“Specimens” 2024—Fabric Collage Quilts to Appear at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY

Susan Carlson’s Specimens Exhibit

What: A collection of fabric collage quilts that tell stories of their individual animal, insect, and human subjects

Where: The National Quilt Museum, Paducah, Kentucky

When: July 19–November 19, 2024

My Specimens Exhibit was most recently displayed in April 2022, at the AQS—American Quilter’s Society—annual show, held in Paducah, Kentucky. During that wild QuiltWeek, I was introduced to the NQM—National Quilt Museum—also in Paducah. I was impressed with their space and exhibits, and the people who run it. So when they approached me a year or so ago about a repeat Paducah showing, I said yes. Click here for NQM information.

So now I am readying myself to send off twelve quilts for five months. They will be missed from their homes, but I’m excited that they will be gathered and seen again as a group, at such a nice location and for a nice amount of time. I hope that there will be more than a few of you out there who will be able to visit and say hi to these quilts and subjects that are so special to me.

You can click on any images in a gallery to scroll through and see them larger. Name of quilt and size will appear as you hover the courser over it.

Crocodylus Smylus, 22 x 7 feet

Tickled Pink, 64 x 42 inches

ixie Dingo Dreaming, 48 x 48 inches

Golden Temple of the Good Girls, 50 x 58 inches

Gombessa, 70 x 43 inches

Million to One, 29 x 51 inches

Fructos, 36 x 40 inches

Kaloli Moondance, 63 x 72 inches

Polka Dodo, 40 x 43 inches

For those of you who are counting, there are nine quilts in the photo gallery above. At previous locations, my Specimens show always had twelve quilts on display—it seems like a reasonable number for a varied showing in any given space. However, I now have three more collages to include in this collection of specimens, those three are pictured below.

Winfrieda, 4 x 8 feet,

Monarch Maia, 50 x 34 inches

Earthshine, 44 x 47 inches

I decided that my Specimens collection will evolve and revolve over time and location—letting it change, as all things do. The three specimens that will be stepping aside for this show are pictured below.

Samuelsaurus Rex, 48 x 40 inches

Fire Beetle, 33 x 49 inches

Exuberance, 60 x 45 inches

Way back when, I wrote about my thoughts in creating all these Specimen quilts. I include it below, and invite you to peruse the exhibit in person at the National Quilt Museum over the next few months, and online whenever you’d like—click on the following quilt titles to take you to their Quilt Stories blog posts:

Specimens

Crocodylus Smylus, Tickled Pink, Dixie Dingo Dreaming, Golden Temple of the Good Girls, Gombessa, Million to One, Fructos, Kaloli Moondance, Polka Dodo, Matriarch (Winfrieda), Monarch Maia, Earthshine, Samuelsaurus Rex, Fire Beetle and Exuberance

With these quilts I hope to help the viewer see all creatures—great and small—with fresh eyes. Unlike those of a scientist, my specimens are not “lifelike.” A pink rhino, a polka dotted dodo, a much-larger-than-life-size golden toad: the liberties I take, the choices I make are intended to provoke a response. Typically, I hope to invoke a sense of wonder. I could have made my saltwater crocodile any size I wanted. It would have been much easier, trust me, to make it smaller. But I chose to make it twenty feet long because that is what is truly awesome about this species. The size of the quilt is the point.

 

In some ways, my images are simple. The compositions are basic, simple profiles displaying as much of the animal as possible, often mimicking the posed figures of specimens in museum cases. In other ways my images are complex. Seen up close, the sheer number of pieces of fabric used makes for a density of color and texture. That, too, is part of the point. Each of these creatures is easily recognizable. Because we think we know them, our familiarity may lead us to dismiss them too easily. It’s only when we look closer that we understand how unique each is and how irreplaceable.

 

However, political or social or environmental statements are not the main point of my quilts, or let’s say that the statements are of the most obvious kind: our earth and its inhabitants, including us, are at risk. I make quilts because I love fabric for its color and texture. I make quilts of animals because I’m an unabashed animal lover. That’s it, really. If my “Specimens” can speak to others at a tactile level and encourage them to look at animals at a deeper level (to become more aware of these animals and their stories), then that’s a good thing, I think. I think that’s enough.