Joan Schulze

Early years

Schulze relocated to California from Texas in 1966 and was inspired by the picturesque terrain that California offered. Schulze received no formal training and little art instruction. She began honing her sewing and embroidery skills through workshops in the Peninsula Stitchery Guild, as well as the Bay Area Arts and Crafts Guild, of which she became president in the mid-1970's.^[6] Schulze made her first quilt in 1974 after she was approached to teach an adult education class on quilt-making. Her first attempt at quilting came as an exercise of preparation to teach the class.^[7]

Artistic development and mature work

Throughout her career, Schulze has experimented with collage, fiber art, quilt-making, printmaking, dyeing, photography, painting, Xerox transfer, and digital technology.

While she is best known for her contemporary quilt art, Schulze is a life-long collage artist. As a child, she would clip images from the Sears Roebuck catalog and save them for collages. ^[8] Since then, Schulze continues to amass a supply of ephemera with the intention to implement these fragments in her work.^[8] Writer Sarah E. Tucker likens her tendency toward improvisation to that of a jazz musician.^[9]

While film, point-and-shoot, and phone cameras have all served Schulze, she cites the photocopier as her “favorite and most important camera.”^[10] Starting in the mid 90's, Schulze began to create line drawings by making photocopies of stitched organza and printing these manipulated images onto silk, in what the artist refers to “toner drawings.”^[11]

Teaching and lectures

Schulze has been a conference and symposium keynote speaker at international institutions and has played the role of visiting artist, artist-in-residence, cultural specialist, & juror.

Schulze began to teach and lecture as an artist starting in 1970 and retired in 2013 after over 40 years.^[12] She has taught classes and workshops in the United States, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom.^[3] on topics including collage, fiber art technique, quiltmaking, alternative printing, fan design & construction, and book assembly.^[11]

Selected awards and recognition

In 2017, Schulze was named the recipient of the Fresno Art Museum Council of 100 “Distinguished Woman Artist Award” of 2017.^[1] She was the first quilt artist to be named.^[5]

Schulze has received recognition from the California State Fair Fine Art Exhibitions (Silver Award); the Rochester Institute of Technology, “The Art Quilt” (Best of Show Award); Quilt National ‘95 (Innovation Award); the Bay Area Art Conservation Guild Annual (Gold Award); the Tokyo International Forum, World Quilt '98 (Gold Award); the Skylark Fine Art Gallery, 2009 (Publishing and Exhibition Prize). Schulze has also been honored with Purchase Awards from the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles and the City of Palo Alto, California.

Selected quilts (1979—2018)