Hi, You can view my work and read more about me on my website at www.shawnquinlan.com
Below are a list of questions I often get. Thanks for checking out my work. And be sure to vote! I could always use more batting!
What aspect or characteristic of your artwork do you feel is most important for the viewer to recognize or appreciate?Many of my ideas do come from current events that I come across at my day job editing video in television news. Taking a mostly improvisational approach when starting a piece, I build on a few chosen images which seem to come to life, bringing with it even more inspiration and ideas as if the work were speaking to me, adding to the process.
How and why have you chosen to express your creative energies in the medium of layered fabric?It came to me after a period of trying to find my niche; I had bought a video camera and took video art classes and independent studies at Pittsburgh Filmmakers; which led to my employment at WTAE-TV in the television news department as a video editor where I work today. I lost interest in making video art soon after I started my job but then I was given an old sewing machine in 1994. I found myself fascinated in using fabric and the sewing machine to create art and I discovered my true calling making quilts. When I get home from work I spend 2 to 3 hours working in the studio and more during weekends.
What part of the process of making a quilt gives you the greatest pleasure?I use to dislike certain parts of quilt making but the more I make the more I came to love all the steps to making a quilt. If I have to say one it would probably be working on the design wall trying out all the possibilities watching it metamorphose into a quilt top.
What do you consider your greatest challenge when working with the medium?Taking unwanted, sometimes ugly fabrics and making them into something beautiful.
How has your artwork changed over time?I’m learning; as long as I keep my passion, stay true to myself and my work, be willing to seize chances by taking the work a step further, and to trust in the outcome.
Who or what has had the most influence on your artwork?I was born the year Pop art exploded on the scene so I think it’s in my blood; I love all the great Pop artists and how pop art can be political as well as fun. My mother and father are also great influences; my mother was, and still is, she has been taking me to museums ever since I was a little boy, always doing something in the arts. My father’s craftsmanship in building and design is inspirational.
Do you now or have you ever worked in another medium? If yes, which one? In what ways if any did it help you transition to art quilting? Although editing video and making quilts are two completely different mediums there is one similarity, you cut and rearrange and then put back together to make a different image.
One Mellon Center Gallery located in the Grant Street "T" station lobby of One Mellon Center, Downtown Pittsburgh. It is an off-site exhibition space run by the people at the Society for Contemporary Craft and is open daily throught midnight. My solo exhibit is there until January 14, 2007.
