Meet Tina Daily of Portland, Oregon

Christina Daily of Portland, Oregon

New Member of SAQA, Spring 2018

Hi, I am Tina Daily. I live have  lived in Southeast Portland for 18 years. I just joined SAQA this Spring 2018.

My professional name is Christina, thanks to one of my art professors at the U of O who refused to call me anything except Christina. When I later learned why, I actually felt honored! I was working on my MFA in sculpture, carving soapstone and wood, casting in bronze. Then, I spent the next twenty years working to conquer the use of color on clay pieces. It was not until I moved to Portland in 1999, that I returned to a first love - textiles.

My deep interest in textiles I attribute to a trip my father took us on in 1962 to a high plateau in Northern Nigeria, to the city of Jos. Near that city was an indigo dye cottage industry. There the dye pits were dug into the ground and the batik and Adire cloth were hanging on the lines to dry in the high dessert sun. The blue, the tribal designs the contrast to the heat of the day some to me, I was hooked.

I have spent time since then exploring various surface design applications to fabric: silk screen, printing, stenciling, embroidering; dyeing fabric and applying shibori and Adire techniques to cotton, linen and silk; sewing wearable art, home decor art and quilting.

The work I am currently making is in transition. Since I retired I have been exploring quiltmaking as a craft and as an art form. There is nothing like having three grandsons with various specific opinions to spur on and alter the creative thinking. I began my quilting seriously journey in 2004 with a quasi art quilt/improve quilt for the now 10 year old who wanted rainbow colors and cats on his twin size quilt.... I fell for the design side of quilting hard. So the experimentation began. I have made traditional quilt patterns and my own improve quilts. But, as a ceramic artist and a graphic artist, I felt it was time to put my energy into the art side of quilting. I think my first art quilt may have stemmed from a shibori piece that I did as a whole cloth quilt, because I could not bring myself to cut up this piece of fabric. 

Quilt for Lizzie (45” x 45”) 

This is a hand dyed shibori piece in terracotta that I did and I loved the fabric as is. It seemed like a likely pairing with some hand dyed shibori in turquoise. 

View From the  Mediterranean, La Villa (17” x 20’) 

I was also working smaller, having taken a Tiny Houses workshop, and started this small wall hanging for my dad as a tribute to his life in Spain. The village where he lived, Villajoyosa, was very colorful and he was a sailor...

Gaggle of Geese (24” x 60”)

I think my first real art quilt is “Gaggle of Geese”, not a great sewing job, but a combination of traditional quilt patterns and appliqué of the image. This imagery came from a photograph I took many years ago when we lived on a sheep ranch. This gaggle of geese always protected the bridge over the creek. They could be nasty creatures, but this day they were more curious, enjoying the water, looking this way and that. That photo hung in my studio for a long time.

When I begin a quilt I generally visualize the finished quilt first. I start with a rough drawing that emerges  into a more refined idea. Then comes the auditioning of fabric and the embellishments. I work pretty loosely, often without the design wall (nor easy space for it). Lately, I have added the step of actually making a large paper pattern to define the image.

I find my inspiration from a variety of places, frequently jogged by a quote or a line from a poem that speaks to me. Sometimes imagery is prompted by what is happening in my life as with the newest series, called ‘False Lumen’s. I intend to enter these into a show in December. In the past I have had several ceramics shows in the state of Oregon, but this will be my first quilt show entry. Sometimes imagery comes out of something I might be drawing which is usually inspired by words. Generally, as with “False Lumens’ there is  a bit of research to get the correct image or to develope the idea further.

I carefully divide my dyeing studio and sewing studio in the same room, a 10 x 25 foot, south facing room in the daylight basement. Sometimes when doing surface design work with discharge paste or block prints or stencils, I spill out into the rest of the basement or take the operation outdoors to enjoy the day. I am down here almost everyday unless I am in the garden or with the grandsons. The balance is skewed towards family at the moment, but the five year old goes into all day kindergarten in the fall and the four year old is almost there. (These are precious moments and besides I can get the boys to do art in the studio and that is golden!) So grandma duty will start to dwindle. My friends circle is a tight group of neighbors and a husband that does most of the cooking in exchange for cleaning the kitchen. My outside friends are mostly my small quilting group. We meet once a month and go on retreat once a year -  very important group. I would love some more concentrated studio time, but for now am content to focus on the young minds - they will be occupied with their own creativity soon.