I don’t know if I have a favorite part of the process. I like each part for different reasons. I find the sewing of the pieces to be somewhat meditative. I like pattern-making because it uses the architecture side of my brain. The documentation uses the design part of my brain.
Which part is a challenge for you?
Right now I try to make each quilt harder than the last, or differently challenging. Whether it be a different type of design or process, or a different type of technology, or something that I don’t see being utilized in the quilting world.
In a process sense, the real challenge is not making mistakes when I get to the sewing part. I will always find pieces not done correctly or things like that. Trying to become more perfect, more mistake-free is always a challenge for me.
How has your work changed over time?
I think an artist’s work is a snapshot in time. For me, my work tends to be very personal. It’s what I’m dealing with at that time. My work is going to say different things from a technical aspect. My work is continually getting better. I look at pieces I did five years ago compared to the work I’ve done now and you can see a big technical difference between the two.
Do you enter juried shows?
I do enter juried shows. I don’t make a quilt necessarily to be in juried shows but I do enter. I’ve been lucky enough to be accepted into a bunch of them but I wouldn’t say my focus is on entering shows.
What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work?
To keep me interested I always tend to push my envelope and I’ll push my technical skills. I don’t know if I could do multiple of the same kind of quilts over and over and over again. I don’t think that would keep my interest.
Do you critique your work? What is your process?
I am constantly critiquing myself from the very beginning to the very end. Even as the pieces are hanging somewhere, I continue to find flaws and determine how I can do things better.
Do you think that creativity is part of human nature or is it something that must be nurtured and learned?
I think everybody’s creative. It’s just how they choose to express their creativity.
I had an art teacher in high school who said ‘You know everybody can draw it but if you don’t draw constantly and repeatedly, you’re never going to be any good at it’. It’s a muscle. The more you work at it the better you’re gonna be. I think everybody’s creative. It’s just how they choose to express themselves to be as good as they want to be.
How have other people supported or inspired you?
I don’t know if I can tell you there’s one person who has inspired me to do all my work. I’m supported by my family, my kids and my husband. They’re my biggest cheerleaders.
Where can people see your work?
You can find my work on Instagram and on my website. I do submit my work to a couple of shows a couple of times years QuilCon, and Quilt Festival in the UK. Once in a while I’ll have group shows with other artists or things like that here locally in Berlin.
Interview posted May 2024
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