Crossing art boundaries

Last week a friend who’s a fiber artist suggested the possibility of exhibiting my paintings in fiber-themed shows. Even though I’m an avid reader of Fiberarts magazine, and even though my favorite job of all time was working in a funky fabric store in Chinatown (Boston), I’ve never considered this before. I always thought of myself as a painter, and I categorized “fiber artists” as those who make their own cloth – weavers, quilters, dyers, knitters. (My childhood summer-camp experiences with crochet and macrame projects were total disasters!)

But I certainly do collage fabric into many of my paintings, and it’s fabric that I’ve altered in some way (usually old curtains from Savers). One example above is “Obi,” in which strips of cloth are adhered to stretched canvas (48 inches square). The cloth started out as plain white cotton from Joanne Fabrics, but by the time I had finished with it, it was tinged with acrylic paint and marked with white spray paint.

So I’ll have to not only try out my friend’s idea, but reconsider my definition of "fiber artist.”