Archive for September 26th, 2009

Every One Fits In
Karen Fridy
Art Quilt – incorporates paint stamped puzzle prints, teeny wonky strip piecing, commercial batik, printed text on fabric, FMQ, and a hand painted and gloss varnished puzzle piece using Lumiere paint, sewn on with hand dyed floss.
8 x 9.5 inches

This is Karen Fridy’s second year participating in Art Now for Autism. She writes about this piece:

This year seems to have been an especially trying one for my friend whose son has Aspergers. He will be starting 6th grade soon…middle school. The time in life where friends start to move in new directions to new schools. My friend worries about how her son will adjust…that’s a big transition for any kid, where they leave the security and familiarity of elementary school, the place of friendships nurtured since preschool, and seek to find their way in a whole new realm. Where will he fit in?

I thought about that for a long time…it’s like a puzzle. Where do all the pieces fit? Is there a place for all of them?

Think about the hardest puzzle you have ever done. It takes time to sort it all out and to begin to put the first pieces together. Some of the pieces look exactly the same…some look like they couldn’t possibly belong. Yet, the picture cannot be completed without all of them. And usually the most unique ones are the ones everyone wants to find. At our house there’s always a race to find them and to be the one who gets to put the last piece in place.

So this year’s creation gives voice to my reflections. The size is a little off “standard”…the strip piecing goes this way and that…the puzzles pieces are scattered and there’s no telling yet where they fit. But in the end it all comes together.

And I know him…he will find his place too.

Karen also graciously allowed us to use this quilt on Art Now for Autism t-shirts. Check it out along with other new designs including a new one by Keight Eplin.

This wonderful piece and many others will be availabe in this year’s Art Now for Autism. October 1-10, 2009. To receive an email when the exhibit opens please click here.