7th Annual Boneyard Arts Festival
NEWS
Thursday, April 16: DOWNTOWN CHAMPAIGN
Friday, April 17: UIUC CAMPUS
Saturday, April 18: DOWNTOWN URBANA
Sunday, April 19: OUT & ABOUT Champaign County
[ noon to 2am, all districts ]
home | news | sponsors | venues & artists
Selection of 2009 Boneyard Signature Image Announced
After evaluating nearly 50 outstanding submissions, a panel of local arts professionals has selected a textile piece to be used as the signature image for the 2009 Boneyard Arts Festival, presented by 40 North | 88 West – Champaign County’s Arts, Culture and Entertainment Council. This is the first time a fabric work has been selected to represent the countywide arts festival in all of its marketing and promotional pieces. Images of the winning work – an art quilt entitled “Serendipity” by Urbana resident Deborah Fell – will serve as the unifying visual theme for the 2009 Boneyard. 40 North | 88 West congratulates Mrs. Fell and thanks all of the fine artists who responded to the call and submitted work for consideration.
The judging panel consisted of Chris Berti, Associate Professor of Art at Parkland College; Kate Burner, graphic artist at Parkland College; Kathleen Harleman, Executive Director, Krannert Art Museum; Jeff Mellander, President and CEO, Precision Graphics; and Rod Reid, Architect. See below for a full description of Deborah Fell’s “Serendipity.”
The 2009 Boneyard Arts Festival takes place from April 16 through 19 and runs Thursday through Sunday, from noon to 2:00 A.M.. Musicians, dancers, actors and poets join sculptors, weavers, photographers, painters and other visual artists in sharing their creativity as Champaign-Urbana and the surrounding communities come alive. More than a traditional arts walk, the four-day festival showcases both the area’s wealth of talent and the vitality of partnerships between its arts and entertainment community and local businesses.
Deborah Fell is a studio artist committed to the art quilt medium. She is a professional member of the Studio Art Quilt Associates, the Surface Design Association and has had over eighteen years of education at the Quilt/Surface Design Symposium in Columbus, Ohio. Deborah focuses on abstract, organic shapes using surface treatment such as dyeing and painting fabric.
Over the years Deborah has obtained national recognition for her work. Her art has been exhibited in venues such as the United Nations Building in New York City, the Civil Rights Museum in Pakistan through the U.S. Department Arts in Embassies Program and the premier international exhibit Quilt National. One of Deborah’s art quilts appeared on the front cover for the American Journal of Nursing; another art quilt is a part of the former Ground Zero Headquarters – St. Paul Trinity Chapel collection. Deborah says, “Art allows us to move from one place to the next. I do art because I believe art makes a difference in our world; it is a gift we give ourselves and it is celebration of our very souls”
"Serendipity" by Deborah Fell
(All rights reserved. Image may not be used without the artist's permission.)
Deborah Fell Artist Statement
I choose cloth to make art. Maybe it is because of the connection to historical quilt makers or maybe it is because of the pink cotton dress I wore as a child during a pivotal time in our family life; I studied the weave and color of this dress when I wanted to forget the difficult questions being asked of me. The tactile quality imprinted with me forever.
I have always been an artist. My path to quilt making however was not direct. After children entered my life, I dreamed of being able to give them a quilt. I wanted to be able to hand something down to my children that helped them connect the past to the future. The need to create history was what I longed for as a child. Learning to quilt allowed me to give tangible history to my children.
And then something happened – one of those phone calls came that brings you to your knees. A loved one killed instantly in a car accident. Staying up all night, I made a quilt top that did not look like any other quilt I had ever made. This cloth construction spoke to me as an image, even though I had never heard of an art quilt. A year later I enrolled in my first workshop in this medium. The pink cotton dress of long ago brought me full circle; it felt like home.
A change in my work took place after September 11, 2001; things were not so clear to me. The year the World Trade Center was destroyed was the year we constructed our long-awaited dream house. The images that made sense and brought comfort to me were the simple ones of squares and rectangles. My work started to reflect a more simple line and style. My art has always provided a thread of sanity when nothing else makes sense.
Cloth remained my passion but the focus of my work kept evolving. Like my art, I am a work in progress. My art reflects my growth and change. I cannot separate my art from my life experiences, as they are as interwoven as the thread count in that pink dress.
My art is woven into my life journeys. I move from one place to the next with my art as a bridge. I am humbled by the connections that have been brought to me because of my art. Within quilts and a pink cotton dress, I found hope – and hope because my road to reality.
* * *
40 North | 88 West - Champaign County’s Arts, Culture and Entertainment Council - is committed to cultivating creativity in Champaign County. Through advocacy, information and collaboration, 40 North supports and promotes the important role that arts, culture and entertainment hold in making the community a great place to live, work, learn and play.