Quilts by Roxanne Bartel, Sheryl Gillilan and Sondra Hodsdon-Rosier · Exhibit runs from Aug 21 - Oct 1

ARTIST STATEMENT:

A geoglyph is a large design or motif produced on the ground and typically formed by
clastic rocks or similarly durable elements of the landscape, such as stones, stone
fragments, live trees, gravel, or earth.

The three of us have been quilting for 25 years, critiquing and energizing each other in frequent
gatherings with other long-time quilting friends. After a trip to see petroglyphs near Moab
several years ago, we pondered how humans have used the land as a blank canvas for
thousands of years, driven by instinct to mark it artistically with hard and enduring materials.
Speculating how we could “make our mark” in the modern era, we were inspired to create
quilted renditions of geoglyphs using an opposite medium—pliable, impermanent fabric.

Sheryl has always been fascinated with aerial views of fields, and realized they are not usually
the scrappy “crazy quilts” depicted in literature, but much more geometric. Each farmer
independently plants crops in an allocated space, but when viewed from above, there is a
serendipitous combination of full, half, and quarter circles and squares, sometimes stretching
as far as the eye can see. (Interestingly, a quarter circle in a square is a time-worn design as well
as a very old quilt block called Drunkard’s Path, whose simple blocks can be rearranged to form
an endless array of patterns.) Sheryl’s quilts are based on actual fields, as well as those entirely
imagined, and use commercial, hand-dyed, kimono, and marbled cotton and silk fabrics.

Roxanne is intrigued with trunk and branch forms, and the negative spaces they create against
the sky and land. Channeling a combination of Western and Eastern ethos, she imagines
fantastical trees that bend, curve, twist, and stretch artfully upwards. Roxanne also pieces her
backgrounds in straight lines and scintillating colors as a foil for her undulating trees. A master
of value and texture, she dyes, over-dyes, and stamps much of her fabric, using silk, velvet,
kimono, and upholstery pieces.

Sondra’s quilts are inspired by skyscrapers rising from the earth, featuring irregular lines and
shapes that suggest a field of doors and windows stretched vertically. Quilting in the modern
style, she uses asymmetrical design, improvisational piecing, and colors that are bold, mostly
solid, and high contrast. Sondra studied with fiber artist Nancy Crow for many years, and was
heavily influenced by her free-form cutting techniques that encourage spontaneity and
personal expression. Sondra uses commercial and hand-dyed cotton fabrics.

Sheryl Gillilan
Roxanne Bartel
Sondra Hodsdon-Rosier

ARTIST BIO:

Roxanne Bartel has been a quilt artist for over 25 years. She studied painting in college, and while experimenting with painting on fabric, she made the transition to quilting as an art form. She creates her own palette of altered fabric through dyeing, bleaching, painting, and resists, and frequently uses silk kimono as a base for overdyeing because of its superior quality and woven designs.

Roxanne is also a scientist by training and works as a psychiatrist at the University of Utah. Her creative, free form quilting serves as a counterpoint to her sometimes rigorous medical practice, though she believes art and medicine share the attributes of detailed observation, continuous learning, and a fundamental human desire to make connections between the seen and unseen.

Roxanne grew up in the East, but moved to Salt Lake City in 1992. She lives with her partner and step-son and has two adult children who live out of state. Her art work has been accepted into numerous national quilt exhibitions and shown at the Annual Spring Salon in Springville. Roxanne is currently working on a series of quilts that combine abstract shapes with traditional quilting patterns.

Sheryl Gillilan is an award-winning quilt artist who sees inspiration for quilt ideas everywhere – tile floors, rugs, graphic and modern art, landscapes, and architecture. She uses cotton and silk fabrics, both commercial and hand-dyed, to provide a variety of colors, textures, and patterns in her quilts.

Sheryl has long been enamored with the symmetry of circles as a universal symbol of natural balance, wholeness, and the passage of time. She is fascinated that they are foundational in art and structures throughout history, and continue to appear in contemporary life as pizzas, camera lenses, Ferris wheels, traffic lights and roundabouts, profile pictures, steering wheels, and buttons.

Sheryl grew up in Salt Lake City and then lived overseas and in other states before returning to the mountains and family in 1985. She lives with her daughter, dog, and cat in an art-filled brick bungalow. In her day job, she is the executive director of the Holladay Arts Council, where she interacts with countless artists who always inspire her.

Sondra Hodsdon-Rosier began quilting over 25 years ago when she semi-retired from careers as an accountant and a social worker. She travelled for many years with fiber artist Nancy Crow and others to study women’s textiles in Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala and South Africa. These trips gave her insight into how women of different economic circumstances and cultures imbue their art with spontaneity and personal expression, using the fabric available to them in their daily lives.

Sondra’s quilts reflect her travel experience, and she thrives on improvisational piecing and the use of bold and vibrant colors. As a counterpoint to these mostly asymmetrical designs, she uses precise and careful quilting, which reflects the grounding of her minimalist and ordered lifestyle. This combination of artistry has won her several awards over the years.

Sondra lives outside the town of Moab, Utah, where she is inspired by the quiet, beauty, and colors of red rock geography. She is currently exploring theories developed by Russian artist Vassily Kandinsky and is experimenting with his abstract shapes and designs in a new series of quilts.