Lee Miller

Andy and Jim began quilting some years ago when Jim as a part of his 1996 Masters’ thesis project worked on the construction of a cottage industry to a corporate concern. Now retired bankers, they try to spend as much time as possible creating and experimenting with quilt designs, fabrics, their machines, and thread.

Jim’s degrees include Bachelors in Education and a Masters in Organizational Management. Andy’s degree is the area of Textile Engineering. Both worked on Masters of Business Administration.

Andy and Jim try to create, design, borrow, and beg their ideas from the past, the present, from those artists much more experienced, and at times from that which takes their fancy. Jim is constantly saying that he now understands why he took so many trigonometry and analytical geometry classes in the past. Their style of quilting is considered a mélange of Traditional, Contemporary, Artistic, and Modern.

Andy’s and Jim’s composition and quilt is a representational piece vying to incorporate the essence and composition of Lee Miller the international artist. Andy and Jim incorporated, as a foundation to their piece, Miller’s 1937 Portrait of Space, a picture she took in Nr Siwa, Egypt. The German Rolleiflex in the hanging mirror is a representation of her photography and the camera she used. The lettering of VOGUE attributes her years as a model and the years as a war correspondent. The superimposition of the lips is in homage to Man Ray’s 1934 Observatory Time – The Lovers. The lips are ascribed to Lee Miller.

Lee Miller was a successful 1920s American fashion model before going to Paris, where she became an established fashion, fine art photographer and acclaimed war correspondent.

Quilt composition is of 100% cotton, nylon poly blend, polyester tulle, and ink-jet printed 100% cotton poplin.

Photo courtesy Jim Smith