Quilted Bedspread c. 1936

This 'Quilted Bedspread' was made by Irene Schaefer, who lived between 1855 and 1995, but we don't know exactly when she made this. What interests me is how she’s thinking through a process, like life itself as a kind of making. The texture is all there in the mark making. Look closely and you can see the individual strokes and layers, almost like a diary entry of the hand. The color palette is mostly blue, with some fading to a lighter hue. In this way the piece has a feeling of nostalgia. I'm drawn to that one flower head in the bottom right corner, how the petals unfurl with such delicate precision. It’s like a concentrated burst of energy, balanced by the overall calming effect of the pale background. It reminds me a little of a textile piece by someone like Ree Morton, another artist who found ways to bring the handmade into a more expanded field of sculpture. But this one is definitely its own thing, embracing ambiguity.