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I haven’t been to Pompeii, but I collect the evocative photos of the ruins of the civilization there. It seems like a hedonistic place, but that may only be the impression left by the wine jugs in the cellar that fell together like so many party animals. I have made a pair of quilts, and now, a high relief carving about that wine cellar. 8×10″, turned and carved elements, bas-relief texture.

The hotter version of secondary colors seemed just right for a bit of a tourist poster for Southern Europe. The white line block prints are from archeological illustrations in Marija Gimbutas’ book, The Civilization of the Goddess, about neolithic Europe. So, although I haven’t been there in 2022 (with various Boomer friends), I feel very entitled to interpret our shared heritage.

This composition began with block-painted silk. The three bird images are from a library of hieroglyphics, drawn onto the sillk, and then quilted. The small symbols are machine quilting. This kind of drawing with the sewing machine is possible with a dedicated free motion machine, like my mid-arm Sweet 16.

This quilt is finished with a facing; 9″ wide x 12″ tall

‘Proud Bird’ started with the powerful Egyptian hieroglyphic of a pelican.

The parallel lines in the tail were especially strong. I repeated them in the cowl of the bird’s head, giving a kind of Sphinx-like quality to the bird.

I also drew the figure so that the curve of the head echoed the curved color gradient in the painted silk background. The head, the lines, and the curve became the strong center of the little quilt.

Everything else I did after that was designed to echo or strengthen the impression of that center, by building on borders around each component. This process is natural for a quilter; we always start the quilting in the center and move outward toward the boundaries.

The quilt is almost monochromatic, with the yellow-orange-beige colorway predominating, and the turquoise accents limited to less that 25% of the area. The tiny bit of white is very important to the design.

When we came home from the Legends Rock paintings near Thermopolis, Wyoming, I was inspired to make my own version of the ‘quilt lady.’  The rock painting is larger than lifesize, but this one is a block print about 5 x 7,” printed on rust-dyed fabric that is not quite as red as the Wyoming rocks.

I have made a variety of goddess figures, too.  Most of these are inspired by the drawings in Civilization of the Goddess:  the World of Old Europe, by Marija Gimbutas.   I’ve drawn the bird goddess on clay and wood.  Recently, I made some simple white line woodcuts.

Here she is, with pearls.

The bird goddess works well for woodburning, too.  Here she is on a maple burl vessel, with red oxide highlights.

Some of the other goddess from Gimbutas need a 3D presentation.  I was lucky to get some red micaceous clay from Jennifer Hanson at Spinning Star studios for these three charming goddess figurines.  There is a relatively clear consensus now that the earliest use of clay by humans was for figurative work.