 "Photo: Melissa Chadbourne")
 "Photo: Melissa Chadbourne")
 "Photo: Melissa Chadbourne")
The walls inside the UCF Women’s Research Center Gallery scream in color.
They are decorated with flowers, triangles, still-life portraits of the 20th century and swirls of galaxies. These are pieces from ‘Disparate Threads,’ a vibrant art-quilt collection from UCF professor Elizabeth Harris, which will hang in the Women’s Research Center Gallery for the remainder of the month.
The associate biology teacher spends half of her time at the university, teaching and working in the herbarium, and the other half of her time in a studio, designing and sewing quilts. More like tapestries, these art quilts tell the story of Harris’ time in Florida and her journey through life.
Jennifer Manis, a UCF graduate and volunteer at the herbarium with Harris, said she had no idea that Harris was so involved in making textiles. "I thought it was a show that she was going to come and have some stuff out, I didn't know it was her show,” she said. "I had no idea she had so many pieces."
‘Disparate Threads’ features more than 20 different full-size quilts by Harris. It also features tiny quilts sewn to post cards. The post cards are made from scraps of fabric that Harris either created from mock-ups of her larger pieces, or are parts of her life that she didn't want to give up. She even created some post cards out of her sons' old childhood shirts.
"The boys' T-shirts would have little bugs or little critters on them, and I couldn't bear to throw them away," Harris said. "So I cut out the images and quilted some of those."
"What makes me rather excited about walking in each day is that they are just vibrant colors that she uses,” said Leslie Lieberman, the director of the Women's Research Center.
Harris says she was inspired when she moved to Florida to make very bright, colorful pieces. To make sure all the colors she will use in a quilt will work together, she spends weeks looking at the colors of fabric she will use before ever working on a quilt. She says the colors also come to her when she's working on pieces, especially when she's working on abstract ones.
Harris fashions her pieces using several different methods. “I do some pieces that are just completely abstract, and just a play on color and textures and just kind of seeing where the shapes and the fabric want to go," she said.
She also does some allegorical pieces that come to her from dreams or life experiences. These pieces generally tell the story of her experience in a metaphorical way. She makes some funny, cathartic quilts, like her quilt “What Really Bugs Me,” which features all of her pet peeves, written in spirals around drawings of bugs.
One quilt, titled “Good Fortunes Squared,” features all the good fortunes she collected from fortune cookies over the years. "Of course I kept the best of the best, and I knew I wanted to show them," she said. "When I quilted around it, that was a one-time go, and I was sweating bullets."
"I think it's really great,” said Jazmine Aria, a UCF graduate and volunteer at the Women’s Research Center. “If you look closely, you can see all the detail in the quilts. I just really like the technique."
Harris has been creating pieces of art since she was a child. “My mother taught me to knit when I was about five years old,” said Harris.
About 20 years ago, she started quilting functional pieces, making baby blankets as gifts for her friends. She made the transition to art-quilt format after visiting an art-quilt show southern Ohio, and her quilting has been evolving since then.
"I'm using more and more non-traditional materials now, or thinking about that and really stretching that boundary,” Harris said, “And that's why I no longer call myself a quilter, I call myself a textile artist."
‘Disparate Threads’ is featured in the UCF Women’s Research Center Gallery, at 12424 Research Parkway, Suite 360. The art quilts will be displayed from now until February 15th.
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