Incommunicato

"This quilt was made at the time smart phones and blackberries were new and exciting. It was quite the status symbol to have the apparatus casually resting by ones elbow on a restaurant table. I run a workshop and tour to Tuscany every year, I thought it was amusing when two tourists at a table nearby had finished dinner and, seemingly, after many years of having said everything there was to say to each other (and nothing left to say), they had their smart phones readily at hand to tweet and text the to rest of the world telling all what they ate and where they ate it... but not necessarily having much to say to each other. Ergo 'Incommunicato,' which in Italian means not communicating.

In the quilt I substituted the back wall of the restaurant for the wall of the banquet hall in the villa. The Fresco depicted overhead is a copy- of a copy- of 'The Tribute Money' by the Renaissance painter Massachio who was a native of the town where the villa is. Massachio’s father was a notary in town. He collected and counted the tax money in the cantina (basement) of the villa where there was a secret passage that lead to safety if the notaries needed to get out with the revenue safely in tact. The buildings in the fresco are actually standing in the town and they are still in pristine condition.

I added the gilt frame around the piece after the quilt was done to add a bit of irony to the piece. I liked the juxtaposition of the inappropriate track suit the man is wearing against an ornate gilt frame. I used a number of techniques in this piece. the background wall is sponge painted with about 20 different colors and values to achieve light and dark where needed to create contrast with foreground objects. Paint is applied to the faces and drinking glasses on the table as well as to the cell phones. Hand dyed silk organza is incorporated for the glass of the raffia Chianti bottle. The frame is hand painted with lumiere golds and brass paints on white cotton fabric then quilted and attached over the pictorial quilt. The fresco is rendered with mat textile acrylic paints to create the 'Tribute Money'."

-Esterita Austin