August 2021: Textile Artist Ron King (of King Hill Farm)
Fields of Color
"I have always enjoyed the dyeing process, making color. The quilts in this show are about color. How two colors combine to make new colors. How mixing complementary colors make neutral colors. The quality of iridescence when you put two contrasting colors together.
I believe that one of the reasons I was put on this planet was to work with textiles. From a very early age I was attracted to textiles. When I was five years old, my mother taught me how to knit and I have been knitting ever since. In college I discovered I could actually study textiles and this is where I first learned how to weave. For graduate school I was fortunate to study textile design at Cranbrook Academy of Art. In the last fifty plus years I have worked as a textile designer in New York City, taught design at a number of colleges, and have worked as a production weaver for most of that time. Making quilts has been a strong tradition for my family and the church I was brought up in. We made quilts for family members and others to celebrate events. When I went off to college, I took with me a quilt that my deceased paternal grandmother had made. Marriages were an event to celebrate with a quilt. I so remember the women of the church gathering in the church basement to make quilts together to give away to mission. My first cousins have been gathering together every year for fifty years and they make a quilt together during weekend reunions." - Ron King