LOOKING FOR A MATE ... Galesburg Public Art Quilt Project

(Above: Sock Nite at the Galesburg Civic Art Center. Click on any image in this post to enlarge.)

LOOKING FOR A MATE was originally conceived and conducted in Columbia, South Carolina. I developed the idea as a way to humorously illustrate exactly what an ART QUILT *** is through public involvement. With financial assistance from the Congaree Vista Guild, advertisements were placed in the local Free-Times newspaper ... asking the public to bring their "mateless" socks to the annual Vista Lights art crawl. It was a blast. The finished piece now hangs in the lobby of Columbia's City Hall.


(Above: The first sock nite. Please notice that my original "prototype" sock art quilt is hanging in the background near the gallery sign. This space is the "Blick Gallery". Dick Blick is a Galesburg Civic Art Center and Studios Midwest major sponsor ... and the setting is PERFECT. In attendance was the last artist-in-residence, Genevieve Waller, and a local lady. This was before the newspaper article came out ... but there were already plenty of donated socks.)


Studios Midwest operates with their artists-in-residences conducting some sort of committee project. This one was a natural and brought me to Illinois. Flyers were posted all over Galesburg prior to my arrival. The local newspaper also ran an article. (It is HERE.) Sock Nite is every Tuesday and Thursday from 6 - 8 until the project is completed ... and it is going well. People are happy to find a use for their poor, mateless socks!



The design started taking shape on the very first evening.



On Thursday, August 2 ... just the second "Sock Nite", more ladies came and we started stitching!


(Above: The Galesburg Civic Art Center's booth for "First Friday". Photo by David Gutierrez.)

On Friday, August 3rd, Heather Norman, Galesburg Civic Art Center's director, arranged for the public sock art quilt and my prototype to be on display at "First Friday" along historic Seminary Street.



A week later, the sock art quilt has more than enough "mateless" footwear and more volunteer stitchers. I'll keep blogging about the progress as this project wraps itself neatly up into an art quilt!

***art quilt…must be predominantly fabric or fabric-like material and must be composed of at least two full and distinct layers - a face layer and a backing layer. The face and backing layers must be held together by hand- or machine-made functional quilting stitches or other elements that pierce all layers and are distributed throughout the surface of the work.