The Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum’s exhibition of contemporary art quilts, Pushing the Surface, will be open to the public on May 18^th. The exhibition of 26 works is a dance of color, beauty, ingenuity, and story. Although most of the works share the basic structural characteristics of a quilt—joining at least two layers of fiber with stitching, they break from tradition in their design methods. Surfaces may be pieced and patched as one finds in a traditional quilt, but they may also be painted, dyed, laser printed, appliquéd or fused. The techniques are as varied as the subject matter, which is as varied as the effects. In the end the artists create a truly new statement that speaks to mind and spirit like all great art is meant to do.