This spring when I received a newsletter from the Danforth Gallery in Livingston, Montana, a surprise discovery of an artist working in fabric appeared on the pages. As I went looking for more information about the woman who created the work of fiber art pictured above, it became clear to me that somehow in the small population state of Montana a fiber artist, like me, seems to imagine that we know of all the working textile artists in the state. It was my pleasure to discover that Maggy Rozycki Hiltner lives in the small town of Red Lodge which is south of Interstate 90 and is often reached as the terminus of a drive over the Beartooth Hiway that begins at Cooke City near the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park; a place I could visit on a day trip.
In this small rural and somewhat isolated town Maggy creates her fiber pieces using images cut from pieces of vintage embroidery or images she has embroidered by using patterns from the 20’s, 30′, 40’s and 50’s. These embroidery patterns were often found on the pages of women’s magazines such as”Women’s Home Companion”, “Needlecraft”, “Peterson’s” or “Ladies Home Journal” to name a few of the resources you can still find on Etsy or Ebay today. Back in my younger years a trip to the local “five and dime” store would be the resource for books of design transfers which could be ironed on to fabric or there was always a supply of stamped kitchen towels and pillow cases that could be purchased. The thread most often used was a six strand cotton embroidery floss. Sometimes today you can find a collection of embroidered and/or appliqued household pieces at thrift stores and garage sales. If the stitching needs some repairing the same cotton floss used 50 years ago is still sold and can be used to make some repairs, if desired. It is these used, older pieces of embroidery that Maggie finds and uses to create her artwork today.
In a wonderful interview on the blog:
http://www.mrxstitch.com/future-heirlooms/. the interviewer gives a wonderful description of how the artist’s work impacted the author.
Here, from her website in a small vignette from one of her pieces. She currently, through September 1st, has work showing at the Dairy Barn in Athens, OH, and will have work in the following shows (from her website):Quilt Visions Biennial 2014
October 3, 2014 to January 4, 2015
Visions Arts Museum
San Diego, CA
visit the Visions Arts Museum website
see work to be included in the exhibition
Solo Exhibition
April 24 to August 16, 2015
Dr. Ruth Tam Lim Project Room
Mesa Arts Center
Mesa, AZ
visit the Mesa Arts Center website
Focus: Fiber 2014
September 26, 2014 to January 18, 2015
Erie Art Museum
Erie, PA
visit the Erie Art Museum website
A Common Thread: Stitching and Embroidery
March 7 to July 5, 2015
San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles
San Jose, CA
visit the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles website
If you will be near one of the shows her work is sure to delight the exploring, playful artist within each of us. For some, it will be the remembering of the images she uses from our days as a child or young adult, or even those times when we have picked up and been tempted to buy a piece or two of embroidered household linens.
Other artists have included pieces of vintage embroidery in their work, Sue Reno, http://www.suereno.com/ showed pieces of her work incorporating vintage linens in a recent article for Quilting Arts and Deb Lacativa uses vintage linens for the cloth she dyes for sale and in the work she creates http://lacativa.com/ and http://morewgalo.blogspot.com/ .
What pure delight to discover an unknown to me textile artist living in a small Montana town. An artist whose work reaches from coast to coast here in the USA and brings a new vision to those who see her work.
Angela Moll
clairan
eileen
gabrielleswain
Jane Davila
june
karenmusgrave2013
kate
kathleenloomis
lindafrost
martinehouse
mcooter3
olganorris
pamdora
sandyw
snicklefritzin43
terrygrant
websandthreads
Ragged Cloth Cafe, serving Art and Textiles 
Thanks for this, there’s a lot here to consider.
My initial response is that this artist’s work is definitely cynical if not political. In the linked interview she says:
“I’m always looking for the truth behind a scene-those saccharine children’s books are just asking to be exposed! I like setting a pleasant scene, a universal scene with them, maybe reeling in a viewer to a comfortable place and then telling a kind of icky story. Icky is interesting.”
I remember those ‘saccharine’ days when my father would crawl on the floor tracing patterns onto sheets for my pregnant mother to embroider for my soon to be born brother. They had very little money, but loved making things for themselves which were special compared with the hand-me-downs, which they also treasured because they had been made by relatives. Somehow, although superficially clever, I find the subversion of such work in such delighted-in quantity a kind of empty self indulgence. I wonder if a series of such works makes a point; but a whole oeuvre somehow smacks of lack of true artistic imagination – ?
Thank you for starting off this ponder for me Kristen.
Olga, I, too, have some fond and wonderful memories of making my own set of linens for my hope chest, for learning my stitches as I embroidered small little flannel gowns for newborns in the family and of friends. With now about 15 years of exhibitions in her vitae it will be interesting to see where her “vision” goes and if there is a shift in her work to another theme at some point. For me it was the discovery and exploration of her story and work that prompted the piece for RCC.
Clairan….From my point of view I see her work as incorporating images and memories of the past, a bit of nostalgia, amd the pieces I was able to see made, I believe social commentary. Now if this is to be considered political, I do not know for sure. I will do some more poking around and see if I can get a better answer for you.
On her web page under the bio tab is her written account of how she “views” her work. A good place to begin exploring what these works represent – yet probably the best response would come when viewing a piece with our own eyes and have our own response.
Kristen, I am interested in knowing whether her work is nostalgic and “retro” or does it have a political or social agenda?