Bob Bosscher
The ART of IMPROV
Bob Bosscher is an artist living and working in Denver, CO. While he has lived in many different places while growing up, he eventually settled in Michigan for college where he studied Studio Art and Art History. His study and creative work has included ceramics, painting, and other mixed mediums, his current passion lies in fiber and textile art - with a focus on quilt making, and hand work. Because of his love for Art History, his influences extend beyond the quilting world, and include a love of the art of Mark Rothko, Monet, Felix Gonzalez Torres, and Shoji Hamada, just to name a few, but all artists informing and inspiring different elements of what he beautifully creates. Bob also has many years of experience teaching and he loves helping new makers explore their own creative process. I personally know him as a generous, inspiring and committed maker and am thrilled to share his work and experience with The Art of Improv and know he will inspire you to look, see and try things in a new light.
Taking Flight Bob Bosscher
What does working improvisationally mean to you? How would you define the ‘Art of Improv’?
For me working improvisationally means allowing the materials to dictate the design. It is an understanding of play and spontaneity that allows a work to seem unplanned and fresh, but still cohesive to the whole of the work. In quilting, it really is about letting the fabric and process dictate in the moment, elements of the final design. It doesn’t mean there aren’t rules, but the rules guide the process instead of planning the final result.
The Art of Improv comes from the practice and repetition of the experience, allowing your instincts to develop so that once can be more confident with what is being created. In my opinion, great improv comes from a rigorous practice, becoming more familiar with the method and gaining an understanding of how the materials inform the process, and how the process transforms the materials.
Have you always worked improvisationally?
No not really. I would say I often incorporate elements of improv into my process, but the majority of my quilts look very structured and planned. I tend to lean into finding the balance of planned and improv elements, rather than an entirely improv experience. Because I often have an end goal or idea in mind, I try but don’t let my improv impulses completely derail my idea, and if the improv is leading in a drastically new direction, I’ve become more comfortable pausing and taking that new direction in my next quilt, as opposed to completely changing the work in progress.
Do you work improvisationally, consciously, intentionally? If so, how do you begin? If not, how do you find yourself getting there?
I would say I tend to work intentionally. In my quilt making, I will often have an idea, with a fairly clear end goal in mind for how I want the quilt to generally look, however I’ve found that I tend to incorporate improv in my layout process. I will have my fabrics cut, I will know the general goal, but in the layout process, I will try to get into a flow, one where I’m not consciously focusing too much on specifics of where things are going, but trusting my instincts for placement of the different fabrics. I try to do this process fairly quickly so I don’t have a chance to over think the process, and I try and minimize the number of edits or rearrangements I make after my initial layout.
Hand Bob Bosscher
How often do you work with improvisation?
There are elements of improvisation in almost every quilt i make. Sometimes it’s quite subtle, where it might be a last minute substitution of just a block or two as I’m piecing, or it might be an in the moment decision to change the quilting for one block or section to make it slightly different from the rest of the quilt. Sometimes it’s just in the fabric pull itself, or the layout of the fabrics, but it is those little elements that also take a standard quilt and turn it into one that is unique to my mind.
Please share a bit about your process. Do you have methods to getting started? Do you have tricks to getting unstuck? Do you have motivators to finishing up?
I sketch a lot. I have a lot of ideas that I work through on graph paper, with the intent of clarifying where I want to end up. once I have that end goal in mind, I often let the process run itself - I really rely on instincts for fabrics, color placement, and quilting design.
Getting unstuck for me is about looking at the images or initial sketches that inspired me to begin with - that often helps me remember the goal I had in mind that started the quilt, and that will usually lead me to a finish line fairly quickly. Since many of my quilts are a reflection of a personal emotion or experience, recapturing and revisiting those emotions will often help me get back on track when I’ve veered away from my goal.
Where do you find inspiration? How do you use it?
I find inspiration everywhere, in lots of different things, and I have a pretty insatiable curiosity. Museums, gardens, reading books, looking at art works from all eras… so many of these things spark emotions or remind me of experiences that I’ve had, and I use those as a starting place for my making. From there I attempt to translate my feelings and experiences into a design (although often there is a pretty specific mental image that is associated with the experience) and I sketch and draw and refine and redraw until it’s at a point where I’m ready to translate it into fabric.
What advice would you give to someone interested in trying to work improvisationally. Can you share some good advice that you received that helped you become more comfortable this way?
Start small. You can begin with lots of rules and guidelines for yourself, with just a single element of in the moment improvisation. Limit yourself and use up scraps to try things. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. It’s not precious. Don’t be afraid of knowing you’ll never put what you’re sewing in a quilt. Push yourself to take something you’re working on too far. Know what that feels like so you can identify what ‘too far’ feels like next time. Use dice and make up rules for what you do when you get each number - roll the die and follow the number; this helps to get you going and not needing to make decisions in the moment and to just let things happen so you can be more comfortable with the process. And then, break all your rules. Trust your instincts. And practice, practice, practice.
Emotions No. 4 : Anxiety : Consternation, trepidation, perturbation Bob Bosscher
Emotions No. 5 : Sparks Bob Bosscher