Parker Snowe
Helena, MT
Exhibit Year: 2014-2015
Artist Statement
I am the great granddaughter of Montana homesteaders from Flathead and Hill counties. I spent countless hours learning to sew, embroider and quilt, with my grandmother, Florence Vande Sandt, whose parents homesteaded north of Gildford.
My grandmother raised her children during the depression, a time when things were saved and used till they were no longer useful. Almost everything came in feed sacks, from the grain used to plant the fields to the flour and sugar used in the home. The empty feed sacks were used for aprons, clothes, quilts, rags and dish towels. Scraps of fabric from handmade clothes were sewn into quilts–buying new fabric for quilts was unheard of then. These lessons learned at my grandmother’s knee have stayed with me. In my confetti quilts I make sure every single bit of fabric, ribbon, silk flowers, shiny yarns, angelina and thread is used, with nothing wasted.
Needless to say, when I had the opportunity to rescue 20 tons of vintage (late 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s) fabric, most of which was manufactured in the USA in mills long closed, I couldn’t resist. I spent 4 summers washing, drying, folding and wondering what in the world I was going to do with all that fabric. I have used it for bags, baskets, quilts and little art quilt projects–with bits of my grandmother’s fabric thrown in now and again.
Sometimes a piece of fabric speaks to me of what it needs to become right away; other times the idea lingers for years, slightly out of reach. Colors, textures and smells influence my work…like fresh coffee on a rainy morning, or the sound of the ocean, green sea turtles, the Milky Way viewed from Glacier Park or Haleakala Crater, wild land fire fighting, science, fractals, new grand babies, friends and wonderful old dogs. I lovingly make star quilts, according to patterns both ancient and new, and art quilts, with no rules and with random bits sewn together. My work displays an awareness of the land, of life and of the cyclical interdependence between people and our environment.