The Grand Gallery of SAQA Europe/Middle East's Contributions to the 2014 Benefit Auction

Linda Colsh - (formerly Belgium)


(note of the blog moderator: Linda Colsh has recently returned to the USA after many years in Europe. She still counts as one of us here in the region Europe/Middle East and has sent us a few pictures of how she works, and a description of her process when making the auction piece.)

I have been journaling about and working on cloth with my images of the elderly for more than 10 years. During this time, I myself have grown closer to my subject matter--emotionally and myself (for real!) The people whose images I've collected and made art about provide me with limitless inspiration; yet they remain virtually unnoticed by society other than as a vague worry about "our aging population." Through my art, I strive to make the bring attention to the invisible and make them visible.

My process involves street photography (a genre that is not without controversy) to capture pictures of people as they cope with day-to-day life. 

Streetphotographer Linda Colsh

I load the images on my computer and begin to work with them in Photoshop and to write about them in my workbooks, developing their narrative and character. I use the images I've altered in Photoshop to make screens for printing on cloth that I have printed, dyed or painted.

Deconstructed Screen printing

Gelatin mono printing

Usually, my art quilts are pieced work that combines the images of the people with other images that build a narrative. In 2010, I began working with calligraphic-like lines and brushstrokes in large compositions, as well as smaller line-dominated compositions. 

Painting and printing

Machine quilting

My auction piece combines gestural lines made by moving my camera while pointed toward lights either at night or in a tunnel, with pen-like line and more static linear patterns. In "Traces That Remain" I echo the meanderings of the old woman through the city--the sometimes wandering, sometimes purposeful path of the individual whose thinking can be clear and directed or unfocused and random. I wonder if her urban steps somehow are directed by or reflect what is in her mind.  

This quilt will be in section 1 of the Benefit Auction, beginning on Sept. 15 th. Help support SAQA, and build your art quilt collection by bidding often!