CONTEMPORARY QUILTS

By RHYS MCCLELLAND Daily News-Record

Contemporary Quilter Susan J. Lapham will open a new exhibit titled “Play Land” at the Virginia Quilt Museum on July 7.

Lapham, who spent her career working as a statistician for the federal government in Washington, D.C., now spends her time deep in creativity in her home studio in northern Virginia. Lapham produces quilting works that “push the limits of balance, proportion and symmetry.” Her works have been displayed and recognized nationally with awards, commendations and sales to both collectors and The International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The “modern quilting” movement has recently experienced growth to a $5 billion-a-year industry as more young people enter the quilting world, according to Lapham, and it is seeing a new wave of creativity, new designs and experimentation. She said this show will be a demonstration of the potential of quilting for telling deeply personal stories through perhaps unexpected designs.

While quilting has historically been a hereditary craft, passed down by generations, Lapham was self-taught in her youth, beginning with other needlecrafts.

“Neither my mother or grandmother did quilting. My mother was very much into women’s liberation and wasn’t going to do any of this ‘woman’s stuff,’” Lapham said. “But I taught myself to sew and crochet and weave and all sorts of crafts.”

It was in high school that Lapham found the inspiration to try quilting.

“I have four brothers. At some point in high school, I wanted to make each of them a quilt, so I taught myself to quilt and made them each one. And I’ve never stopped.”

Until the early ‘90s, Lapham focused on what she referred to as “useful quilts” before transitioning into “art quilts” for wall display.

The exhibit, which runs until Oct. 4, will feature works from three different collections created by Lapham.

She said that inspiration guides her toward grouping works into thematic series.

“The primary focus of the exhibit is pieces from my Play Land series,” she said. “Play Land was a 2020 project. At the beginning of the year, I said, I’m going to make 10 pieces that are approximately seven feet by seven feet.”

Delving deep into cherished childhood memories, Lapham based each of the pieces on recollections of time spent at the Playland amusement park in Rye, New York, where she spent many after-school evenings and weekends with her brothers.

“Each of the pieces represents some aspect of the park. There was a huge ice arena that was attached to the park. Play Land number one is about the ice arena. Play Land number two is about the bumper cars. Play Land number three is about the boardwalk,” she said.

On why childhood memories play such a large part in her creativity, Lapham explained, “We grew up overseas. My parents were doing peace corps type work before the peace corps existed. They worked with refugees, so we were all born overseas. And we really only had each other because we moved around a lot, so my brothers and I are very close.”

The second main focus for the exhibition is the series “Oh Brother!” — which is a more personal and intimate exploration of the deep relationship Lapham has to this day with her four brothers, but also the experience of being the only female in the group.

See QUILTS, Page 7

“I have a quilt that is the start of the series called ‘I [heart] my brothers’ then one quilt for each of my four brothers, then one quilt that I called ‘The Only Girl,’” she said. “It’s very moving for me. They just finished hanging them and I’ve not seen them hanging together ever yet, so it’s really nice to have that opportunity.”

Lapham has a home studio that contains a 25-foot wide design wall, where she can craft the composition before sewing, allowing freedom in creativity.

“I love the design aspect, the composition,” Lapham said. “So all these various compositional aspects are also floating around my head. Is there balance, proportion, depth, value?”

Often using scraps of material, and with a passion for reusing and recycling, Lapham said some pieces can have thousands of individual pieces of fabric in one piece.

Then the process engages the scientist and engineer in the artist with what Lapham refers to as the ‘Engineering’ stage — stepping back from a design and undergoing the logistical steps of sewing and quilting.

Lapham cited the support of her husband John Tsiaperas as the reason she can be so productive in a year.

“I design all my own quilts and sew them, then the quilting of the three layers my husband does,” she said. “He has what is called a long-arm sewing machine. It’s 14 feet wide and has this huge sewing head on it. He has a long arm business where he quilts for other people too, so that frees me up to do a lot more of what I love to do in the design.”

“You have to dig really deep into your soul to find what drives you, to find inspiration. The deeper you dig the better artist you become, and it’s hard because you are bearing your soul to the world, making yourself vulnerable by putting your art out there,” Lapham said. “I feel like it’s my mission to encourage, especially women who might not have a lot of confidence in themselves, that anybody can be creative. You just have to take that leap into believing in yourself, and start, get something on the wall, get something on the table. There is creativity in everybody, you just have to believe it.”

For more information about Laphams’ works and inspiration, visit her website at https://www.susanjlapham.net/.

Play Land can be seen at the Virginia Quilt Museum, opening July 7 through October 4. The museum will be open to guests Tues — Sat: 10:00 A.M to 4:00 P.M for $8 admission, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and children under 12 are free.

Virginia Quilt Museum also offers annual memberships that can be purchased on the website. For more information visit https:// www.vaquiltmuseum.org/ or follow the museum for updates on Facebook by searching Virginia Quilt Museum.

The Virginia Quilt Museum is located at 301 S. Main St., Harrisonburg.

McClelland at 540 574 6274 or rmcclelland@dnronline.com

540-896-2880

540-896-9745

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