Artist and architect Valerie Goodwin maps a textile vision in retrospective exhibit

The artist’s mind — with all its curiosity and willingness to take a dare, is a place of continual surprise. Like a bubbling pot where you throw in this and that and the other thing and out comes a delicious experience, what goes on in the artist’s mind is just as unexpected — and just as nourishing to the rest of us.

And that is likely the sensation that will be had on Saturday, Oct. 8, when Valerie Goodwin opens her new show of fine art fabric collages, “Mapping: The Work of a Textile Artist,” at the Anderson-Brickler Gallery in Tallahassee.

Goodwin is an internationally known fiber artist who is sought after for her lectures on fiber art, read widely in a 2013 book called, "Art Quilt Maps," and collected by both connoisseurs and museums across the country, including the International Quilt Museum which has three of her works.

Entertainment: Things to do in Tallahassee: Gov't Mule rules rockin' weekend at amphitheater

LeMoyne Arts: 'Work to be done': Dan Taylor filled with Pride to be part of LeMoyne Arts show

Anderson Brickler Gallery: 'On top of the world': Candace Allen's exuberance on display in 'A Dream in Color'

20 years of art

The Anderson-Brickler show will present a retrospective of 20 years of Goodwin’s art with an artist’s talk to be held Dec. 10th.

Goodwin, who lives in Tallahassee, was raised in Connecticut and attended Harvard University. She later graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, and would go on to teach Architecture at FAMU’s School of Architecture and Engineering Technology.

Having early-on learned to use a sewing machine and thread and needle at her Alabama grandmother’s knee, Goodwin was no stranger to working with fabric. But it wasn’t until an article she read that suggested that architecture students were studying quilt blocks for room diagramming and spatial use that Goodwin began to conceive of combining her own architectural interests and knowledge with fabric and all of its malleable possibilities.

Of course, first there was the need to learn. Goodwin studied quilting and made samplers and traditional quilts. But then she began to experiment with transparencies and fabric collages, using her fascination with geometric patterns and the relationship of lines and spaces to make her own original art pieces. It was a way to blend art and architecture.

Goodwin expanded her skills, using fabric paints, transparent organzas and new fabrics like Evolon and Lufrador — and also— maps. With a fascination with the world as viewed from above, maps, rivers, and structures from a variety of perspectives appeared in her work — all of them created in fabric.

The mastery of a laser cutter to her skill set enabled Goodwin to cut delicate fabric into fine lines and curvilinear shapes, layering them over and over to make abstract images, cartography collages, and more recently, narrative commentary on the world around her.

Art quilting

Today, retired from FAMU, Goodwin has produced numerous videos on art quilting using maps and other inspirational forms. She continues to lecture across the country, and to produce brilliant commissioned works for collectors.

She has won the 2021 Japan Quilt Prize; participated in the exclusive 2020 juried Quilt National exhibition, and been invited to display her quilt at the Women’s Voices, Women’s Votes, Women’s Right 20/21 exhibition at the Clinton Presidential Center.

Kabuya Bowens-Saffo, the Director of the Anderson-Brickler Gallery says she is particularly excited to present the large selection of Goodwin’s pieces in the newly expanded and renovated gallery space.

“The upstairs gallery has been opened up and expanded, and in the future, we plan on having a working-artist studio in additional space. With our larger and exceptionally well-lit wall footage, the masterful work of Valerie Goodwin will be a wonderful exhibition,” Bowens-Saffo said.

If you go

Marina Brown can be contacted at mcdb100@comcast.net

Never miss a story:  Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat using the link at the top of the page.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Artist and architect Valerie Goodwin maps out a vision in fabric