Artist Profile: Beth Wheeler

Serendipity

Artist: Beth Wheeler
Business name:
Muttonhead (quilt patterns and supplies)
Two Sipsters (fine-art industry)
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Website:
Threadography

Bold Sojourn

You’ve chosen unusual names for your businesses, Beth. How do you describe your work, and what are the names saying about it?
Muttonhead is the nickname my dad had for me as a child, because my hair was/is so curly he thought I looked like a little lamb. It was the name I chose when launching a quilt pattern business in 1995. My dad wasn’t sure he wanted to share that name with the world, but being an only child, I did what I pleased. Dad passed away October 2000, and using that name makes me feel a little closer to him.Two Sipsters is the name my studio partner Lori Marquette and I chose when we launched the Threadography line in 2006. We can never be “sisters” but we CAN be “sip-sters.” Our logo is from a vintage French postcard of two little girls sipping from tea cups. We aren’t telling what is inside the cup!

Threadography is an amalgam of photography, computer graphics, printing on fabric, and quilting.

What is your creative process like?
My mother taught me basic techniques and the love of needlework from a very young age. I began embroidering at age 5 and crocheting at age 6. By the time I was 7, she finally relented and let me use her Singer Featherweight, which sits in my studio today.

Through the decades I’ve enjoyed knitting, sewing, quilting, crochet, tatting, and just about any form of crafting you can imagine. The past 10 years have included exploring altered art techniques and applying them to fabric. Threadography is the point where it all converges; it feels like I’ve found my voice and it’s so exciting!

The Freimann-Foellinger Botanical Conservatory in Fort Wayne is hosting a show of 25 Threadography pieces during the months of May and June (2007). Getting ready for that show has been a real eye opener! Making the pieces was the easy part. Making the pieces work in harmony in the space configuration, planning the work load so it flowed evenly and efficiently to avoid any last-minute rush, and promoting the show has been a challenge.

Two magazines and two newspapers have done pre-show interviews and will be in print just before or just as the show is launched. I’ve been in magazine and book publishing for years, so photo shoots aren’t a problem but the work of knocking on doors to place promotional materials was out of my comfort zone!

Four Energies of Rose

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I am completely self-taught. The college years and first ten working years were focused on cytotechnology (cancer diagnosis), but designing quilts was always a sideline. In the old days (before the Internet) the library was a good source for books on art, design, technique, traditional needlework, experimental needlework, native crafts and needlework from around the globe. The Internet has changed the way many of us do background work.Moving from hobbyist to professional status happened in 1987-1989. My family lived in a tiny town of about 2,000 people in southern New Hampshire. In that tiny town lived two women who edited quilt magazines an another handful who designed and/or made quilts for publication. We all belonged to a group that met at the firehouse every Monday evening to chat, do show-and-tell, work on quilts, and buy and exchange fabric. Those women in that tiny town changed my life and I’m so grateful to them for their love and encouragement!

Recently I’ve had the opportunity to give back in a very unusual way. The church I attend in Leo, Indiana has a fabulous lady minister and she is open to new ways of worship. She has given my studio partner Lori and I the go-ahead to develop an arts ministry!

We’ve taken several preliminary steps and have begun exploring possible ways to heal, enrich, and reach out to the congregation and community. The greeting card committee is so excited they’ve invited us to conduct a workshop to help them make collage greeting cards. They will then send the cards to shut-ins, college students, armed forces, hospital patients, those with birthdays and anniversaries, etc. The ladies’ group has scheduled a workshop to make recycled books into blank journals with quotations and scripture verses in them. And the minister invited me to make a stole for her to wear when officiating at weddings. I am so blessed!

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
Hmm, digital camera, computer, inkjet printer, and sewing machine come immediately to mind. Others close behind it include products I’ve developed for my own business, for catalogs, and for manufacturers.

Four Energies of Rose, detail

What inspires you to create?
Right now, pushing Threadography to new subject matter and incorporating collage and assemblage materials is at the top of the list. Other sources include rock formations of the American southwest, historic architecture, contemporary architecture, paintings of the early to mid 20th century, color, shape, motion, justaposition, texture, and proportion.Color or color combinations may come from a dress in a catalog, a sunset, a flower, an oil droplet refracting on a mud puddle, or the reflection in the window of a yellow cab whizzing by.

Shapes fascinate me, especially rock formations of the American southwest (since I live in flat farm country in northern Indiana). Sometimes they are smooth and contoured, other times they are jagged and crisp. I want to capture it all, but I can’t paint at all or draw to my satisfaction. Threadography has given voice to the longing to capture the shapes and colors and save them for another moment.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
Months ago I would have immediately responded “an impending deadline” or “a bill that needs to be paid.” Now the answer is “Because the frustration or tough situation challenges me to solve it in a creative way.”

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
Anyone can progress, improve, and adapt—regardless of their chosen artist endeavor. Theory and technical facility are two important aspects.

Technical facility comes from practice, practice, practice. I can’t tell you how many projects have ended up in the trash can over the years. Even now something that isn’t a practice piece occasionally may go awry. After working in altered art for several years, the disasters aren’t discarded, but now are recycled into other projects.

Familiarity with theory involves reading, going to museums and exhibits, watching videos about people, places and things—analyzing what makes them speak to you and figuring out how to apply that to your favorite art form.

Inner Vortex

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
Study: reading how-to manuals, doing online tutorials, looking at books about places of interest that might be good photo opportunities, reading trade releases about new inks and printers—and dragging my sewing machines back and forth to the repair shop. Free-motion stitching is hard on the machinery. I clean and defuzz them regularly, but when the quality of the stitches declines, it’s time to take it/them to a professional. My favorite machine died about a year ago and I’m still mourning it’s untimely passing. The newer machines are both electronic and don’t seem to be able to hold adjustments for more than 6-9 months.

What’s your favorite comfort food?
I love to cook. Lori and I cook dinner for 125 at church one Wednesday a month and we frequently host teas, luncheons, or dinners for art friends and business associates. Nothing pleases me more than to have my 23 year-old son ask if he can invite friends for a dinner party! Fortunately, my dear husband is supportive and a good sport—but then he loves to eat my cooking, too.