EVA'S GARDEN , from THE PARADISE DOZEN
2006
Cottons, hand and machine pieced, machine quilted. 69 x 53 1/2 inches
Radka Donnell says she worked on her 2006 series, The Paradise Dozen, without interruption, trying to create a summary of her work with quilts and a statement about life and art in general. “Each of the quilts refers directly or indirectly to the Log Cabin pattern," she explains. "Over the years, I came across the pattern not only in the swaddling of Egyptian mummies, but also in the diapering of infants of later times, not only in the folding patterns of the loincloths of Egyptian pharaohs but also in the early stepped pyramids and the stepped pools of antiquity, specifically in the purification pool near the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. All of these places, which I have referred to as ‘charged sites,’ spoke to me of transformation and the human attempt to attain and hold the closemess of Divine Presence. This to me means ‘Paradise.’”
Top left: NEO Buddha by Susan Shie (detail). Collection of John M. Walsh III.
Top right: Paxton Study II by Pauline Burbidge (detail). Private collection, UK.
Bottom left and right: Toward Barred Island (detail) by Gayle Fraas and Duncan Slade
