In Winter of Loss, quilt artist and poet Joan Schulze portrays the heartbreaking experience of losing her husband, Jim, to dementia. In brief moments available while caring for him, she found solace in creating unique quilts and collages and expressed her complicated feelings through evocative poetry. 

The imagery of Winter of Loss appears in some works as silken stream of consciousness, with overlapping fragmented images softened with the passage of time. In others, shaded tangles of thread portray overlapping and conflicted emotions that defy clarity. Her poetry too lyrically describes her tumultuous experience of pain and loss.

Schulze, based in San José, California, is a leader in the studio quilt movement and has been making quilts and collages for five decades. She uses combinations of fabric dyeing, printmaking, embroidery, machine sewing, and collage techniques in her textiles. She developed a unique process of creating imagery through gluing photos and magazine pages to fabric and carefully peeling the pages away to leave transferred images. Schulze uses hand and machine quilting to complete the pieces.

Schulze’s work has been exhibited and published internationally and is included in numerous major collections, including the International Quilt Museum.