Artist Statement

Working with fabric is a great energy release for me. I’m an early riser and feel most creative in the morning. It’s not unusual to find me along with my coffee pot in the studio at 6:30 AM! My original fabric art represents my view of family, global politics and the state of our environment.

Nature and family are my biggest inspirations creating both playful and serious designs. I feel comfortable and familiar with these topics making the whole process flow easily. My desire is to convey the sense of peacefulness I feel when developing a piece to the viewer. The time spent painting, designing and creating a piece varies depending on the size and complexity of the design ranging from a few weeks to a few months.

Recently I’ve focused on painting my own fabrics enhancing my designs with a unique one of a kind look. I start with a piece of plain white silk or cotton; I get out my paints, lay the fabric on my table and turn on a little music. I typically have a color scheme in mind before I paint, but the music sets the tone and influences how I paint. The colors take on the look and movement of water color paints so I never know exactly what the end result will be. It’s always a delight to see how the colors migrate together and what unique creation it will become.

The painter, Monet, has been a strong influence in the way I approach color in my designs. I’ve been fine tuning my self-taught “snippet technique” designs over the years. I take tiny snippets of fabric placing them onto a center panel filling in my design much like a painter works with paint. Creating garden scenes is my favorite subject using the variations in the fabric to play with depth and light. I’ve also developed a technique for creating patterns from photographs using the appliqué technique to bring the picture to life through fabric.

My goal is to bring fabric art into your environment to experience the calm, familiar feeling fabric evokes. Fabric doesn’t need to be explained; it’s a medium we come into contact with everyday and feel comfortable touching, feeling and exploring. There are no sharp points, jagged edges or cold surfaces in my art quilts; only warm colors, balance and an unexpected variety texture. These are the elements I want to emphasis in my designs and provoke an emotional response when viewing my art.

Questions & Comments:  carolreaton@comcast.net

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