A few days ago I was talking to Judith Tinkl and she spoke the term “tactile intelligence” with familiar reverence. There is an intelligence based on physical skills: the way a potter throws a pot, the way a woodcarver feels the grain—to get closer to the point— the way Judith cuts cloth apart and knows with her hands how it will be sewn back together; the way Viktor holds a shoe and knows it will become a bird.

Things are different because of Viktor and Judith. In spite of their modesty, they have changed the artistic landscape. The air is easier to breathe.

As one of many local artists breathing easier, this gift is one of the reasons I found myself starting a kickstarter to raise funds so Firefly Books could publish a book about Judith Tinkl and Viktor Tinkl. A book—that tactile object that doesn’t have to end because it stays in your hand for as long as you like. A book is an interactive thing. You can smell it, hear the pages turning, your eyes will be delighted. Of course you also read it—and in a different way than you are reading this: the tactile quality enables us to think better, store knowledge and remember.

Below is Viktor talking and Judith writing about their work.

Judith writing:

Always a quilt maker, I did not always know it. Like many aspiring artists of my generation I experienced all the influences and indoctrination of an early 60s art education. After the birth of a child, sunk in cosy domesticity, I accidentally stumbled upon quilt making. A habitual sewer, I was attracted to fabrics and the comfort and sensual pleasure they gave. Gradually quilt making, initially a stopgap activity, took over.

For some obscure and possibly perverse reason, cutting large pieces of fabric into smaller pieces and then assembling these smaller pieces into a larger piece in an endless cycle of destruction and reconstruction suits me. Economy and function play a large part in quilt making and these resonate with deep conservation instincts. 

Quiltmaking is a contemplative activity. Many hours of manual labour set the mind free to wander. There is time for a very intimate and intense dialogue between the materials and designs as work evolves. I feel connected to the farm woman who, one hundred years ago, made beautiful quilts out of discarded clothing to keep her family warm in winter. I feel connected to artists in North America and Europe who are part of the revival and development of contemporary quilt making. I feel part of the unfolding of contemporary art at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st, although perhaps I am treading a side path rather than the main road. Like a true child of the sixties, I feel most comfortable with non-objective abstract visual ideas. Having lived through one or two cycles and having attained a certain maturity, I have the self-knowledge and confidence to know what I should be doing no matter what else is happening all around. Sometimes I am in step, sometimes not.

What motivates me is a fascination with the phenomena of light and colour and the illusions achieved by juxtapositions of colours. Colour is always interactive and startling results occur when these interactions are pushed to the limit. We see in very specific ways which allows for lots of room to play.

Equally motivating is the phenomenon of a pattern. The simplest structures, on inspection, can generate immensely complicated results. These structures can be found in natural structures and systems, in cultures around the world and are studied by mathematicians and scientists.  I have explored various approaches to geometric patterning over the years: Roger Penrose’s non-periodic pentagonal structures as the basis for the installation Piece by Piece and The Golden Triangle, a magic shape related to the Golden Section that is used in my most recent work.

And so…back to the kickstarter. We need about $2000 more dollars as I write this. We are now just past the $23,000 mark. By the time you read this, there will only be 11 days left to sponsor the book. If you have already pledged, I thank you. If you haven’t pledged yet and can do so, I hope you will do it soon so I can stop staring hopefully at my phone.

Press the link below to land on the kickstarter page and help sponsor a beautiful and important book:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tinklbook/viktor-tinkl-judith-tinkl-art-and-place