Check Out Lyric Montgomery Kinard’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lyric Montgomery Kinard.

Hi Lyric, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Hello, I’m Lyric, and artist, author, educator, and instigator! I work with textiles, dyeing, painting, and printing fabric, then stitching them into abstract wall quilts. Lately, I’ve been creating a lot of smaller improvisationally stitched scrolls and accordion books as a form of contemplative meditation. 

My goal as an artist is to remind humanity of the strength it possesses. In a world where too often, the images we feed ourselves are full of violence and fear, I strive to uplift. In a many layered processes, I gather intriguing materials both old and new. I marvel as plain cloth is transformed as it absorbs dye and paint. The meditative process of mark-making with thread allows me to truly see and understand my materials and physically connect with my subject. Slowly order emerges from disarray, beauty from chaos. 

The tactile nature of cloth, its texture, richness, and malleability are what have drawn me to this medium. Fabric has a history almost as old as humankind; from birth to death, we wrap ourselves in cloth. It brings us comfort and protection. It defines our individual identities. 

Quilts hold a particular fascination for me. During a time when creative women were restricted from becoming artists, quilts became an acceptable means of expression; works of art imbedded in an object of utility. The cloth I layer and stitch is freed from utility. My cloth becomes a statement about the role of women, about the world around us and our vital place in it. 

I’ve been very fortunate to travel around the world teaching other artists techniques such as screen printing and surface design as well as design and composition principles. 

(Teaching bio: Lyric Montgomery Kinard is an award-winning artist with a passion for sparking the creativity that she knows each of her students posses. With playful support and gentle encouragement, she will take you through your first steps on a new path, seeing the world through the eyes of an artist. As an artist, author, and educator, she transforms cloth into art in her studio and timid spirits into confident creatives in the classroom. 

Lyric was recognized for her talents as the 2011 International Association of Professional Quilters Teacher of the Year and is the author of the book Art + Quilt: design principles and creativity exercises. She has written extensively for Quilting Arts Magazine, appeared on Quilting Arts TV and The Quilt Show.) 

I am currently spending most of my time running the Global Quilt Connection and The Academy for Virtual Teaching. Both rose from the need during the pandemic to keep quilt guilds alive around the world. 

The GQC is a virtual listing and event service where we connect instructors and program providers with quilt guilds who are looking for virtual programming, whether it is a Zoom lecture or an all-day Zoom workshop. We provide continuing education to guilds so they can better understand the technology used to connect a teacher from Australia to a small guild in Minnesota. We also create live-streamed Sampler-Platter events where our teachers offer short demonstrations to thousands of quilters at a time. 

The Academy for Virtual Teaching serves the creatives such as quilters, crafters, and artists that need to increase their technological proficiency in order to add virtual workshops to their business model. Through our amazing online community and through lots of coaching and professional development workshops, we have helped creative makers expand and develop their online teaching business so that they are able to reach a global audience. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The route I’ve taken to this point has been both circuitous and serendipitous and certainly unexpected. I began quilting after my first of five children was born. It is a community-based art form, and the many friends I’ve made over have supported me as we have raised our family without any family nearby. 

I had let go of my early ambitions in order to raise my children and lost myself for several years, suffering from postpartum depression. My first encounter with “art quilts” was life-changing. I quickly began to master every skill I could that would help me truly express my vision with this medium that was miraculously compatible with motherhood. Creating with cloth has been my therapy for a few decades now. It keeps me sane and is much less expensive than therapy. 

Eventually, my love of the art form and of teaching allowed me to experience my lifelong dreams of traveling the world. I’ve traveled to far-flung continents and met other creatives everywhere I’ve gone. I’ve seen so many beautiful places and met so many kind and lovely people. 

Like so many others, the pandemic shutdown cut off my entire income stream as a traveling teacher, just as it did to so many others. It was brutal watching so many of my colleagues’ businesses entirely collapse. Because of the miracles of technology, my business partner and I were able to revive our livelihoods and those of so many others. The Global Quilt Connection has become a primary resource for quilt guilds all around the world to connect with virtual teachers. 

As I look to the future, I am taking into consideration the possibility that genetic health issues (I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) will curtail my ability to travel in the same way I have. The ability to connect with students through virtual technology will allow me to keep that love of connecting with others who share my love of the textile arts as a central part of my life. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I dye, paint, and print my own cloth and create abstract art quilts that hang on the wall. They are paintings made from cloth with the added element of stitch. There is something incredibly satisfying in handling my medium, seeing the artist’s hand in every stitch. My work is abstract, but it holds beauty and meaning for me. I have shapes and symbols I return to again and again. I often combine the clean geometry of circles and squares with layers of very subtle chaos. My work will often have a very strong focal point with layers and layers of pattern and texture in the color and stitch work that is only really noticeable as the viewer spends more and more time with the work. 

I love being able to let my viewers develop their own relationships with the abstract work, creating their own meanings and understandings. 

In my teaching work, I have received awards and am well known for encouraging people, especially women, who have never believed they could be creative. Art can be taught if it design principles are presented clearly and simply, and the student is encouraged to freely explore without fear of judgement or failure. 

I’ve brought that same spirit to the community in The Academy for Virtual Teaching. As the creative makers there learn to use video technology and so much of the other tech and software needed to successfully present their skills to students online, they have fully embraced a collaborative rather than a competitive mindset. It’s beautiful to behold! 

Pricing:

• AVT community membership is free
• AVT pro membership is $29 per month

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lyrickinard.com https://www.globalquiltconnection.com https://www.academyforvirtualteaching.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theacademyforvirtualteaching/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theAcademyforVirtualTeaching
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/LyricMontgomeryKinard