Nebula I quilt, Virginia Randles

Exhibition Label: "Empire of Things," Dec-2012--2014, Kris Ercums, Kate Meyer "20/21," 2013, Susan Earle Virginia Randles was an innovative fiber artist and quilt designer who received advanced training as a medical technologist at the University of Kansas. She also studied weaving, painting, and comparative art at Ohio University. Her interest in science- particularly astronomy-is evident in the title of this quilt as well as its tonal composition, which seems to set in motion the vortex at its center. Exhibition Label: “Quilting Time and Space,” Jun-2010, Chassica Kirchhoff Virginia Randles was an innovative fiber artist and quilt designer who received advanced training as a medical technologist at the University of Kansas in the 1930s and ‘40s, but who solidified her artistic background while studying weaving, painting, and comparative art at Ohio Univeristy from 1967 to 1969. Her interest in science, and particularly astronomy, is evident in the title of this quilt, whose tonal composition seems to set in motion the vortex at its center. Randles’ repeated use of concentric forms-in this case a spiraling helix-connects her imaginative works to the legacy of quilt design that has informed countless quilters during the 19th and 20th centuries. Traditional quilt patternsinformed her quilts; a good example is the “Lone Star” design that was transmitted from European to Native American quilters. However, the artist augmented her connection to the past with an interest in color theory based on the writings of Joseph Albers, and a sweeping intellectual curiosity that led her to incorporate literary, philosophical, and scientific themes into her work.