Written by: Joy Waggener
Publicity Chair for 2009 Quilt Show
The 2009 "Springtime in the Pines" Silver Jubilee Quilt Show will feature the work of seven Celebrity
Quilters of Nevada County, including local art-quilter Gerry Chase. Gerry calls her creations "Fiber Assemblage,"
because they are three-dimensional rather than flat like collage. Her wall-hangings use techniques
that are drawn from the quilt-making tradition but also incorporate innovative layers of texture and often feature
repeated images. She particularly enjoys using a tjanting tool (say "jaunting"), normally used with wax
in batik-making, which she fills with ink or paint to write or draw on fabric.
Gerry first heard about the Art Quilt Movement in 1985, when she was
a practicing artist living in Seattle. Although she had never made a quilt,
she had been sewing clothing since she was eight years old and could see
that art-quilting offered her a chance to marry two things she loved to do.
In 1987, Gerry became one of the founders of the Contemporary QuiltArt
Association (CQA) in Seattle, a group devoted to developing this new medium
as an art form. The group aimed — each in their own individual way
— to establish their presence as quilters in the art community, not only
where they lived but also nationally and internationally. In addition to
mounting shows of their work, the group decided that it was important to
promote the education of their members, especially to take advantage of
the excellent fiber arts teachers available to them at the University of Washington,
and to invite great teachers like Nancy Crow to give workshops in
Seattle. Gerry’s individual work was profoundly influenced by this community
of art-quilters, and she credits much of her success to their encouragement.
By the end of the first 10 years, CQA's membership had grown to 200, and many of the members had
achieved prominence through their work. In Gerry's case, her work has been exhibited widely in museums and
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galleries across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Her work has been accepted three times into the
"Quilt National" competitions at the Dairy Barn Cultural Arts Center in Athens, Ohio. She has had solo
shows in major Seattle galleries, and her work is in numerous private and public collections. More recently, a
quilt was selected for the Art-in-Embassies Program of the U. S. State Department and was exhibited in Asunción,
Paraguay, for two years. Pictures of her creations have been published extensively in books such as Art
Quilts: A Celebration, Beautiful Things and the Fiberarts Design Book.
Gerry is a native Californian who grew up in Vallejo and studied art at College of Holy Names in Oakland.
After living in Seattle for several decades while her husband taught at the University of Washington,
the couple returned to California upon his retirement to be nearer their children and grandchildren. Remembering
that her late mother had spoken of the lovely town of Nevada City, they made plans to check out the
area by coming to an Antiques Show at Miners Foundry. They were immediately drawn to the natural beauty
of the town and to its spirit of artistic creativity. Deciding that "this was where we wanted to be," the Chases
moved to Nevada City in early 2001. An exhibit of Gerry's art-quilts at the Mowen-Solinsky Gallery in Nevada
City in November 2005 introduced local residents to her work, and she also taught a class at PTQG's
Jamboree in 2005. We look forward to seeing Gerry's creative artistry displayed at our Quilt Show in May,
2009.
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