Artist Inspiration - Denise Burge

Roan Mountain Matrix 2001 Fabric, thread

Roan Mountain is the high point of the Roan-Unaka Range of the Southern Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee. 

Through her quilts, Denise Burge adds her unique contemporary voice to the quilting tradition that is so prevalent in this region's history. Burge comes from a family of traditional quilters, with her great grandmother even growing her own cotton to use as the batting for her quilts. Burge uses the land as her main image source, commenting of the ever-changing landscape. Her quilts are based on looking at things on the side of the road, looking at building sites, houses torn apart, and the effect humans have on the natural landscape.

Burge is interested in how the land changes around the highway due to mountaintop removal, and how the land fights back at what we do to it. Burge sees the quilts as a metaphor for the land, noting that the layered aspects of the quilts reminds her of the layered aspect of the land. The mud humans make out of the mountains are like the quilts, made of many discarded objects and merged into something new.

From the 7 Borders show at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft http://www.kentuckyarts.org/the-7-borders/