Luke Haynes at MD this Month

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Classes | Quilting
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I met Luke via Facebook. Our online introduction quickly lead to real life spicy wings at Pok Pok and a delightful chat over sticky fingers. Luke is one of the most delightful people I have ever met, full of enthusiasm for quilting, design, wings, and new friends. He was pretty easy to convince to come at teach at MD, even with his recent move to LA. He is flying up especially for this class!

Luke was first someone I discovered on thequiltshow.com. It is an online TV show with Ricky Timms and Alex Anderson that featured MD about a year ago. When I watched our episode, the other half of the hour was Luke. Then I really discover his amazing quilts. Kayne and Jay-Z? Are you kidding? Brilliant! And some of his other collections wow me just as much.

Luke kindly agreed to answer a few questions for me and I thought you all might like a little peek into his charm before you spend the day with him in his upcoming class.

Who are ya, where ya from, what’dya do outside of art?
I am LUKE! I am from the South. [no particular area, I have lived in most of the states in that region.] Outside of art I spend my time on facebook and playing games on my iPhone.
How did you get to quilts?
Accident. I made my first one while at art school at North Carolina School of the arts and continued to innovate from there on till today. The thing is that I never feel like I have mastered it, so I will continue to innovate and make new works.
How do you answer the obvious yet interesting and important questions about your work: quilting is often looked at as a craft and produced by primarily by women, how did you decide this to be the best material and process to express your ideas?
Actually the gender bias didn’t cross my mind until it was toooo late. I grew up in a family and community that didn’t offer too much in the way of traditional roles so I was able to just make or do what was interesting and years later that was quilting. after spending some time aware of the paradigm of quilting I made a series of quilts called “Man Stuff” where I made a bit of humor out of that question and stereotype.

Is it different when you turn a hobby into a career? Does it lose something?

It is different, it’s like making a girlfriend into a wife; the commitment makes the dialogue deeper and more present. The only loss is the feeling of newness, that desire to stop what you are doing in order to make more time for it. Since the hobby is now what you are doing, there is nothing that needs to be stopped to make time for its pursuit. We have only time, and if that is not filled with what you love, then it is squandered. I’m just so elated that I can support myself with my art and passions. Thanks to everyone that makes that possible.

What are you most looking forward to sharing in your class with us?
I am looking forward to learning from the watching all the students experiment. I am looking forward to showing what I have been practicing for the past few years to the group and share my trials and successes. 

Come join Luke at Modern Domestic for an all day workshop Saturday, March 23rd, 10am-5pm. Sign up here.

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