Joyce Martelli’s abstract quilts to be featured at trunk show

Artist Joyce Martelli, of Rochester, never plans her pieces. “When I am in a creative zone, I just go to my studio and start painting,” she said. “How I feel that day is represented on the material.”

Her artwork will be on display at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY, for a trunk show at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019. Trunk shows are lectures by quilters who bring examples of their work to display and explain. Martelli also has a piece in the Schweinfurth’s current exhibition, “Quilts=Art=Quilts.”

Martelli’s talk is the first of four planned during the exhibition’s run. Thomas Knauer, author of the new book “Why We Quilt,” will display his quilts and sign copies of his books at 2 p.m. Nov. 10, during the Fall Fiber Market. Melissa Matson of Honeoye Falls will hold a trunk show at 2 p.m. Nov. 24, and Denise Kooperman of Trumansburg will be featured at 2 p.m. Dec. 1. Both women have artwork in “Quilts=Art=Quilts” (QAQ).

Martelli decided early on that she wanted to become a textile artist when she fell in love with a wall hanging of a piano made of 1-inch floral pieces. She also grew up with a mother who began quilting at age 18 and quilted into her 80s. “All of her quilts were hand pieced and hand stitched,” she said. “I still have several of these amazing quilts.”

She estimates she has made close to 200 quilts, mostly wall quilts. “I did start out making bed quilts, and I’ll still make one for special people,” she added.

Her artwork – including “Rain Forest” (at left), her piece in QAQ – are abstract. “I always tell people that if you see a realistic object in my painting, it is all in your eye,” Martelli said. “It may not have been what I had in mind.

“That’s why I love abstract,” she continued. “You see what you see with your eyes and your feelings at the time.”

The trunk show is free with admission, which is $10 per person. Members, exhibiting artists, and children 12 and under are free.