‘The Fabric of Our Faith’ opens tomorrow night at The Gallery

Tomorrow night The Gallery in Crowley will see the opening of a truly outstanding exhibit — “The Fabric of Our Faith” — featuring the work of Crowley artist Kay Frugé.
From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Crowley Art Association will host a gala reception to kick off the show. Refreshments will be served and the event is free and open to the public.
The exhibit is a collection of art quilts that is essentially a collaboration between Frugé and Peter Gaughan, the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Crowley, of which Frugé is a member.
According to Frugé, during a discussion with New Orleans gallery owner Mark Bercier (Frugé has work hanging in his gallery), Bercier advised her that she should consider centering her work around a theme. She was considering a spiritual theme when Gaughan mentioned that he was thinking of asking an artist to create some visual work that could be used in the church’s ministry.
Frugé regarded that as a sign and the deal was sealed.
Frugé decided to base her quilt series on stories found in the Bible’s Old Testament, where so many moral lessons are found. She in turn provided Gaughan with a list of her planned pieces, and he developed a series of coordinating sermons.
The sermon series will begin at Crowley First UMC on June 30 and continue through the end of July. As the scripture is read in service, those in attendance will be able to view the story through Frugé’s work.
For the uninitiated, art quilting is a contemporary form of textile art that may incorporate some of the basic concepts of traditional quilting but goes well beyond it otherwise.
Besides fabric, art quilters use a wide variety of different materials, as well as a number of different sewing techniques including surface design, hand stitching and machine stitching.
Although she has sewn as a hobby since she was a small child, Frugé wasn’t always a quilter, and, in fact, has never made a traditional square quilt. Rather, she started quilting in just 2009 after seeing an art quilter on television late one night.
Frugé took a basic quilting class and then taught herself from there. As we have noted before, she is obviously a very good teacher, a very good student, or both.
The exhibit includes a total of five works, some realistic, some abstract, all amazing.
One piece, “Lot’s Wife,” is based on Genesis 19. The scripture tells the story of God’s sending his angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the angels warning Lot and his family that they should leave Sodom immediately. When the angels saw that the family was slow in moving, one of them told the family to run for their lives and not look back. When Lot’s wife disobeyed by stopping and looking back, she was turned into a pillar of salt.
The figure depicted in Frugé’s quilt is actually her daughter, Leah, and the white silk fabric used for the salt is leftover from Leah’s wedding dress.
Viewers of the piece will discover that it evokes a variety of emotions that reading of the scripture alone does not, and they should expect similar reactions to the other works in the exhibit.
The exhibit will hang through June 25.
This will be Frugé’s third show at The Gallery, and anyone interested in art or quilting will regret it if they miss it.
The Gallery is located at 411 N. Parkerson Ave. For more information call The Gallery at 514-5114.