Pamela Wiley | Zippy Quilts

While in Savannah for QuiltCon, my husband and I happened on an exhibit of quilts by Pamela Wiley, a professor emerita of SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design). I’m sorry I missed her class at QuiltCon, but the exhibition of her quilts was terrific!

As Above So Below, by Pamela Wiley

Pamela Wiley’s quilts are stretched tight and framed, so that when we looked in from the street we were not sure at first whether we were looking at paintings or quilts. Once in the gallery, it was apparent that these were real quilts.

Mineralogie by Pamela Wiley

Little information was given about the materials used; each label simply listed “stitched cotton”. However, the stitching was used to distort the cotton, not just in the usual way by making raised and depressed areas with stitching and batting, but also by slightly moving printed lines so that the surface appeared warped.

Detail of Outside In, by Pamela Wiley

Stitching was used to add layers of color and to distort commercially printed fabric in ways that fooled the eye.

Outside In by Pamela Wiley

I took a number of pictures, with permission of the guard for the exhibit. If you want more, there is an article about her work in what I call “art school language” here, and many pictures of details of her quilts on Instagram here. I’ll be looking for quilt shows where she may teach in the future!