Restricted Movement: Featured Artwork
BullsEye, 2019, 6ft x 6ft. Reclaimed quilt, acrylic, mirrors on canvas
During our collaboration with Psophonia Dance Company, you will see artwork on the walls of the performance space by artist Charlie Jean Sartwelle. We wanted to give you more information about these compelling pieces, created using reclaimed quilts.
About the Work: Artist's Statement
In reclaiming and repurposing old quilts that represent a past history of useful beauty, my challenge is to make a contemporary statement symbolically by reflecting our present-day situation. Hopefully the artwork is not only interesting to view and comtemplate, but like a good book, one never tires of reading it over and over again.
Making relevant statements on our modern times is my challenge, using paint, found objects and broken mirrors on reclaimed and repurposed quilts. Each unique quilt is often hand-stitched, then divided into sections and laminated onto several canvases that are joined together creating one large canvas. The mirrors, working with the quilts, reflect the many colors of the material and the environment. Broken mirrors, symbols of our modern day situation, become whole again by interacting with the surface of the finished artwork.
In my 40 years of studio art practice, using repurposed quilts has been just one of my many art forms. Creating visual equivalents through art to reflect upon life's journey is my focus in being an artist. In facing the challenges and polarities in life:
— Charlie Jean Sartwelle
Making relevant statements on our modern times is my challenge, using paint, found objects and broken mirrors on reclaimed and repurposed quilts. Each unique quilt is often hand-stitched, then divided into sections and laminated onto several canvases that are joined together creating one large canvas. The mirrors, working with the quilts, reflect the many colors of the material and the environment. Broken mirrors, symbols of our modern day situation, become whole again by interacting with the surface of the finished artwork.
In my 40 years of studio art practice, using repurposed quilts has been just one of my many art forms. Creating visual equivalents through art to reflect upon life's journey is my focus in being an artist. In facing the challenges and polarities in life:
- Happiness/Sadness
- Accomplishments/Disappointments
- Inspiration/Depression
- Hope/Doubt
- Life/Death
— Charlie Jean Sartwelle
Lone Star, 2019, 5ft x 5ft. Reclaimed quilt, acrylic, mirrors on canvas.
About the Artist
Born in Cameron, Texas, Charlie Jean is a native Houstonian. She was certified in ceramics and sculpture at the Alfred C. Glassell School of Art. During her 50 year career as an artist she has been in numerous local and national juried exhibitions. Mid-career, she directed inter-disciplinary collaborations and performances and installations that were awarded grants through private and public institutions.
In 1986, she helped convert a 22,000 square foot warehouse in downtown Houston into one of the first large-scale alternative studio and exhibition spaces for artists. Over the last 32 years, Mother Dog Studios has provided hundreds of local and national artists working studio spaces to experiment and develop visual ideas.
Her interest in collage and painting now occupy her studio time at the ArtFarm, where she has developed several studios for sculptors. Ten hens are free-ranged where eggs are collected daily.
In 1986, she helped convert a 22,000 square foot warehouse in downtown Houston into one of the first large-scale alternative studio and exhibition spaces for artists. Over the last 32 years, Mother Dog Studios has provided hundreds of local and national artists working studio spaces to experiment and develop visual ideas.
Her interest in collage and painting now occupy her studio time at the ArtFarm, where she has developed several studios for sculptors. Ten hens are free-ranged where eggs are collected daily.
Target/Targeted, 2013, 8ft x 8ft. Reclaimed quilt, acrylic, mirrors on canvas.
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The World Reflected Upon Us, 2019, 6ft x 6ft. Reclaimed quilt top, mirrors, acrylic.
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About Mother Dog Studios
Mother Dog Studios is the oldest surviving artist's working warehouse space in Houston. Founded in 1984 by Charlie Jean Sartwelle and John Runnels, Mother Dog Studios was a response to the visual art community's need to provide working studio/exhibition space for local and visiting artists. It is a 22,000 square foot warehouse with 16 studios and an expansive exhibition space called the Mother Dog Museum of Modern Art.
Mother Dog Studios serves as a working advocate for contemporary art and as a catalyst for nurturing emerging and established artists by providing opportunities for inspiration, experimentation and education. Mother Dog Studios remains committed to advancing innovative art and art practice as a vital social force.
Originally built in 1925, the covered, railroad-to-truck cross-dock freight terminal has also been used through the years as a store fixtures and furniture manufacturing shop, cardboard box company and Dixie Glass Company. The diversity of building uses are reflected in the patinaed and patched collage of materials from once-red bricks to corrugated metal. Certain visual gems remain: paint-layered 8 ft. beams and the geometric nexus of water sprinkler pipes. Mother Dog Studios is just a stone's throw away from Houston's historic Allen's Landing and McKee Street Bridge along the serpentine Buffalo Bayou. Surrounded by skyscrapers, cathedrals, universities, jails, warehouses and interstate highway interchanges, Mother Dog Studios is in the heart of the natural forest and cultural forest of the 4th largest city in the United States.
The name, Mother Dog, is considered a nurturing term.
For more information, visit the Mother Dog Web site.
Mother Dog Studio’s next event:
ART CRAWL 2020 Houston
Saturday November 21, 2020
10am - 8pm
Mother Dog Studios serves as a working advocate for contemporary art and as a catalyst for nurturing emerging and established artists by providing opportunities for inspiration, experimentation and education. Mother Dog Studios remains committed to advancing innovative art and art practice as a vital social force.
Originally built in 1925, the covered, railroad-to-truck cross-dock freight terminal has also been used through the years as a store fixtures and furniture manufacturing shop, cardboard box company and Dixie Glass Company. The diversity of building uses are reflected in the patinaed and patched collage of materials from once-red bricks to corrugated metal. Certain visual gems remain: paint-layered 8 ft. beams and the geometric nexus of water sprinkler pipes. Mother Dog Studios is just a stone's throw away from Houston's historic Allen's Landing and McKee Street Bridge along the serpentine Buffalo Bayou. Surrounded by skyscrapers, cathedrals, universities, jails, warehouses and interstate highway interchanges, Mother Dog Studios is in the heart of the natural forest and cultural forest of the 4th largest city in the United States.
The name, Mother Dog, is considered a nurturing term.
For more information, visit the Mother Dog Web site.
Mother Dog Studio’s next event:
ART CRAWL 2020 Houston
Saturday November 21, 2020
10am - 8pm
