I want to join a quilting bee...

This artist feature fell into my lap, Luke Haynes sent me an email about his work and upcoming show- and I am delighted that he did. His quilts are technically proficient, truly contemporary, and absolutely gorgeous. He sometimes chooses to be quite traditional and sometimes going an unexpected route.

I personally enjoy his portraits the most, the way that he chooses to show the figures, the postures, the body language, vs. the way he deals with the negative space of the quilt works very well both aesthetically and conceptually.

I really enjoy the hidden faces of his friends series and the obvious reference to photography and the flash in his application of the cloth...

Luke states this about his work:

I am interested in the choices we make to express ourselves to our world. The most apparent form of this is our clothes. We create an environment around ourselves to inform others how we desire to be perceived. By quilting I am initiating a dialogue between the immediate environments we create for ourselves, and the environments we inhabit. Where cloth, what we know to respond to as clothes, becomes the language of my work. The cloth becomes the medium that I use to create images and scenes rather than conceal and contain.

I ask the viewer to reexamine quilts and cloth in my work. By viewing the pieces the viewer takes away a new understanding of craft and function, as well as art and materiality.

I am totally re-examining what I think about quilting every time I see what young quilting artists are doing. It is an exciting fiber medium to watch.
I love the color choices in the below work- This one would be the one hanging in my house if it could. I wish he told us the scale of his work as I am curious as to how big they all are- though from his website most do seem large scale- perfect for a bed.

See more of his work at his website and blog.