'Snail Trails, Broken Dishes, Streak of Lightning' at Hillestad Gallery

The quilt exhibit "Snail Trails, Broken Dishes and a Streak of Lightning: Evidence of Research at IQSC" will be on display at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery Sept. 11-29.

The display is the result of research by artist Mary Anne Jordan, a professor of textile design at the University of Kansas, on selected African-American and Amish quilts at UNL's International Quilt Study Center. It includes new work from Jordan along with quilts she examined while a visiting scholar at the IQSC in 2005-06. Jordan made her constructions out of fabric she dyed, printed and painted.

"I have always been interested in allowing the human mark to be obvious in the work," Jordan said. "I draw by hand and measure by eye. I allow the process of fabric dyeing and mark making to be obvious in the work. One can see brush strokes, smears, drips colors running together, etc. I am very interested in making beautiful quilts from fabrics that might be considered ruined. I see this as a kind of positive reaction to my/our cynical and impersonal world."

Visitors will have a chance to compare the work that Jordan studied and responded to, specifically what Jordan called the "bold visual elements and color of these two broad groupings of American quilts."

"There is a kind of complex simplicity that attracted me to further investigate how the makers made their design decisions," she said.

Jordan received her M.F.A. at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1985 and her B.F.A. at the University of Michigan in 1981. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally in Japan, Poland, South America and Canada.

The Hillestad Gallery is on the second floor of the Home Economics Building, north of 35th Street and East Campus Loop. It is open to the public without charge Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The gallery is closed weekends and university holidays. Visitors may park in East Campus lots marked Visitor Parking. Parking passes may be obtained the day of the visit in Rooms 105 or 234 of the Home Economics Building. For image information contact: Wendy Weiss, (402) 472-6370.

Jordan will present a slide talk about her work at 5 p.m. Sept. 11 in Room 11 of the Home Economics Building. A reception sponsored by the Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design in the College of Education and Human Sciences will follow the talk.

Contact: Wendy Weiss, Director, Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery, (402) 472-6370