{"id":290792,"date":"2018-01-08T15:43:39","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T20:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=290792"},"modified":"2018-01-08T15:43:39","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T20:43:39","slug":"a-stitchers-story-hidden-passions-quilting-290792","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/a-stitchers-story-hidden-passions-quilting-290792\/","title":{"rendered":"A stitcher’s story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since 2015, the Memorial Art Gallery has celebrated the \u201cafter-hours\u201d hobbies and creative lives of Rochesterians as part of a series called \u201cHidden Passions: Inspiring Conversations about Hyphenated Lives.\u201d<\/a> The program includes presenters from throughout Greater Rochester\u2014including Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ faculty, staff, and students\u2014who share their stories and ideas about creativity with the community.<\/p>\n

Randall Cook, building and project manager for River Campus Libraries, will talk about his passion for quilts at 7 p.m. Thursday, January 11, at the Memorial Art Gallery. Read more about Cook below. He\u2019ll be joined by Brittany Williams, an assistant basketball coach and artist. Entry is $7.50 and includes museum admission.<\/p>\n

\n

At the start of 2000, on the heels of completing a massive work project related to a Y2K computer software changeover, Randall Cook found that he had some free time on his hands. And because January\u2019s chill had set in, a hobby he could enjoy indoors was ideal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted something to replace the crazy work life I\u2019d been leading with something more calming,\u201d says Cook, who now serves as building and project manager for River Campus Libraries.<\/p>\n

He bought a sewing machine and a few books about quilting \u201con a whim\u201d while walking through an arts and crafts store. And his passion for the art was born.<\/p>\n

He started with easy projects such as traditional bed quilts, which he gifted to family members.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was exciting, so I kept going,\u201d Cook recalls. His skills burgeoned, his desire to learn more grew, and he progressed into more complicated projects. In 2004, he started entering his work in quilt shows, winning several awards at the New York State Quilt Consortium show in Auburn. His interest in art quilts\u2014pieces meant to be displayed rather than used as bedding\u2014continued to grow.<\/p>\n

In 2006, after \u201canother crazy year at work\u201d as a software project manager, he found himself without a job. Cook says he stretched his severance package and, at the encouragement of his friends, committed himself to his quilting.<\/p>\n

He enrolled in a weeklong course with internationally renowned textile artist Hollis Chatelain in California, where he learned dye-painting techniques. He took a drawing class locally and continued to refine his craft.<\/p>\n

Rather than simpler projects that could be completed in about a month, he devoted long stretches of time to creating hand-painted art quilts that required extensive machine quilting.<\/p>\n

\u201c2007 was a great year for me, personally,\u201d Cook says, because of the time devoted to his creative pursuits.<\/p>\n

That year, Cook\u2019s \u201cI Remain,\u201d a red art quilt depicting the backside of a male nude, earned Finalist honors at the nation\u2019s largest annual quilt show, the International Quilt Festival<\/a> in Houston\u2014where it also generated some controversy for its subject matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI Remain\u201d was among the works featured in a 2009 article on \u201cShocking Quilts\u201d in Mark Lipinski\u2019s Quilter\u2019s Home<\/em> magazine<\/a>, a story that generated its own controversy when retailer Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts declined to sell the issue because of the \u201cShocking Quilts\u201d feature.<\/p>\n

Cook was also one of the artists featured in a 2011 short film, Stitched<\/em>, which chronicled the stories of three controversial artisans as they prepared to submit entries for the 2010 International Quilt Festival.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s earned many accolades for his work over the years at the International Quilt Festival and at other shows across the country.<\/p>\n

These days, he continues strive for balance between his life as a textile artist and his professional life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a control freak. I\u2019m a project manager, I have to plan things out,\u201d he says. \u201cMy best and favorite pieces are the ones that come when I can get out of that mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll sometimes take a week of vacation time to immerse himself in the creative process and work on surface designs for his quilts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really need to be in \u2018it\u2019 and not in the rest of my life,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

View his portfolio at Randallcookstudios.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Randall Cook, building and project manager for River Campus Libraries, turned a hobby used to relieve the stress of his previous job as a software engineering into the art quilts featured in the Memorial Art Gallery’s “Hidden Passions” series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13092],"tags":[936,326],"class_list":["post-290792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-arts","tag-memorial-art-gallery","tag-river-campus-libraries"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA stitcher's story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/a-stitchers-story-hidden-passions-quilting-290792\/\" \/>\n<meta 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