Arts Council April 'Meet the Artist' to feature Celia Boland quilts

Celia Boland of Moscow will bring her art quilts to the April 5 Meet the Artist session at Whitman County Library in Colfax at 7 p.m. Celia does a variety of textile arts, from landscape and crazy quilts to her own take on traditional quilt patterns.

Celia is currently one of a three-generation show at Cosgrove’s Insurance Agency in Moscow. Her mother, Peggy Robbinson, a painter, and daughter Adrienne, a photographer, are also featured.

Boland grew up in southern Idaho in a creative family. Her mother and other family members “made art” in their free time.

“Some people say, ‘Well, you got the creative gene.’ But I think what I got was the burning desire to express it. I’m compulsive,” she said. She finds herself sewing during lunch breaks, at snatched moments and into the evening.

Celia came to Moscow to attend the University of Idaho, and graduated in food science, a program that included home economics and animal science. Then she went on to study adult education and textile design.

She met and married Jim in Moscow and the two of them ran C&L Locker meat market on the north side of town for 21 years. Celia’s job was meat wrapping, retail and personnel.

She worked in three different fabric stores in Moscow and now puts in some hours each week at the Quilted Moose in Colfax.

Her first adventure in quilting was a couple of baby quilts she made for friends in about 1977. She joined Palouse Patchers in 1982. The Patchers brought in artists to teach classes, and Celia said she took full advantage of the offerings. She became particularly interested in color and was drawn to batik fabrics, then began experimenting with curves and circles, a way to add motion to the quilts.

She started crazy quilting and landscape quilting in about 1996 and started teaching classes in those techniques. Embellishing quilts got her started collecting beads.

Although she has made a couple of queen sized quilts in batiks, most of her art quilts are 45 X 45 inches or smaller. She belongs to a women’s art group in Moscow that has occasional shows. They generally put price tags on the works exhibited.

“If you put on enough of a price, you don’t feel so bad if a quilt goes,” Celia said.

She has also displayed her work in Hartung Theater, in a restaurant in Boise, and for an entire summer in Chahalis, Idaho. Her husband, Jim, has played guitar at the opening of a show.

She quotes Jim as saying, “Nothing touches art less than criticism.” She concurs with the statement. Both feel the compulsion to enjoy their arts.

Celia has also tried weaving, spinning and fabric dying, including batik. However, she said there are so many beautiful fabrics available now that she no longer feels a need to dye her own.

The Meet the Artist series, sponsored by Colfax Arts Council with Whitman County Library, features an artist from the area on the first Thursday of every month, September through May, at 7 p.m. at the library headquarters on Main Street in Colfax. The sessions are free to the public.