Stitched Journeys with Birds: Inspiration to Let Your Creativity Take Flight

This uneven collection by Sielman (Art Quilts Unfolding), the executive director of Studio Art Quilt Associates, showcases fiber art of birds alongside short interviews with the artists. The main draw are the more than 500 images of the creatures depicted in embroidery, felt, quilts, rugs, and sculptures, including artist Margaret A. Noah’s finely detailed appliqué of a perched crow, Denise Oyama Miller’s fabric collage of a pelican in repose, and Cathy Jack-Coupland’s brightly colored tapestries inspired by the magpies in her backyard in Sydney, Australia. In interviews, artists discuss the influences behind their work (Iowa’s Joan Webster-Vore says of her portrayals of the once abundant but now extinct passenger pigeon, “When I first learned about the enormity of what happened and how so few people knew about it, I felt compelled to respond”) and contemplate the power of art, as when Ontario’s Mita Giacomini shares her hope that her woven portrait of a turkey vulture will “encourage conservation.” Unfortunately, the artists’ insights on improving one’s craft are largely trite (“Do art all the time”; “Practice, practice, practice”), and with as many as six works displayed on a single page, it’s sometimes difficult to appreciate the finer details of individual pieces. The varied artwork impresses, even if the interviews come up short. (Sept.)