Sky Watcher

2020, 48”L x 65”W, hand-dyed cotton fabric, machine-quilted.

This is one of a series of three “Watcher” quilts. I love to draw, paint and quilt faces. This painting on fabric was done at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach. I worry so much about the environment and the manmade changes damaging the natural world. I envision spiritual watchers of sky and earth bearing witness to our destructive forces.

I use thickened fiber-reactive dyes to paint on whole cloth white fabric. The dye reacts with the fiber instantly, capturing brush strokes and creating the movement and shading. The cloth is soft and sewable, not stiff as it would be if I used acrylic paint. As I was painting this image, I could almost ‘see’ the quilting!