Joan Schulze

"I love the idea of the quilt. The layering, the fact that it can be reversible, that you can plug into this great and varied history of bed covering and, with a little push, enter a new world of walls, ceilings, or installations. It is the best of all worlds for me."

Joan Schulze's quilts are created by combining photo-transfer processes and paint with the cottons and silks more commonly associated with quilt making. New processes lead her to new ideas, and new ideas lead to new processes, such as the alternative photographic processes she's adapted for her own uses over the years.

Collage is Schulze's favorite way to think and work. Collect, cut up, layer, glue, paint, reposition, cut again, photograph, print, add, subtract—until the materials and ideas become something greater than the original impulse to begin.

An independent artist and lecturer, Schulze maintains a career that has expanded over a number of decades. She received her education at the University of Illinois, and her work has been widely exhibited and published in numerous catalogs and publications.

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