Environmentally conscious artists in Schweinfurth’s new exhibit make statements with their materials

Auburn, N.Y. — Canadian fiber artist Fuzzy Mall and at least 10 other artists featured in “Quilts=Art=Quilts 2024” at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn use reclaimed fabrics — thrift store clothes, discarded upholstery scraps, damaged vintage quilts — in their work. It’s their contribution to reducing waste.
“The average American discards 80-plus pounds of clothing per year,” Mall said. “In Canada, that number is slightly higher (more snow boots). I do my small part and encourage fellow textile artists to do the same.”
And many do. Texas artist Deborah Boschert’s piece “Percolating” includes fabrics she found on giveaway tables and an old dishcloth. Helen Geglio of Indiana created “Chemistry” on a old quilt top that she found. Jennifer Raish of Germany incorporated florals from a pair of shorts and a pillowcase handed down from her mother in “Big Half Square.”
These are among 70 art quilts from 53 artists chosen by jurors Dorothy Caldwell and Michael James for “Quilts=Art=Quilts 2024,” which opens Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Schweinfurth. Caldwell will be giving an Artist’s Talk at 3 p.m., followed by an opening reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Executive Director Donna Lamb will be giving a Director’s Tour at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3.
The art center is also offering four Trunk Shows, where quilt artists come, display their work, and talk about their inspirations and processes. All trunk shows are held at 2 p.m. on Sundays and are free with admission.
Artist Michelle Browne of Pennsylvania collects vintage quilts, many damaged, from antique stores or local auctions.
“Often, I discover parts of quilts for sale, decorative elements that are beautiful but homeless,” she said. “Perhaps someone started a quilt and never finished it or parts of it are stained or damaged.
“I started integrating elements of old quilts into my work with homeless elements of my own work that I saved over the years,” she added, noting that a damaged vintage quilt was included in her piece “Octopus’ Garden in My Mind.” “I have a difficult time throwing away something that is an ‘incomplete thought’ and hope eventually it will fit into a work that makes a complete statement.”
Oklahoma artist Lela O’Dell is drawn to natural fibers with an especially soft feel and has been collecting used cashmere sweaters from thrift stores for many years.
“Early on I experimented with pieced cashmere as a quilt back and the result is my family’s favorite couch quilt,” she said. “Fulfilling the need for a second family cashmere quilt was my initial reason for making what became ‘Plush Curiosities.’”
The back of “Plush Curiosities” — which was initially intended to be the front — is a repeated pattern using binding scraps (all those little triangles from multiple angle joins). “I had a shoe box full of the materials waiting for the day I just needed to sew, which occurred when I had a spinal injury and was recovering from surgery,” O’Dell said. “So the front is a very different type of quilt altogether but is personally meaningful.”
She created nine 15.5” individual squares using the biggest hunks of cashmere available to minimize seams and used orange scraps to cover the holes. “The arrangement was brought together with a deliberate border connecting three sides and making it big enough to fit the front,” O’Dell said. “It’s very satisfying giving this wonderful material a second life.”
The most important reason that Mall uses reclaimed textiles in his artwork is it forces him to keep his palate fresh. “Each article of clothing is a limited resource,” he said. “Once a dress has been cut up, I no longer can rely on that color or pattern. I won’t be able to rebuy a bolt of fabric. It forces me to find new solutions, which also involves shopping for more clothes.”
Mall has two pieces in “Quilts=Art=Quilts”: “Kate Jackson2 composition 1” and “Emma and Clarke2 composition 1.” Both represent the next step in his journey into abstraction.
“With every series I make, I search for new forms,” he said. “At first, it was breaking the square/rectangle format. Then, I cut up and repurposed another series. The following body of work broke the picture plane and began merging the backside of my quilts with the front. With each series, abstraction has become more prominent.”
His current untitled series offered what he calls an analog version of artificial intelligence. “When you boil down AI technology to its basic function, it’s a program that searches the internet to find billions of data points, and when reconstituted, it creates something new,” Mall explained. “Rather than using the internet, I find unlimited data points within each quilt.”
When he finishes one of his portrait quilts, which follow the outlines of a person’s figure, he punches grommets around the edge and hang the grommets randomly on a series of screws on his wall.
“By doing this, I am allowing the draping to abstract the image beneath naturally,” he continued. “Each time I move a screw or grommet, a new abstracted image occurs because I’m using a different set of data points.”
He then takes pictures of each draping, and makes new works based on the image. “Moving forward, I intend to make multiple new compositions from each original quilt and display the volumetric source quilts alongside their trompe l’oeil counterparts,” he said.
This latest series has personal meaning for Mall, who suffered a brain hemorrhage two years ago. “This is the first series that I’ve started since that experience,” he said. “Although medically I’ve made a full recovery, mentally and emotionally it has taken a toll.
“The brain injury has left me thinking about memory loss and distortion. How will I ever know what I may have lost? My work in portraiture is based on recording life’s ethereal moments. What if the recordings my mind has been making are now distorted after my stroke?”
You can view Mall’s abstract artworks, along with 68 other art quilts, through Jan. 5. Twelve of the accepted artists are from outside the US: 5 from Canada, two from Australia, and one each from Brazil, Germany, Hungary, Kuwait and Switzerland.

WHAT: “Quilts=Art=Quilts 2024,” an annual exhibition of art quilts
WHERE: Schweinfurth Art Center, 205 Genesee St. Auburn, NY
WHEN: Nov. 2 through Jan. 5
HOURS: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays
ADMISSION: $10 per person
OPENING WEEKEND:
Nov. 2: Artist’s talk by juror Dorothy Caldwell at 3 p.m. Opening reception 4 to 6 p.m. Prizes announced at 5 p.m.
Nov. 3: Director’s tour of exhibit at 1 p.m.
TRUNK SHOWS: Held Sundays at 2 p.m.; free with admission
Nov. 10: Christine Wickert, quilt artist
Nov. 24: Jean McCreary, quilt artist
Dec. 1: Sharon Bottle Souva, quilt artist
Dec. 8: Pat Pauly, exhibiting artist

Mary Alexander of Girard, OH: “Luminous #12” and “Luminous #13”
Bobbi Baugh of DeLand, FL: “House of Leaves”
Astrid Hilger Bennett of Iowa City, IA; “Pebbles in August” and “Augur Shells + Pea Pods”
Elizabeth Bennett of Furlong, PA: “Ancient Voices No. 2” and “Ancient Voices No. 4”
Rodger Blum of Greenfield, MA: “Event No. 6” and “Event Horizon No. 2”
Eszter Bornemisza of Budapest, Hungary: “Glocal City” and “Underlying Patterns”
Deborah Boschert of Lewisville, TX: “Percolating”
Anna Brown of Bungwahl, Australia: “Canopy 27”
Michelle Browne of Pittsburgh, PA: “The Landscape Becomes Her” and “Octopus’ Garden in My Mind”
Betty Busby of Albuquerque, NM: “The Voronoi Effect”
Susan Byrnes of Pine Plains, NY: “His Boy Elroy”
Jennifer Candon of Harvard, MA: “Reconceived” and “Stone Soup”
Katie Chester of Charlottesville, VA: “Backstretch”
Shinhee Chin of McPherson, KS: “The Shape of the Wind”
Julie Sevilla Drake of Anacortes, WA: “Mestiza Goes Walking” and “White Raven Steals the Box of Crayons and Colors the World”
Ann Feitelson of Montague, MA: “Party in the Cupboard”
Jennifer Fons of Dublin, OH: “Hiraeth 220” and “Hiraeth 119”
Helen Geglio of South Bend, IN: “Chemistry”
Nancy Goodman of Mobile, AL: “Restive Shapes”
Valerie Goodwin of Tallahassee, FL: “EFFERVESCENT”
Julia Graziano of Manlius, NY: “Take Another Look”
Kerri Green of Dallas, TX: “Tool Box”
Judy Hooworth of Morisset, Australia: “Secret Correspondence”
Jean Howard of Auxvasse, MO: “Botanicals 12”
Patty Kennedy-Zafred of Murrysville, PA: “Roe, White & Blue”
Lauren Klementz-Harte of Moorpark, CA: “Textured Terrain”
Yan Liu of Mubarak Al Abdullah, Kuwait: “Kuwait Futurism”
Viviana Lombrozo of San Diego, CA: “Sotto Voce” and “Ordered Chaos”
Kathleen Loomis of Louisville, KY: “Welcome”
Fuzzy Mall of Dundas, Canada: “Kate Jackson2 composition 1” and “Emma and Clarke2 composition 1”
Terrie Mangat of El Prado, NM: “Stitchy Bitchy Lesions”
Judy Martin of Sheguiandah, Canada: “Far Away Stars/Cloudy Day” (double-sided quilt)
Gabrielle McIntosh of Edmonds, WA: “Longing for Summer”
Andrew McPhail of Hamilton, Canada: “EPIC FAIL”
Lela O’Dell of Oklahoma City, OK: “Plush Curiosities”
Carolina Oneto of Sao Paulo, Brazil: “Chromatic journey to stillness”
Laurie Paquin of Lansdowne, Canada: “Composition 4”
Pat Pauly of Rochester, NY: “Rite of Spring” and “Plants Take a Holiday”
Jennifer Raish of Fehmarn, Germany: “Big Half Square” and “Blauvac”
Sheree Rasmussen of Castleton, Canada: “The Landscape Within”
Irene Roderick of Austin, TX: “Facets”
Karen Schulz of Silver Spring, MD: “Earthen” and “Water”
Judy Gaynes Sebastian of Eastham, MA: “Pouring Out”
Laura Shaw of Portland, OR: “Lucca, Recycled”
Catherine Smith of Chaplin, CT: “Back Pain Transfusion #10”
Jan Soules of Elk Grove, CA: “Back 2 Basics #2: Adrift”
Jessie Stampfli of Bartlett, IL: “Picnic in the Park”
Karen K. Stone of Dallas, TX: “Vincent” and “Red Molly”
Janet Swigler of Columbia, SC: “Close Neighbors”
Marge Tucker of Norwell, MA: “Solstice”
Shari Werner of New York, NY: “Fracture” and “Elements”
Kevin Womack of Forest, VA: “Night Watch” and “Remnants”
Sophie Zaugg of Le Sentier, Switzerland: “Offset”