Helen Geglio
The ART of IMPROV
I am so happy to welcome Helen Geglio to The Art of Improv. I met Helen last summer at Quilt National where our quilts hung adjacent to one another. I had previously seen and been inspired by Helen’s work and was so happy to have the opportunity to meet her in person, and am so honored she has agreed to share her work and her thoughts on improvisation with us all.
Helen is originally from Michigan. She attended art school at the University of Michigan, she taught art at Indiana public schools and colleges and now lives in South Bend, Indiana. She now pursues her art practice mainly through fiber and textile work.
Her work has been exhibited regionally and nationally, most recently she has had work selected for Quilt Visions 2018, Form not Function 2018, Artist as Quiltmaker XVII, New Legacies Contemporary Art Quilts 2018, Quilts=Art=Quilts 2019, and Quilt National 2019.
Helen brings together cloth and thread with her hands and makes art that is beautiful and meaningful and pays homage to the cloth of our lives, to the women who have sewn together using the cloth of their lives, and mindfully gives meaning to their work through her own. Let’s learn more about how improvisation plays out in her process.
Out Loud Helen Geglio
What does working improvisationally mean to you? How would you define the ‘Art of Improv’?
For me, an improvisational way of working means not overthinking the process of making. I’m also not overly focused on technique or on craftsmanship. I spend a lot of time thinking about meaning, but once I get my teeth into an idea, I move forward naturally, not through planning but rather by juxtaposing different materials, trying out compositions and combinations, and then working directly with pieces of layered cloth and strands of thread.
Have you always worked improvisationally?
Years ago, I was cautioned about working in a “slapdash” way, and I have tamed that impulse over time, but I still prefer to let interesting things happen, to allow the materials to speak, and to be open to a bit of serendipity. That being said, my work ethos is one that honors “slow cloth,” using cloth and stitches mindfully and expressively. My ideas develop and unfold as I sew.
Do you work improvisationally, consciously, intentionally? If so, how do you begin? If not, how do you find yourself getting there?
I think an element of improvisation is part of my creative DNA. I am led by interesting pieces of cloth, little bits and pieces and stitched pathways. My work is deeply embedded in the lives of women and how women are connected to a textile legacy. I collect from the detritus of everyday life, particularly valuing items that are damaged, worn or mended. I spend a lot of time in “idea-finding,” because a visual narrative is important to me. Images and concepts emerge from the textiles I have; these things that have had other lives, been touched by unknown hands and reveal a glimpse of a story. The rest flows from there.
A Dozen White Shirts Helen Geglio
How often do you work with improvisation?
My artwork has always tended to the improvisational, but I did learn to make quilts is a traditional way, and made several lovely quilts from well-known patterns as a younger woman. In the years since I have made fiber art my focus, all my work has been made in a more spontaneous, direct way-- it is who I am. My stitching is all by hand and is completely improvisational. I have found the actual stitching to be meditative and centering. I rarely take out any stitches.
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 don’t do much sketching, but I do keep a little notebook for writing down ideas and themes. Sometimes it is a phrase, or line of thinking, or maybe a word that captures my imagination. My notebook is full. I like to work in a series so that I can explore an idea fully and in different ways. I will usually select a palette of textiles to work with and that gives a sense of unity between pieces in a series and keeps me from being overwhelmed by too many choices. The work is put up on a wall at regular intervals so that I can get back from it and look, think and tweak. My best motivator for finishing up is an exhibition submission deadline! I am disciplined about not starting a new piece until I have finished the one I am working on, but my thinking about a next piece certainly overlaps.
Where do you find inspiration? How do you use it?
Other artists inspire me. I go to art openings, exhibits and museums. I love to look at artist websites, books and magazines to see what other people are making and read about what is important to them. Research is a big part of my practice, and I use the internet and the library to find out more about things I am interested in or find relevant information to the work I am making. My current series, Wisdom Cloaks, includes small found objects. I researched archaic bone needles from all over the world and was able to form a pretty convincing facsimile using epoxy clay. I am also inspired by the nameless women who have handcrafted the many beautiful pieces of handwork I use in my art quilts. There is a poignance to these lovely handmade things that have drifted through the stream of time down to me. Sometimes I am inspired by textiles I have a personal connection to. A few years ago, when my sisters and I were clearing out the family home after the death of our parents, I stumbled on a bundle of twelve men’s white dress shirts wadded up in the corner of a basement box. They still smelled faintly of bleach, and triggered a flood of memories around the chore of laundry. I did a series of eight quilts using those shirts. Lastly, there is a feminist thread that runs through my artwork, and I am intrigued by the past and present constructs of “women’s work.”
The Triangle Fire Helen Geglio
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 collecting and gathering the ideas and materials you find interesting, then be bold, be experimental and be open to possibilities. I gave myself permission to keep the edges raw, to not stress about what the stitching looks like on the back. I read an interview many years ago with an improvisational quilter who said about quilting, “all that measuring just takes the heart out of it,” and I remember that to this day.
How would you finish the sentence, ‘What if, . . .?’
…art and artists were valued, encouraged and respected in the same way as sports and athletes?
What are reading, listening to, watching, or any other inspirational obsessions you would like to share?
My reading list is omnivorous. At the moment I’m reading a sci-fi novel, The Vanished Birds, by Simon Jimenez and just finished Snow Hunters, by Paul Yoon. I listen to audio books when I am stitching and enjoyed The Water Dancer, by Ta’Nehisi Coates, read by Joe Morton. Here are a few other books I recommend from my reading in the past year: Once Upon a River, by Diane Setterfield; Our Homesick Songs, by Emma Hooper; The Museum of Modern Love, by Heather Rose; The History of Bees, by Maja Lunde and The Understory, by Richard Powers. Pinterest is my secret pleasure.
Helen, thank you so much for taking the time to share your work and a bit about your process with us! I love the quote about ‘measuring just takes the heart out of it’. I so agree! The uniqueness of our hands are lost once we start measuring, and I think it is this uniqueness that we all possess that the world needs more of. And not only does it take the heart out, it takes the fun out, no? And fun is definitely something the world needs more of!
I am intrigued by the idea of completing a work before moving on to the next, it is such a foreign concept to me, but it has been coming up in different ways as an idea to me, and I hear you when you say it requires discipline. . . ! This is something I would need to work on. . . I promise to keep you posted.
I loved your ‘what if’ response and loved pondering living in this world, I think we are all artists and what a joy it would be to live in a world where people not only value art and those who make it but believe they are valued and have the ability to make art that is valuable? I will come back to this again and again. . . Helen, thank you for making and sharing with us here.