American textile artist Joan Schulze’s  illustrious career spans decades. Her work is in galleries and private collections worldwide including the Renwick Gallery / Smithsonian Institution. Working from her studio in San Francisco, her collages and quilts are constantly evolving. “Experiments keep my work fresh and interesting to me. I aways hope the audience comes along for the ride,” she explains. 

What is your background in textiles?

I have made things with cloth since I was a little girl. The affinity was there from the beginning. I made most of my clothes after I finished a home economics class in High School. I still have my text book which is covered with the first fabric I bought. 

I received a BS Ed degree /liberal arts from the University of Illinois and taught elementary school for over five years. The organisational classroom skills helped me carve out a career as an independent artist, speaker, teacher.

How do you describe your work?

Collage, fiber art techniques, quilt making, alternative printing and many experimental techniques continue to be part of what I do in the studio. The themes are what drive the choices I make in construction and materials. Experiments keep my work fresh and interesting to me. I aways hope the audience comes along for the ride.  

What is it about quilting that appeals to you?

The layers, both physical and metaphorical. The history of women who made art in fabric. Working with nontraditional materials and experimenting with self-invented processes keep me interested. I like being surprised as I work.  

Can you briefly describe the process of creating one of your quilts? 

Early in my career I might have made a sketch, and or samples for teaching purposes. Currently I start with materials, have an idea or theme in mind but am not fanatical about following my original idea. Working with the materials I discover more than I could imagine in advance.

I know this is a very broad question but how long does a large quilt take?

There is no definitive answer to this question. For a big commission I usually need a year. I am always working on many things. Individual artworks get finished when they are finished. I don’t rush the process. Time is irrelevant.

What is your career highlight to date?

Being awarded the Fresno Art Museum Council of 100 Distinguished Woman Artist Award of 2017.

In 1986, the Fresno Art Museum became the first museum in the United States to devote a full year of their exhibition schedule exclusively to women artists. As the home of the first feminist art class in the country, taught by Judy Chicago at California State University, Fresno in 1970, Fresno’s art scene has long fostered the empowerment of women artists. The 1986/87 season was an homage to the feminist art movement.

They follow these objectives: to select an outstanding woman artist annually and present an exhibition of her work at the Fresno Art Museum, to publish a catalog documenting that exhibition, and to set up a series of lectures throughout the year featuring outstanding women artists from the Fresno region and beyond.

I was the first quilt artist to be named.

Your work has been exhibited in and is in collections of prestigious galleries all around the world. Was there a catalyst that started this?

I started traveling to lecture and teach in 1970. Over time I gained a reputation for being a good speaker, teacher and exhibiting artist. I was fortunate in being included in early seminal exhibitions and published in many art and quilt books. In 1999 I worked with a publisher and editor, self-publishing a large monograph on my work to date. The book and exhibition traveled to many countries and the US. It was well received.  It also opened the door to my long time relationship with Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Fiber art Biennale.

What advice can you give aspiring textile artists? 

If you believe in your work and what you have to say, then spend the time and money to get your work seen. No one is going to do it for you. 

There are so many more opportunities today that it can be overwhelming. Choose what it possible and go for it. Nothing substitutes for time spent making your art work. 

Are there any exciting plans ahead for you? 

I have a book Winter of Loss —JOAN SCHULZE ready for the printer. It has been sent out for bids. I will have an exhibition with the book. Venue tbd.  Here is an excerpt:

Influences are many. 

They may lay quietly in my mind/waiting /not articulated. 

My husband was dying of dementia. Each evening I paused a moment to look at a small jardiniere of bulbs. They never flowered. I photographed the changes which became small end of day ritual and a respite from caregiving. I discovered serene abstractions from this dying plant. In my mind they became surrogates for Jim’s gradual decline. It was far from being an intellectual appreciation, but more philosophical and focused on daily changes.The volume of photographs demanded that I do something. That something was the beginning of my Brain Tangle series. 

Joan Schulze  2020

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