Artist
Statement
Mary
Bergs
The
Quilting Bee/Artist Salon Project
The
idea for the project is modeled on traditional quilting bees in which women
brought fabric scraps to each other’s homes and assembled the scraps into
quilts. They worked side by side creating functional objects of great
beauty. This is no longer a common
practice in our culture; in fact, there are few opportunities for side by side
making. Working with our hands in
the presence of others is a condition that creates intimacy and a feeling of
comfort, even amongst strangers. The level of engagement and enthusiasm of
participants in the salons surprised me and confirmed my idea that there is
value in creating opportunities to make in the context of community. I am very grateful for the artists who
donated work, for the many people who came to help stitch and for the
organizations that hosted the events and the exhibition.
Mary Bergs is a Minneapolis artist who works with
found materials and objects, combining them into installations, collage, and
community based art projects. Bergs works with objects that have been discarded
or devalued, through careful selection and arrangement she examines the poetic
nature of the material world and the beauty found in everyday experience. She has exhibited her work in solo and
group shows in the Midwest. Her work
is included in the artist registry of the Drawing Center in New York. She is a recipient of a 2013 Minnesota
State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant, Jerome Travel Study Grant and a MSAB
Artist Opportunity grant.
