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| “Both scientists and artists feel compelled to examine more closely the beauty and the unsolved problems of this world.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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---Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt
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| The first time I looked through a microscope I fell in love with what I saw - a whole world of tiny organisms going about their mysterious activities. It is a secret world ignored by most of us. More than just industrious, useful and sometimes deadly, many of these tiny creatures are lovely and amazingly structured. I believe that beauty is also manifest in the smallest living things.The colors, forms, and structure of this tiny world are fascinating to me. I intend for my work to be an invitation to a fresh new look at the unnoticed world we live in. The creatures that live in this world have an ornamental character and a symmetry that I love. Many are constructed of multiples that suggest patterns and colors I can use in my quilts and costumes. I use batik, immersion dying, painting, mono printing, discharging, over dying and many other surface design techniques to create my fabrics. These fabrics are cut up and pieced or appliquéd using traditional and non-traditional quilting techniques to create the top layer. Free motion machine embroidery is often incorporated into the top as well. The top is layered with a batting and back, and either free motion or hand quilting holds the layers together. |
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| Shibori I _____________________ 2004 - 23" x 24" Arashi (pole wrap) shibori with procion MX dye; pieced and machine quilted |
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| Unnatural Selection _____________________ 2001 - 20" x 24" A recombination of the species radiolarian and brachiopod. Hand dyed and commercial fabrics recombined and fused into an unnatural selection |
Flora Carnavora _____________________ 1999 - 16" x 16" Hand dyed and commercial fabrics; hand applique and quilting |
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| Primordial Soup _____________________ 1998 - 40" x 40" Lightning strides the primordial sea, sugars, nucleic and amino acids form. DNA, the bluepint for life, appears. Bacteria and algae develop, oxygen is manufactured, and the animals make their debut. Protozoa, radiolaira, parazoa and metazoa, some of the earliest creatures and their nucleotide soup are represented here. Unprimed painted canvas, discharged fabric, free motion machine embroidery; machine quilted |
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| A Change in the Weather _____________________ 1997 - 47" x 61" For more than 130 million years, dinosaurs domintated the earth. There were thousands of different species. Yet something killed them, every last one of them. In the last hours of the Cretaceous period, an approaching asteroid and it's subsequent impact may have seemed only a momentary disturbance to the creatures of the day, but it was like the hand of God reaching through the atmosphere to touch the planet with death. Batik, immersion dyed and discharged fabrics; painted and printed with thickened dye; machine quilted |
Coral Reef _____________________ 1996 - 41" x 50" Coral reefs are the largest living structures on earth, providing hunting grounds and hiding places for countless creatures. Whole cloth, painted and printed with procion MX dye; free motion embroidery; machine quilted |
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| "Take this magic pill", said the doctor _____________________ 1995 - 15" x 20" After suffering from constant sinus infections for years, and passed from one doctor to the next, I finally was diagnosed with allergies to everything. This little quilt is about the process of discovering that I am responsible for my own health, not the doctors with the magic pills. Commercial and hand dyed fabrics, fur, beads, feathers, MRIs, dust bunnies; machine quilted |
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth: Dragonfly Nymphs _____________________ 1993 - 43" x 54" The insects inhabited the land countless years before the vertebrates, and they still exploit every organism on earth including man. In spite of our hard work, resourcefulness, and enormous cost of labor and money, we have failed to exterminate a single insect species. If we were to disappear from the face of the earth, for whatever reason, there is a meek inconspicuous creature somewhere that would take our place. Batik, procion H series dye; hand quilted |
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| El Dorado's Portrait _____________________ 1992 - 43" x 72" Whole cloth batik; Procion H dye, seed and bugle beads, various commercial fabrics and trim; hand quilted |
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| Manic Organic _____________________ 1992 - 40" x 50" A synthesis of organic forms. Whole cloth batik; Procion H dye; hand quilted |
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