upcoming exhibits

Regenerating Fragments

Opening Reception: November 2, 2018.  4-6pm. Open to the public.

“Any road to creativity starts with finding a place in yourself that is absolutely honest. Why stitcheries? By working with pieces of unwanted fabric, I take what is discarded but still beautiful, and, by arranging and juxtaposing textures, colors, and patterns, seek to compose something fresh. It is a kind of meditation, my hands sensing the threads, my eyes enjoying and evaluating the colors and patterns, then uniting these disparate scraps into a dynamic whole. Creating something strong out of fragments. A new understanding.”    Anne Francisco, Fiber Artist

Anne Francisco, Fiber Artist, creates expansive, beautiful, dynamic quilts from discarded fragments.  Her artistic and discerning eye finds a way for these pieces to fly together in tiny and large parts to form a composition at the same time, traditional and contemporary. She uses only her hands! Every stitch is sewn by hand, even the quilted back pieces. The composite offers the eye a feast of movement, color, energy and expert design.

A show of Francisco’s quilts entitled “Regenerating Fragments” opens on Friday, November 2 at the Historical Society. The public is invited to an opening reception for the exhibit from 4:00 to 6:00 pm on November 2. The quilts will be on view at the Historical Society through December 2018.

These quilts speak to our present and our history. The art form is ancient, yet the execution is clearly fresh and of our age. Anne’s work respects heritage, community, antique elements, and history, yet she magically transforms the components into a new and contemporary flash of design and color. The show also includes a wedding quilt made by Francisco’s paternal great-grandmother and a quilt made by her maternal great-grandmother in a quilting bee.

Francisco’s subjects are dragons, spirals, geometric whirls, simple shapes, and complex grids.  Her colors work together, but are fashioned from old shirts, pants, hankies, and whatever enters her realm. Friends and family provide the raw materials. Anne works magic.

This exhibit refers to the essence of New England and one of its oldest crafts and art forms. It speaks to community tradition of quilting together and using all things, wasting none. The method of using one’s hands so determinedly and so fully hearkens the New England work ethic.  The Historical Society of Cheshire County is a perfect setting for such a display of heritage and tradition gone modern.