Fayetteville native, Sara Schellenberg uses the visual motif of quilts to summon a feeling of familiarity. She not only skillfully renders the folds, textures, and stitches of their surface into flat planes of color through thick brushstrokes but incorporates and repeats the common designs and patterns of quilts known to the Ozarks into her dream-like, often surreal compositions. Acting as an object of comfort and as a design element, she uses quilts to evoke warmth, care, labor, and regional history. While not a quilter herself, Schellenberg comes from a long line of prolific female quilters and draws upon her familial quilts to continue tradition in a new context.

Attic Window Cluster features an immediately recognizable nine-patch patchwork quilt that drapes over the horizontal figure. The artist describes the characters as a mother and child and the painting tells a story of a child who ventures into the attic, as an act of escapism, as she stares or daydreams out of gridded windows, cocooning herself in her favorite quilt. The mother and family cats sense the melancholy of their beloved youngest member of the household and join in the attic to soothe and offer comfort and support.

What objects in your home bring you comfort?