Cheryl FitzGerald Art Quilter

Irmageddon
2021
26 in. x 35 in.
In 2017, my sister and her husband were living on St John, USVI when Hurricane Irma hit.
With cell phone communication out, we were unable to communicate for five days afterwards to know if they were safe.
Residents of the island called it Irmageddon.
This piece depicting a false-color satellite image of Hurricane Irma from the National Hurricane Center
dramatically illustrates the power and movement of the massive storm.

Color Study : Green and Blue
31 in. x 31 in.
I assembled squares and rectangles using the color wheel analogous colors from yellow through yellow-green, green, blue-green, and blue. These colors are harmonious when used together.

Blue Flax
32 in. x 24 in.
Blue Flax is my favorite flower to see around town during the summer. Besides being drought-tolerant and thriving in poor soil, the shades of blue in its petals are amazing.

Meandering River
2018
48 in. x 32 in.
Historically the Rio Grande River flooded its banks in the spring, which created ideal conditions
for the Rio Grande cottonwood to disperse its seeds to germinate. The river has now been extensively
dammed, regulated, and re-channeled, preventing the generation of new cottonwood trees.
These reductions in water flow also impede the ability of the river channel to change course,
thereby reducing the meandering nature of a river. Because the loss of cottonwoods is slow,
longer than a human lifespan, most people do not notice the loss of the cottonwood bosque.

Inside the Capitol Dome
2016
34 in. x 45 in.
Based on a photo I took in the Colorado State Capitol Building in Denver.
I was fascinated by and wanted to capture the perspective of looking up
into the dome from an angle.

Manzanita
2015
20 in. x 30 in.
I made this quilt for a NM SAQA exhibit called Natural Healing, whose theme was:
"Since the dawn of history, humans have used plants and animals to cure the sick,
heal wounds, and promote health. Our challenge is to represent one or more of
these items in a representational or abstract way."
I made my quilt based on a plant traditionally used in the Western US by traditional
healers, most commonly for urinary tract infections and treatment of poison oak rash.
It a Spanish word that translates as "little apple" for its small reddish berries
which ripen in late summer. In this quilt I wanted to focus on its characteristic
berries, leaves, and twisting branches. It was among those selected to travel in a
show called Healing Quilts in Medicine to:
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD;
Inova Cancer, Fairfax, NA;
University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI; and
University of Chicago Medical, IL.

Fantasy Flower Mix
2015
16 in. x 16 in.
I made this quilt for a NM SAQA show called How Does Your Garden Grow?
The theme is seed packets, so each quilt is mounted on foam board with the name
of the "seeds" and the artist. The quilts have velcro sewn to their back four
corners to attach them to the boards. My theme relates to packages of wildflower
seed mixes, but is of made-up flowers, thus the name "Fantasy Flower Mix".

Red Sky at Morning
2015
36 in. x 51 in.
This is an abstract representation of a red sunrise using varying rectangular shapes
to create a colorwash effect. The familiar phrase "Red sky at morning, sailors
take warning" has traditionally been used by sailors and shepherds as a rule of
thumb for predicting the weather. The phenomenon has a physical basis in weather
forecasting and was used for hundreds of years based on experience before the
scientific reasons for it were understood.

Rock Formation - Sandia Mountains
2014
31 in. x 38 in.
Walking in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, I have always been intrigued
by a solitary pile of boulders different from everything around it.
I wanted to capture the irregular shapes and patterns formed by the rocks,
and the interplay of light and dark between the sunlit areas and the shadows.

Architectural Impressions: New Mexico
2013
34 in. x 45 in.
I designed this quilt based on architectural elements that I have seen in New Mexico.
They are based on five of my photographs:
house on Acequia Madre, a street in Santa Fe;
San Francisco de Asis Mission Church, Taos;
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe;
blue door on house on Garcia Street, Santa Fe;
coyote fence on Acequia Madre, Santa Fe

Butterfly Study 2
2013
18 in. x 24 in.
This is the second in a series of semi-abstract butterfly wing images.
I created it for an NM SAQA show, A Color Runs Through It,
which had the requirement that the quilts must be black and white plus one color.

Butterfly Study
2012
9 in. x 9 in.
I created this piece for the SAQA show This is a Quilt!.
The pieces were required to be 9 in. x 9 in., and were framed by SAQA for traveling exhibits.
This was a semi-abstract design to explore the patterns I observed
in the wings of butterflies during visits to our local butterfly pavilion.
I combined several of them to create the composition realized in this piece.
In the medium of art quilting, fabric and thread enable me to recreate the
brilliant color and texture I observed in these beautiful insects.
There are not only the shapes and patterns formed by the various pieces of fabric,
but also the lines formed by the quilting itself.

Caravanserai
2010
40 in. x 28 in.
This quilt is based on a photograph of a caravanserai in Turkey taken by my friend Linda Lucero Hughes on her trip there in 2009.
A caravanserai was an inn along the Silk Road where caravans could stop and rest.
Each had a central courtyard and high, thick walls to provide protection from the elements and from robbers.
They were placed about every 17 miles along the route because that is how far a camel can travel in a day.
This one is called Sultan Han and was built between 1229 and 1236 AD.
I love history and enjoyed researching the story behind this amazing structure.
I marvel at the old stones and the depth achieved in this photograph, and at how these arches were constructed, almost 800 years ago.

Reflections on a Lake
2007
24 in. x 35 in.
Hiking near Skagway, Alaska on the first clear day in weeks, I marveled at the amazing reflections on the water.
This design is from one of my photographs.

Solace in the Trees 2
2009
28 in. x 33 in.
I find solace in hiking in the mountains near where I live.
In this piece I want to convey the calming sense of walking through trees,
giving a different perspective on my worries.

Stratiform Earth
2006
24 in. x 34 in.
This quilt represents the layers under the surface of the earth.
It is not a geologically accurate depiction of the layers beneath us, but my imaginary interpretation of what it might be like.
The sky, horizon, and thin line of blue water comprise only a small portion of the composition and become a focal point
for the eye to return to after moving up and down through the layers, and remind us how much there is beneath the surface.

Textile Evolution
2007
24 in. x 24 in.
This piece represents my exploration of the origin of the word text.
The Latin word textus, meaning structure, context, or body of a passage, is derived from the past participle of texere, meaning "to weave".
As the word evolved from Latin through Old French and Middle English, it took on the meaning "written account".
[from Dictionary.com:]
"An ancient metaphor: thought is a thread, and the raconteur is a spinner of yarns -- but the true storyteller, the poet, is a weaver.
The scribes made this old and audible abstraction into a new and visible fact.
After long practice, their work took on such an even, flexible texture that they called the written page a textus, which means cloth."
[Robert Bringhurst, "The Elements of Typographic Style"]

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