Customer Reviews

Art + Quilt: Design Principles and Creativity Exercises

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The author opens the book by saying that it will not teach you everything you need to know but that she hopes it will give you a solid foundation from which to spring and give you direction for further study. The book begins opens with a discussion on getting ready to create that includes guest essays by Janine Leblan who talks about Overcoming Fear, Laura Cater-Woods tells you "Yes, You are Creative" and Hollis Chatelain talks about "Doing the Work". The second chapter in this book introduces you to the Elements of Art sarting with some guidelines on how to do the exercises and materials and tools and then moves into talking about elements for the textile artist which include texture, shape, line, color and value. Chapter three deals with principle of design covering unity and variety, focal point, balance and symmetry, scale and proportion, depth and space, motion, and rhythm. Chapter four focuses on using a 45 minute a day exercise to explore all of the subjects covered in the previous chapters and includes a student gallery to illustrate the results. The book closes with a chapter on evaluation and critique to help you evaluate your own work and how to interpret the opinions of others. This is achieved with several gallery style pages of the authors work accompanied by questions to ask as you view the piece.

While this is a well written book filled with lots of beautiful work it does lack the in depth look at any of the topics covered in the second and third chapter which deal with the elements of art and the principles of design. However, it does, as the author states in the beginning of the book give you a basic foundation from which to work forward from.

Full color photographs and the authors easy conversational tone make it an easy enjoyable read.

As an art teacher, I am frequently asked by students to recommend a good book to start them on the way to art quilting.
I can endorse this one heartily!
So many people feel intimidated by the vast tradition in quilting, but Lyric takes you past this in a fun and friendly way.
Through her exercises, she teaches a variety of techniques that introduce a fine art approach to the medium.
This book is an essential part of everyone's book shelf who appreciates the fiber arts!

Lyric Kinard's book Art + Quilt, Design Principles and Creativity Exercises is an absolute treasure. If you haven't added this book to your library already, here are a few reasons why you should. Her writing style is gentle, encouraging, almost an embrace but like a good friend she also knows when to push and when to nudge. There are no excuses! And this makes for an even better creative ride.

Lyric's style is permissive and encouraging. She reminds us that we are all creative whether organizing our household or daring to embrace our own artistic selves, the basics are all within our grasp and ready to be shared with the world. Lyric breaks down the key aspects of art into 5 categories, Texture, Shape, Line, Color and Value and provides prompts to explore each idea.

Once these ideas are integrated into your repertoire, Lyric expands on these ideas by discussing some basic artistic principles; focal point, depth and space, motion and rhythm, to name just a few. She does all of this while peppering the text with ideas taken from major works of art, reminding you to place one foot in front of the next in order to become an artist in your own right, inspired by your very own experiences, armed with the basic concepts and ideas to keep you motivated, one piece of art at a time.

One of the best things about this book is the design game on pages 88 and 89. Just take your copy to a decent copy shop, ask them to print these two pages off onto card stock, cut them down to playing card size and play! Another great thing is that Interweave published this book with a perfect binding that conceals a spiral, this book will open and stay flat as you work your way through Lyric's exercises. It is a true workbook.

So. If you need to learn basic principles of design and composition or need a refresher course, this book will help you on your path, encourage and support your explorations and inspire you with the art contained on each page. And don't get me started on the quotes and essays by other artists!

Art + Quilt is perfect for quilters who want basic knowledge in the principles of art without taking an in depth class. It's simple to follow, the activities are realistic and can be followed to the letter or with personal creativity, and it is interestingly written. I am working through the projects and learning by hands on experience.It is excellent for those of us who have artistic blocks, because it provides starter ideas. I highly recommend this book for quilters and fabric art students.

Joan New, Middleburg, FL

I am a big fan of quilting arts on many levels, not least of which was the wisdom of asking Lyric Kinard to compile this book. I believe most women have a real power for creation and the book Quilt + Art not only gives you permission to explore and foster this gift but also the confidence (chapter 1), wonderful principles and projects. This book would be an excellent choice for a gift for yourself or others. I would recommend this book to anyone especially mature women who want to develop, rekindle, or nurture their creative spirits.
When reading the book, I felt as if I was getting to know a new friend. Lyric is amazing.

I purchased a copy of this book from Lyric when she came to our local quilt guild to lecture and teach (both were great, by the way!)

I haven't read the whole book yet, only the first chapter and the "analytical anthology" section, but I've looked through it all and I think it's a great book. It's also easy to use as it's spiral bound.

Lyric offers some inspiring essays on creativity, including her own, in the first chapter, and subsequent chapers of the book cover the elements and principles of art, composition, and evaluation and critique. The book is liberally illustrated with high quality color photographs of quilts that show the various topics and concepts.

There are many creativity exercises throughout the book (many with multiple variations), and a unique "design game" in the back where you can copy the pages, cut out the cards, pick one and use it as a springboard for developing a small art quilt based on the card's criteria. The creativity exercises have an "ask yourself" section of questions to ponder as you do the exercise.

A student gallery displays the work of volunteers who tested some of the exercises.

The chapter on evaluation and critique includes many of Lyric's own quilts with lists of questions on how to evaluate a piece of art, and a second section discusses successes and lessons learned for a number of her art quilts. I thought this was very interesting.

To summarize, I think this is a fun, well laid out book which will be helpful for someone who wants to learn more about the fundamentals of art and how to incorporate these concepts into designing original art quilts. For myself, I have no art training background, and the information and excercises presented in this book will stimulate and inspire me to expand my design skills and abilities.

My one critique of the book is that even though some of the side bars have suggestions for further reading, there is no section in the back with a list of additional resources (which could include the sources cited in further reading so they would all be in the same place). I think Lyric is such an interesting person that it would be fun to see some of the resources, even non-quilt related, that have inspired her.

Art+Quilt: Design Principles and Creative Exercises is just what the title implies, plus MORE! Inspiration, encouragement, and guidance are there for the artist (or aspiring artist!), quilter and interested reader. Not so much a 'how to' for techniques, but a guide for 'putting it all together' into a unified piece of art. It is an excellent reference book for the elements of art and I use it frequently as a reminder of what is needed to make a piece of art or an art/quilt 'pleasing to the eye.'
As a retired art instructor, I believe this book would be a perfect textbook for a beginning art class, as it's not just a 'quilting' book (note: ART is first in the title and rightfully so). An added benefit of the publication is the spiral binding and hard back cover; I wish all my other art quilt books were constructed in this manner! In fact, even if you already have art quilt books on your shelf as I do, this one is like no other and should be a 'must have' on your wish list!

This is a wonderful, creative,and motivating book. I don't know how many times I looked at it on line, or in a bookstore but did not buy it.I finally decided to give it a try after reading all the positive reviews here on Amazon and after reading articles in Quilting Arts magazine that included Lyric Kinard. I have not finished the book or tried all the projects, but just reading the beginning makes me want to make art quilts like crazy. I have always been a "get the work done first" person which can be a good thing, except the work is never really done.There is always something, or someone, somewhere that requires my time and attention.This book helps one realize it's o.k. to let some things wait so we can work on creating art. It sometimes needs to be at the top of the "to do" list and not at the bottom.There are so many excellent idea's,concepts,and explanations in this book. I can't imagine anybody regretting buying it-it's worth every cent!

What surprised me most about this book was that it is not just for quilters. I found that it was useful for any person interested in exploring their creative side. It gave me great ideas to get started with art and expression. The authors' works are beautiful, of course, but I was delighted by how practical and how easy of a read it was. This book has exercises and real world applications that I found useful as a novice artist. Another highlight was the inspirational quotes/insights provided within. I recommend this book to all artists- established and new.

I had the pleasure of taking a class with Lyric Kinard. After leaving, I thought it might be nice to be able to refer to things in the book. Well, way more than that, what an inspiration to have it by my side. For someone who is struggling with who they, what kind of an artist they are, or what they should be doing next with their creative ability, this book is a nudge in the right direction. Lyric allows the reader to explore just what they know, and more importantly, what they don't know- or think they don't know. And then she gently aims you in the direction to help you find out what the next step is. The book has simple exercises that just allow the reader to think and explore art in their way. I have enjoyed just thinking about the way I look at quilts, art work, paintings, nature- and each time gained confidence in my ability to examine why it looks good- or bad- to me. This book has been a real confidence booster for me.