FRIEDA OXENHAM (UK) - TEXTILE ARTIST

An In-depth Interview

Gudrun: Where are you from?

Frieda: I’m originally from the Netherlands but I came to the UK in 1979 and have been a British citizen since 1984, and very proud of that! I live in the beautiful Scottish Borders.

Gudrun: You are not only a quilter but much more, somebody who has won a lot of awards and prizes. What do you consider to be your most important textile achievements?

Frieda: Winning the Scottish Quilt Championships in 1998 with my first quilt Waterrings was wonderful. It instilled confidence in me that my textile art was worth pursuing. My solo exhibition colour – quilts – collage held in Peebles in 2011 confirmed that for me again. It was a great opportunity to see my work over the past 5 years or so all together and assess the value of it.

Gudrun: Following your blog over the years I observe a wide range of different fields of art like quilting, embroidery, mixed media etc. Please specify.

Frieda: I started my life in textile by taking a City & Guilds qualification in Embroidery, which came about because we had just moved up to Scotland for my husband’s job and I was temporarily at a loose end. A friend was doing the course and I took one look at the Open Day she took me to and was hooked! That was in 1989. At that time patchwork and quilting were part of the course. Then during a walking holiday in the Lake District I bought Michele Walker’s book The Complete Book of Quiltmaking and an obsession was born. All my other art activities came along the way. Once I became a full-time quilter artist I needed a new hobby, and my mixed media work provided that opportunity. It’s also great to work on small smaller work while producing a large quilt. It keeps the design muscles in good shape!

Gudrun: Are you a professional (textile) artist? If so, since when?

Frieda: Since we moved to our present house in the Scottish Borders in 1995 I have worked on my textile art full-time. For many years during that time I gave workshops and talks all over the country and earned my living that way. Since two years or so ago I have returned to being a full-time studio artist as making the art is what I love doing best. It might not be very lucrative but it’s immensely satisfying.

Gudrun: Are there kinds of arts which you prefer?

Frieda: I will always be committed to using fabric and thread in my art. There is something about the textural nature of fabric that gives me deep pleasure. It resonates with my soul, if that doesn’t sound too exaggerated!

Gudrun: What about your quilting roots? Can you give me some remarks about your background / development?

Frieda: It would be fair to say that I don’t have any quilting roots. There is no history of quilt-making in my family. I rolled into it by pure chance as described above. And that probably explains why I don’t make bed quilts. I made art quilts right from the start.

Gudrun: Are there any elements of your education or working life that you consider have helped you to get where you are today?

Frieda: My Dutch calvinistic upbringing instilled a work ethic into me and I am also a workaholic by nature which has been very useful although perhaps not always healthy. I studied art history and traces of that appear in my work and my librarian’s degree has made me very organized, which helps too. It might not look like it in my studio to the casual observer but below the chaos I know where everything is.

Gudrun: Where do you find inspiration and how do you approach a new project?

Frieda: I’m so lucky that I never have to wrestle to find inspiration. The strangest ideas come to my mind readymade and sometimes take even me completely by surprise. It can be through a word, a book, a photograph but sometimes a random thought just pops into my head and I go with it. The problem I have is that I won’t live long enough to make all of them into reality and into a finished art piece so I have to chose!

Gudrun: Do you keep a sketchbook?

Frieda: Nominally I do, but the truth is that I usually make a start there but then the urge to grab some fabric takes over and the sketchbook gets left behind. I do use it to store inspirational pictures and quotations though!

Gudrun: Do you use photographs?

Frieda: Yes, I’m an avid photography and almost surgically attached to my camera. It goes wherever I do and very often I already know when I’m taken a photograph that I will eventually be turning it into a piece of art. Despite the digital age, I try and make every picture count by framing it carefully and getting it “right” first go.

Gudrun: Do you prepare a work by means of one, two, three concepts?

Frieda: I’m very impulsive and start work mostly without having a clue where it’s all going to end. This makes the process interesting and keeps my momentum going. I enjoy problem solving on the way. If I knew exactly how the finished art would look, I would lose the will to make it.

Gudrun: Do you make series of works?

Frieda: Which might well be why I do work in series, specially for my larger work. In the course of making one piece I can’t help but think of different possibilities that I could also explore, either in colour, design, or technique. My circles series is still ongoing even now. It started with the very first quilt I made in 1997 called Waterrings and in between other work I will suddenly get the urge to use circles again, most recently in my small journal quilts such as Going around in Circles.

Gudrun: Do you exploit a design?

Frieda: Yes, I’ve done many different things with my circle obsession, both in scale of the work as well as in pattern, and I’m far from finished with circles. Somehow I respond to that shape on a very deep level. I can’t explain what it is about them that I love so much, even to myself. Several of my quilts are inspired by the same idea but can end up looking completely different and only I know they came from the same source.

Gudrun: Do you focus on something special?

Frieda: I love colour as you can clearly see in all my art but I’m also fascinated by adding texture. I like my work to have the wow factor from afar (which is usually caused by colour) but to also have additional interest to offer when the viewer comes very close, and that is texture caused by stitching, beading, painting etc.

Gudrun: What type of fabrics / materials to work with do you prefer?

Frieda: I’ll work with any material that I think is necessary to achieve the desired effect. In my smaller pieces such as the journal quilts it literally could be anything that I take a fancy to and that helps me achieve my design but in my larger quilts I tend to stick to cotton and silk, if only for practical purpose. Some of my work travels far and wide and it’s easier to fold and ship my work when I stick to conventional materials.

Gudrun: Are there materials you hate?

Frieda: I try and keep an open mind. Until a few years ago I had a hate/hate relationship with glue but I got over that and now use quite a lot of it in especially my smaller work and it’s perhaps fair to say it’s now a love/hate relationship instead.

Gudrun: Do you have a favourite colour palette?

Frieda: I love all colours and daily give thanks for the fact we live in such a gorgeous, colourful world. But if you pressed me hard I will admit to a preference to the warm side of the colour wheel. Yellow is simply the most uplifting colour to me.

Gudrun: Which techniques do you use, prefer or combine?

Frieda: I LOVE hand stitching, both for the texture it gives the finished work but also for the process of doing it. I can completely lose myself (and the days) simply sitting in my studio and stitching away. But after weeks of that I can also be very relieved to sit behind the sewing machine and let that do the work. I love the texture that stitching of either variety gives the work and it’s probably why I became and remain a quilter.

Gudrun: Do you develop own techniques?

Frieda: I suppose the one I’m best known for is my predilection for adding embellishment to my art, specially beading. It has become my signature. I do it on both small and large work and although it takes many hours, for me those are repaid in the sparkle it gives the art.

Gudrun: Do you focus on a special technique?

Frieda: Just recently I have started to integrate my photographs into my work, using a variety of methods to transfer parts or the whole of them. I’ve also started to work digitally first to add effects to my photographs, then print them out and use the resulting fabric in my work. I do the same with vintage (i.e. out of copyright) images such as can be seen in Footloose in the Forest. Text has also started to creep into my art. I suppose that shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did. I was trained as a reference librarian after all!

Gudrun: Do you particularly admire techniques in other’s work?

Frieda: Strangely enough when I started to think about this I realized that it’s not so much other textile artists whose techniques I am in awe of, but digital artists and photographers. I have so much still to learn in that respect. The photographer Catherine Anderson (http://www.catherineandersonstudio.com/) and the ditigal artist Susan Tuttle (http://susantuttlephotography.com/) are examples of people whose work I admire.

As far as quilting is concerned I like Caryl Bryer Fallert’s work (http://www.bryerpatch.com/) very much, her use of colour is fabulous. And despite not making traditional work myself I love to see antique quilts. It reminds me that I’m one of a long line of artists, mainly women who have found huge personal satisfaction in making something beautiful. I love foreign textiles for the same reason and have a small collection of Indian embroidery pieces in my studio.

Gudrun: What kind of sewing machine do you use?

Frieda: I’m lucky enough to have 3 sewing machines and all of them are Berninas. I bought the first one (an 1030) way back in 1990 when I started my City & Guilds Embroidery course and was so happy with it and still am. It’s a real workhorse and stitches merrily away through all kinds of unusual materials such as paper, glue layers, mica and even thin metal.  I won the other two (a Bernina Virtuosa 160 and an Aurora 440) and feel quite spoiled that I can set one up for free machining for instance while the other one has the piecing foot on for patchwork.

Gudrun: Any other favourite pieces of equipment?

Frieda: My Lumix camera!

Gudrun: Do you have an own studio where you work?

Frieda: Yes, I’m so lucky to have a room with glass windows along the entire side looking out over our courtyard and garden. It’s usually very messy, as that seems to be the only way I can work.

Gudrun: Are you member of (an) artistic group(s)?

Frieda: I am, it has to be said, quite a solitary artist but am a member of the Embroiders‘ Guild UK, The Quilters‘ Guild of the British Isles, and also the Dutch and French guilds because I love their magazines.

Locally I’m a member of Thistle Quilters who meet monthly in Edinburgh.

Gudrun: Do you teach?

Frieda: I used to, a lot, and I did enjoy it but it took away a lot of time from making the art, specially the travelling, so now I only do it locally occasionally. I do however tell my blog readers much about both the process and the techniques of making my work.

Gudrun: What do you consider to be your most innovative piece of work?

Frieda: I started a new project in 2012, called 52 Journals, where I aim to make one journal quilt for every week of the year. So far I’m on track! Those small pieces of work are where I use whatever comes to mind to achieve my design goal, irrespective of whether that is in a more traditional way or in a way-out technique. I add it to my blog weekly too (usually on Thursdays) and describe both the inspiration and the techniques in depth. If anyone has any questions I’ll happily answer them via e-mail. Working on a smaller scale makes it easier to take risks.

As far as finished work is concerned Fluttering through Time is probably the most experimental piece.

Gudrun: What is your favourite piece of work today?

Frieda: That was the question I most dreaded during my exhibition last year. It somehow seems unfair on the other work to choose one above all the others. And to select but one is virtually impossible. Can I make it three? Little White Horse, Windows on the World and Fluttering through Time.

Gudrun: Do you sell your art?

Frieda: Yes, and ironically the fact that one of my quilts (Blue Waves) was stolen back in 2006 was the catalyst that made it easier for me to part with my work. To my surprise I sold many pieces during my exhibition last year and knowing they were going to people who appreciate them was very satisfying.

Gudrun: Could you live on your art?

Frieda: Yes, if I went back to teaching and giving workshops, although I could not live where we live now! But I could manage. Having said that I’m very happy that I don’t have to, although I try and be as professional as I can about my work.

Gudrun: What about exhibitions?

Frieda: Yes, I have regular exhibitions, sometimes with other artists and I’ve had several solo shows too. It does take a long time making enough work for a large solo exhibition so I aim for one of these every 5 years or so.

Gudrun: Where do you find opportunities to show your art work?

Frieda: In a way I always think as textile artists we’re in a way lucky. I have exhibited both in galleries as well as in quilt shows, textile exhibitions and competitions. Quite a few local galleries are interested in showing textile work, which is not the case everywhere; textiles have it hard in that respect sometimes. I also send my work abroad (as you know!) and being in your exhibitions over the years has meant my work has been to many places I’ve never visited in person, Kazaghstan being the most exotic one but I also loved being featured in a Murmansk newspaper.

Gudrun: How often did you have work on display in the last years?

Frieda: I exhibit in about 9 to 10 shows each year although sometimes only with one piece.

I try and enter all the UK quilt shows and always at least one show in the US. Sometimes more.  

Gudrun: Do you participate in challenges? If so, what kind of challenges? (e.g. textile arts, book arts, calligraphy, stamp arts ...)

Frieda: I’ve given myself a break from them this year to concentrate on the 52 Journals project but I love participating in artist swaps, such as exchanging fabric postcards, artist trading cards etc. I am participating in The Sketchbook Challenge (http://sketchbookchallenge.blogspot.com) where a group of artists sets a monthly theme. I’m incorporating the small pieces I make for that theme as part of the 52 Journals. They’re sized 10”. I have also participated in The Sketchbook Project (www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject) where you’re mailed a sketchbook, you fill it with the theme of your choice and return it to the Brooklyn Art Library where anyone can borrow it. The sketchbooks also go on tour. They can be viewed digitally too. My page is here: www.arthousecoop.com/users/friedaquilter

I think all those things enhance my life as an artist and prevent it from becoming stale. Eventually it all feeds back into my textile art. I would love to make artist books but have to accept there are only 24 hours in every day. One day though!

Gudrun: What about publications?

Frieda: I’m featured in The Art Quilt Collection book (published in 2010) and most recently my work made it onto the cover of The Quilter, the magazine published by The Quilters‘ Guild of the British Isles. In fact my work has featured in a wide variety of magazines varying from quilting and patchwork ones to stamping and mixed media.

Gudrun: Do you have (an) favourite artist(s), someone who you like best? Who?

Frieda: Very difficult again to chose but one. But needs must and for me it’s Klimt. What I love about his art is his love for extravagant decoration which I share it with him.

Gudrun: If so, does this artist/ do these artists have influence / inspiration on your own work?

Frieda: Like him I love added decoration to my work in the shape of sparkle, embellishment etc. In a funny sort of way his work gives me permission to add beads, buttons, Swarovski crystals etc. to my work. Some of my larger quilts such as Tod und Leben were inspired by very small details on his paintings.

Gudrun: If you have any spare time, what do you like to do?

Frieda: I go around graveyards and photograph them. I know it’s a very strange occupation to some but there is great beauty to be found in the grave monuments from past ages and one that is all too often ignored nowadays. Perhaps because however long I have lived here, I am still a foreigner and will always remain so and am therefore more inclined to play the tourist. I love the landscape of the Scottish Borders passionately, together with its history and monuments, as well as its ancient graveyards and aim to see as much as possible (www.blipfoto.com), to keep me on my photographic toes. I also like visiting gardens for both colour inspiration and photography.

Gudrun: Where do you see yourself with your textile work in five years time?

Frieda: I hope still in my studio and beavering away on my newest work of art. I can’t imagine that changing. I remain so excited about starting a new work and bringing it to life. I can’t think of anything else that would give me so much satisfaction. Hopefully my work will keep on flowing and bringing me new challenges to meet.

Tod und Leben.220 x 122 cm. 2007		The Colours of Alba. 114 x 83.5cm. 2010.

Gudrun: Something I forgot to ask you, maybe a motto?

Frieda: One of my favourite sayings is a quotation by Anatole France: “To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe”.

Dear Frieda, thank you so much for your outstanding support!

More info:

http://www.picturetrail.com/friedaquilter

http://friedaquilter.blogspot.de

http://westlintongraveyard.blogspot.de

All photographs by courtesy of the artist.

© Gudrun Heinz & © Frieda Oxenham, August 2012

You may also be interested in the article on BERNINA blog

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