Born from a simple statement sent out across social media by Jen Broemel in the spring of 2021, river cloud is the result of virtual meet-ups between Jen, based in Indiana U.S.A and Jennie Johnston based in British Columbia Canada.

The exchange of pieces of fabric through the mail, evolved into influencing each other’s processes and discovering a mutual love of books and poetry which led to another exchange. Each artist selected six poems that they shared. Using their individual processes, these textile based quilt pieces evolved in each artist’s studio. 

Creating in tandem with Jen has allowed a flow and spontaneity to enter my practice. As our collaboration progressed and our friendship grew over many months of messages, Facetime conversations, and social media interactions, our initial fabric exchange shifted focus to our shared passion of books and poetry. A key to the success of this project was allowing each person space to change our minds, to look for inspiration gently and putting little to no pressure on outcomes.  

As our poem exchange began, each of us found themes: home, rivers, threads, that spoke to the direction of our fabric books. Expanding from the words on the page, to selecting one line from each of the 12 poems to add to my book, the lines took on more power becoming a new poem. Flowing from this process another quilt was born with panels corresponding to each book page. The idea of being held by these words, the fabric itself and the sound of the words expanded the idea to include a sound piece.

The result of these two years of work is river cloud: poetry & stitch across the miles an online exhibit consisting of: four wall quilts, two stitched books, and one poetry quilt/sound piece. To view the exhibit please visit this link.