Balances

Balances was made at the time when I started adding monoprinting to the mix of handpainting techniques I usually used to create fabrics. Monoprinting tied together my earlier training in printmaking with my current love of the tactile quality of textiles and the drag of a brush on a textile surface. These fabrics were then assembled into large-scale, abstract compositions, then machine quilted. I only use my own fabrics in my work.

My first experiences with creating art quilts started in the late 1990s. I was thrilled by their heft plus the ability to create large works that could be practically stored and displayed. I have never done traditional pieced quilting, always preferring painterly compositions to propel my ideas. Although visually abstract, my work constantly mines the daily life experiences of family, society and the natural world, with a hefty dose of music to guide the hand.

To me, successful art works in any medium are a balance of complex forms. I juxtapose active forms with quiet, inward ones, motion with stillness. In music, the silence between notes is just as important as the notes themselves.

As a violinist, painting and printing fabrics is a bit like improvising or playing an instrument. There's an immediacy, a give-and-take in the process. I may have an idea when I start but I always end up with something different. For me, some composers really inspire color, like Shostakovich, whose music matches the way I like to paint.