PULLMAN – When Linda Nelson-Johnson was a child, time off with her family meant the great outdoors and fishing.
“Vacation in my family meant piling four kids in the back seat of a 1954 Chevy and driving from central Iowa north to just past the Minnesota state line. We would unload a car full of kids, food and clothes, move into a cabin for a week and fish for six days,” she said.
An associate professor of interior design at WSU, Nelson-Johnson now puts those memories in her art for all to share. A recent piece, “Reflections of Summers Past,” is a quilt displaying scenes of wildlife, nature and outdoor beauty. It reflects Nelson-Johnson’s fond childhood memories of those family fishing trips.
Though some may question whether a quilt is art or craft, Nelson-Johnson said she believes everyone has their own definitions based on past experiences and education.
“I have come to define my work as art,” she said. “It is a conscious compilation of line, shape, color, texture and perspective. It not only tells something about my life but also where I am in my artistic journey.”
The start of Nelson-Johnson’s quilt is a simple story. It began with an impulsive purchase of some panels of fish mural print from a local fabric store. She later thought of the idea to make circles in the quilt, representing circles or ripples made in water.
“All I had to do was to find prints that could go into the circles that took a year,” she said.
Nelson-Johnson said the quilt “projects the story the creator intends to tell the observer.” She said this art piece speaks to her as documentation and remembrance of times with her family.
However, she said what each observer sees will not be the same. Some viewers may have an emotional connection to her quilt depending on their past experiences, while others may just see a beautiful nature scene.
“What we each see is different,” she said. “Our emotional responses are all different, as they are all associated with our past.”
“Reflections of Summers Past” has been recognized for its beauty and the story it tells. It was accepted for display at WSU’s 2009 Academic Showcase. In 2008, her quilt received the Viewer’s Choice Award at the Northwest Regional Quiltfest. In 2007, “Reflections of Summers Past” was chosen as one of the top 40 submissions at the $100,000 Quilting Challenge International Competition.
