Back to Current Exhibitions                                                                                   Cher Cartwright, Shapeshifter, detail

FIBER OPTIX: RECENT WORKS

April 18th to July 5th

Website – http://www.fiberoptixart.com/

Now entering its third decade, Fiber Optix is a group of fine art quilters in the Pacific Northwest. While honoring what they characterize as quilting’s “utilitarian” roots, they seek the transcendence of fine art using fabric, needle and thread. Committed to their own self-expression and the creation of meaningful visual art, they test the full power of the textile medium. Their work has been exhibited around the world to critical acclaim, and individual members have received numerous accolades.

While the members of Fiber Optix work individually, they meet collectively on a regular basis to critique each other’s work and spur each other on. Their topics of discussion range from the practical and technical to the conceptual and theoretical. Their work is often freehand, abstract and improvisational, reflecting the creative and artistic leadership of renowned art quilter and teacher Nancy Crow, with whom most of the group has studied.

Like many contemporary art quilters, the members of FiberOptix often describe their work in painterly terms. Julie Sevilla Drake recalls that she was once asked by a famous artist why she did not paint. She replied, “I don’t know how to paint. I know how to sew. Thus I make quilts. It’s my way of painting.” She began using quilts as her art medium in 2013, dyeing her own fabric “to create a palette, much like painters mix color.” Once the fabric is prepared, she cuts “intuitively, in big strokes without templates or rulers.” She then sews and quilts by machine, with the quilting stitches becoming “brushstrokes” that add another layer of meaning.

In her art quilting, she draws on her fascination with “art’s essentials: color, line, shape, texture.” She finds abstract art especially compelling: “it grabs my attention and moves me viscerally.” Her work Otter is from her Core Stories Series, which consists of several quilts based on “the circle, abstracted”. The works ask viewers to consider the fundamental nature of things and remind us that things aren’t always as they seem. Are shapes cores, or are they holes? Cores shapeshift into holes and, as Julie explains it, “what forms, transforms, deforms; what we have, what we miss; abstract, concrete. The core of my story: pretty tough; very lucky.”

This sense of movement and transformation is also present in Lyrical by Nancy Cordy. In this piece Nancy used hand dyed and commercial cottons to “find lyricism, a rhythmic cadence in an image created by emphasizing the circular side of the shape and obscuring the hard straight side.” The language of curves and straight edges reflect her career as an architectural draftsperson; in her work she finds the intersection between the precision of drafting and the freedom of freehanding cutting. The overall effect is an exploration of “the colors’ and shapes’ relationships to each other and the whole”.

Crossroads, by the late Pat Hedwall, further embodies FiberOptix’s commitment to the freedom of the artistic experience. In the poem below, she speaks for all who translate their dreams into tangible works of art to express themselves in a way that will inspire others.

I dye my own fabric; I sew my own seams.
My intricate patterns all come from my dreams.
I try to remember to stay out of what’s mine
And then let the “improv” god have a good time,
Suggesting the color, the line and the subject
That makes it a “keeper” not a reject.

Meet the Artists

Would you like to hear more from the artists? Click on an artist’s name for a Q + A with the artist about their inspirations, their studios, and how they’re coping with COVID-19.

Artists: Sandra Altenberg, Liz Axford, Cher Cartwright, Nancy Cordry, Julie Sevilla Drake, Lorraine Edmond, Louise Harris, Pat Hedwall, Barbara Kanaya, Melisse Laing, Ellin Larimer, Barbara Nepom, Sharon C. Robinson, Janet Steadman

Contact Us

We would love to hear from you – Please click here to tell us about your experience during our first ever virtual opening, ask a question about the artists/materials/techniques, or send in comments about your favorite piece!