Ice House Gallery

Ice House Gallery

MORE THAN 85 ARTISTS DISPLAY THEIR WORK

BY LISA SAVAGE

Nanc Gunn always loved to sew.

Growing up in Alaska, she made her high school’s ski team uniforms and worked on many other projects.

But she had never sewn a quilt when she and her husband moved to Kentucky nine years ago. After a visit to the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, she fell in love with the art form.

“I just knew I had to learn how to quilt,” Gunn says. She joined a quilt guild and honed her skills. Two years ago, she started her own art quilt and pattern business and visited the Ice House Gallery to sell the quilts and patterns.

“I came in and fell in love with this place,” she says. Now, she serves as director of the Ice House Gallery, home of the Mayfield/Graves County Art Guild.

Gunn visited the gallery as often as she could once she discovered everything it has to offer. It provides a place for exhibitions, classes, events, art festivals, and book signings, and it’s located in Mayfield’s historic ice house. The Mayfield/Graves County Tourism Commission bought the ice house in 1990, and it became home for the art guild and gallery in 1997.

It would be difficult for the nonprofit organization to function without the tourism commission’s donation, Gunn says. “We’re able to stay here rent-free,” she says. “If we had to pay mortgage or rent, we wouldn’t be able to stay open.”

Nanc Gunn makes quilt patterns of pets and has them displayed in the gallery.

A PLACE TO CALL HOME

About 85 artists from the region display and sell their creations in the gift shop, which saves them the cost of setting up their own stores. “We have some of the

finest artists in the area — all here in one location,” Gunn says.

At least 10 shows each year attract visitors to the gallery from near and far, and there’s always some kind of class scheduled, Gunn says. The popular Gourd Patch Festival on Sept. 21 began 15 years ago and continues to be one of the most popular draws. This is the first year for the Demonstrations Fair on July 4, but Gunn expects it will attract many visitors. It allows artists to display various skills like painting, pottery, knitting and stained glass.

Quilted dolls and other items are one display at the Ice House Gallery.

The art of quilting

Roxanne Ferguson wasn’t crazy about sewing when she was younger, but she could stitch a ripped seam or hem a skirt.

Now, Ferguson, a retired biology teacher from Graves County High School, gets excited with just the mention of sewing if she’s talking about creating art quilts. A textile artist from Mayfield, she displays her creations at the Ice House Gallery. Her work has appeared in national magazines, and she has received invitations to participate in several major juried shows around the country. She teaches quilting across Kentucky, the state she now calls home.

Ferguson was born in Chicago but lived many places growing up. After college, many of the young men she knew were going to war as a result of the draft. “So I joined the Peace Corps,” she says. Her assignment brought her to western Kentucky to help teachers set up educational programs. Before her time in western Kentucky concluded, she married a man from Clinton. “I loved it here, so I just stayed,” she says. She worked 28 years for Graves County High School and Mid-Continent University before retiring.

Roxanne Ferguson is proud of her creation, Birds & Blooms, which is hanging in the Ice House Gallery.

BEAUTIFUL CREATIONS

The art quilts first got Ferguson’s attention at the Kentucky Heritage Quilting Society, and she joined the group. “That’s when I got excited,” she says. With the techniques she learned, she created pieces of art. “These are not intended to be bed quilts to keep you warm,” she says. “They’re intended to be small and hang on a wall.” Some of the quilts are 8 feet by 8 feet, and she makes some as small as a postcard. “I really enjoy sending someone art in the mail,” she says.

Quilting basics are the same, no matter the size or style of the finished product. There’s cloth on the top and bottom layers with batting in between. The top piece, though, is more than pieces of material sewn together to create squares.

The quilts feature unique materials like velvet, cheesecloth and silks and embellishments like beadwork and embroidery. There are also found items like coins or seashells. Ferguson loves working with wool. “It’s so soft, but it doesn’t ravel,” she says. “If you cut it, the material doesn’t fall apart.”

She sometimes uses paints, colored pencils or charcoal. Some types of paint have the appearance of leather, giving the quilts even more definition. Creating quilt art makes each piece unique. “It’s not your grandmother’s patterns of squares and rectangles,” she says. “I finally get the chance to create something beautiful and not just follow the rules.”

From left, Nanc Gunn and Roxanne Ferguson talk about the pieces on display in the quilt exhibit.