Thanks to its complex surroundings, the eight-limbed star of Julia Laraway’s Your friendly neighborhood tarantula looks like it could have been the creation of a local quilter at any time.
“I just wanted to showcase our gentle giants to the spider world,” said Laraway, a Santa Barbara textile artist whose spider-sense was tingling a little after completing her quilted ode to tarantulas.
“It was about 11 p.m. when I finished. It was kind of hanging on the back of my couch,” recalled Laraway, who was careful to close the door behind her before going to bed that night. “I was an elementary school teacher years ago and have three kids… I’ve read many, many books about art coming to life at night.”
Now that the quilt is on display at the California Nature Art Museum in Solvang, Laraway can put some of her fears to rest, as long as she is not at the venue outside of normal business hours, à la Night at the Museum.
Your friendly neighborhood tarantula is one of several quilts by Laraway featured in the museum’s recent solo exhibition, “California, Quilted: Wild in the Oak Woodland.” Spiders aren’t the only creatures the textile artist has chosen as her subject, as the exhibition includes quilted images of birds, bobcats and other wildlife, as well as various facets of plant life.
Photo courtesy of California Nature Art Museum
COME, QUAIL, AWAY: Santa Barbara-based quilter Julia Laraway is the featured artist in the California Nature Art Museum’s recent solo exhibition, which includes: Quail Momma Quartet and other colorful pieces.
For example, one of Laraway’s quilts features her absolute favorite tree, which she mentions in the title of the piece: The Western Live Oak in the San Marcos Foothills. It is one of Laraway’s several pieces on display at the museum, where her solo exhibition opened in mid-July and will be on display until January 2025.
“The quilt doesn’t do the oak justice because it’s so big,” said Laraway, who often hikes trails along the foothills.
The San Marcos Foothills Preserve — a 301-acre open space between Goleta and Santa Barbara — is home to “many beautiful oak trees,” Laraway said, but the particular oak tree she captured in her quilt has always stuck out in her and her family’s minds. Her children have fond memories of climbing the big tree as a child.
In addition to offering hikers, birdwatchers and other visitors scenic views of the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Channel Islands, the preserve is home to hundreds of species of animals, and many of these creatures are the subject of Laraway’s quilts.
For example, 148 species of birds have been sighted in the nature reserve, including tits, sparrows and quails. Laraway pays tribute to the latter in her article Quail Momma Quartet.
“They settle in and incubate their chicks, their eggs, until the chicks hatch,” said Laraway, whose quilted quartet is divided into four panels, similar to the album cover of let it be.
Photo courtesy of California Nature Art Museum
THE TREE THAT KEEPS GIVING: Local textile artist Julia Laraway has featured her favorite oak tree in her quilt titled The Western Live Oak in the San Marcos Foothillscurrently on display at the California Nature Art Museum in downtown Solvang.
While each feathered member of this fabulous foursome is more a quail than a Beatle, they probably have a thing or two in common with the “egg men” John Lennon always sang about.
When Laraway’s Solvang exhibit opened earlier this summer, her mother was one of the first people to see the show. She was the reason Laraway started quilting in the first place.
“I didn’t start sewing until I had kids, and that was in the late ’90s,” said Laraway, who made Halloween costumes and other outfits for her children. “My mom kept telling me, ‘You have to quilt these, it gives them texture and movement.'”
Laraway described her mother as an accomplished seamstress and quilter who encouraged her to experiment with quilting and applique techniques as an adult. “California, Quilted” is Laraway’s first solo exhibition as a textile artist at the California Nature Art Museum.
“It was so much fun,” Laraway said of the experience. “My mom was really pleased.”
Arts editor Caleb Wiseblood has never made a Halloween costume, but he once made a Ronald McDonald outfit using only thrift store finds. Send Quail Mail to (email protected).
