When I was in San Antonio I stayed with Leslie Tucker Jenison, who is a wonderful mixed media fiber artist with an encyclopedic knowledge of surface design. She was a very gracious hostess and really made my stay in San Antonio memorable. I wanted to send her a thank you gift, but what to send?
Leslie had just gotten back from a meeting of the Art Cloth Network. From their website:
"The Art Cloth Network is dedicated to exploring and promoting art cloth. Art Cloth is cloth transformed by adding or subtracting color, line, shape, texture, value, or fiber to create a compelling surface."
We had several conversations about art cloth while I was there and I found the whole thing fascinating. I paint on fabric all the time, but these women have taken it to another level. I am fascinated by all of the chemical processes they use!
Most art cloth is finished art. Meaning, that fabric isn't meant to be turned into anything. It is the art. Whenever I paint on fabric, I'm just adding texture for when it goes into its final home. So this is a dramatically interesting idea to me.
And despite feeling terribly intimidated, I figured that a lover of surface design might appreciate a fat quarter of my own painted fabric. So I made a piece of fabric for Leslie:
It's definitely evidence of my "more is more" life philosophy.
I'm not sure if it's "art cloth" or just painted fabric meant to be used in a piece of fiber art. What do you think?
---
P.S. The winner of the "Circles in Squares" stencil in 6x6 and 12x12 is...
Congratulations, Kate! E-mail me with your mailing address!
