Mary Lou Goertzen (1929-2020) brought a creative lens to every aspect of her life and work, using art to tell stories about herself and her relationships and to infuse daily life with beauty. She referred to many of her creations as “things for eating off of and sleeping under,” nodding to the functional nature of her quilts and dishes, yet that description tells only part of the story. 

Piece / Work: The Art of Mary Lou Goertzen explores individual pieces of the artist’s oeuvre, or body of work—drawings, collages, porcelain china, and a range of textiles—as well as the nature of work for an artist who rarely held a job. Goertzen created artwork during the in-between times of domestic labor while raising a family, taught occasional art classes, sold her artwork at festivals and farmers’ markets, and eventually pursued more lucrative commercial contracts, publishing her drawings as printed cards and on porcelain china. She told stories of her life through the piecework of houses she inhabited, biographical and story quilts, and collaged portraits of friends. The stories of her commercial production trace how Goertzen translated drawings into china patterns and eventually into pieced quilts as well. The interweaving of these stories within the exhibition means that viewers may ask themselves, Is this life or work? For Goertzen, life and work often became one and the same, with little separation between the personal and the professional.

Attend

Kauffman Museum is proud to present programming that digs deeper into the themes and stories of “Piece / Work: The Art of Mary Lou Goertzen.”

Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum programs and Fall Festival programs are free to the public.

Textile Art and Collages

Mary Lou Goertzen celebrated and nurtured the relationships in her life through her art. She made richly colored quilts that responded to her own artwork and spoke to her love and care for those around her. She also created paper collages that embodied her loved ones. 

L-R: “Trillium” lap quilt; “Bouquet” pen-&-ink/watercolor piece; collage; “Gee’s Bend” lap quilt; “Geranium” pen-&-ink/watercolor piece

Exhibit Team

David Kreider: Preparator and Exhibit Fabricator

Andi Schmidt Andres: Program Coordinator and Grant Writer

Coralee Shenk: Bookkeeper

Exhibit Gallery

Stay tuned for photographs of key artifacts and exhibit views.