Weltkamp says he has always been attracted to things that were considered soft and feminine, and the family tradition of making blankets led to his later decision to take that shape.īut before he started making blankets, he painted them, a practice he continues today. The oldest item on display is a 1978 Star Wars quilt made by his aunt for 8-year-old Joey. It serves as a mid-career retrospective for the 50-year-old artist, although Weltkamp didn’t “find his artistic voice,” as he says until he was 40 years old. Weltkamp said that while his work may have sad nuances, he wanted to create a mood with this show, which was mostly organized during the COVID-19 pandemic. “SPIRIT!” – a large, rich personal exhibition of blankets, drawings and installations at the Bellevue Art Museum – honors hilarious visuals, multi-layered allusions and mystical requests of this self-proclaimed queer-folk bridge, who is loved by local art.Ī recent meeting with Weltkamp, his husband Ben Gannan, who is also an artist, and curator of BAM Lane Eagles was like being part of a sewing club, sharing a company, gathering stories together. In Joey Weltkamp’s hands, the quilts also offer gorgeous, eccentric, sometimes melancholy references to the Northwest Pacific, pop culture and his gay identity. Blankets envelop us with a sense of home, tradition and the comfort of handicrafts.
