Mondnacht (Moonlit Night)

Artist Statement

I love playing with color. I love the design process. I am happy to spend hours staring at fabrics and putting them together in different combinations.

In my professional life, I am a professor of music, a conductor, and a choral musician. I enjoy playing with vocal color in my choral ensembles, combining deep tones with vibrant singing and clear bell-like ringing.

As a young person, I had transformative experiences living in Germany. The rolling expanse of countryside and beautiful birch trees spoke to me. I was enthralled by the intense colors of the expressionist painters of the Blaue Reiter. I have vivid memories of discovering art, beauty and solitude in Germany.

This quilt is inspired by the stillness and longing in Schumann’s music. I have always enjoyed walking alone in the evening. Mondnacht brings to mind the beautiful silence of gazing at the heavens under a moonlit sky.

Mondnacht (Moonlit Night)
Robert Schumann, Eichendorff-Liederkreis, Op. 39, No. 5, 1840
Poem: Joseph v. Eichendorff
Translation: Celia Sgroi

It was as if the sky
Had silently kissed the earth,
So that she, in the blossoms’ radiance,
Must now only dream of him.

The breeze passed through the fields,
The grain swayed gently
The woods murmured quietly,
The night was so starry clear.

And my soul spread
Its wings out widely,
Flew through the silent lands
As if it flew toward home.

Materials

Various cotton batiks. Sulky rayon and metallic thread.