“Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show” Wednesday, July 8, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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SOQS founder is 45th anniversary featured artist
By Jodi Schneider
Correspondent
Sisters Outdoor Quilt
Show (SOQS), the world’s
largest outdoor quilt show in
the world will be reinvented
into a virtual experience
in light of the COVID-19
restrictions. There will also
be fiber arts on display in
the Clearwater Gallery hon-
oring Jean Wells Keenan’s
work as the Featured Gallery
Artist for the 45th SOQS
anniversary.
Clearwater Gallery in
Sisters showcases a brilliant
display of regional and local
artists whose works represent
a variety of artistic mediums.
Local artist Dan Rickards,
co-owner of Clearwater
Gallery, said that the one
thing that stands out about
Jean is that she is exception-
ally forward-thinking.
“She’s been doing the
quilt show for 45 years and
she still continues to push
the edge of creative art from
a quilting perspective,” he
said. “Jean gets inspired over
something and she finds a
way to bring that into fab-
ric, design, and art. She loves
quilting and the thread of
that is always there, but she
will find ways to introduce
new original ideas, and more
importantly as an artist, she
keeps herself inspired.”
Besides Keenan’s colorful
“Metolius” fish quilted art-
work that will be presented
in Clearwater Gallery, the
gallery will also have a few
of Keenan’s framed indi-
vidual stone pieces “Of The
Earth” using textured fabric
embellished with stitching,
all done by hand.
Keenan has collected
rocks and has been fasci-
nated by stone configura-
tions her whole life.
“Growing up in Central
Oregon, I used to find a lot
of interesting rocks. I took
those ideas for my work and
created abstract designs,” she
explained.
“Since I was a child I
always liked to explore, and I
was always picking up rocks.
I used to flag for my dad
when he was crop dusting,
and I would pick up petrified
wood over by Madras and
kept a collection of those
petrified wood-like rocks. I
started making quilts that
were about stone. I really
enjoy seeing the pattern-
ing in stone and if you look
closely you can see the differ-
ent colors next to each other.”
Most of the work you’ll
“I really enjoy the process when I am working
and not knowing the end result.”
— Jean Wells Keenan
see of Keenan’s has to do
with nature, Central Oregon,
and just the joy she feels liv-
ing in the area.
Keenan received a spe-
cial honor in 2019. She won
The Best of Contemporary
Quilts from Quilt National
presented by The Dairy Barn
Arts Center. She entered a
large rock quilt, “No Stone
Unturned.”
She noted, “I started play-
ing around with rock shapes
and stitching and then when
I was traveling, I wanted
hand work that I could do.
So, by the time I got home
from a trip, I had about 21
little rock blocks and then
PHOTO BY JODI SCHNEIDER
added more rock shapes.
I really enjoy the process
when I am working and
not knowing the end result.
I like to have ideas present
themselves while I am work-
ing. I did quite a bit of hand
stitching on that quilt and
eventually pieced the rock
blocks together.”