Mary Jardine

About the Artist

"The tactile quality of fabric and fibers appeals to me. I use comercial, hand-dyed or painted fabrics in my "Fabrications" which are either framed without sewing or sewn as a quilted fabric collage."

My art training goes back to my high school years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I had four years of art training with a wonderful art teacher. After marriage and during my child-raising years, I took art classes at the local colleges.

The tactile quality of yarns and fabrics always appealed to me as an art medium. I learned to weave while a member of a weavers guild in Reno, Nevada, exhibiting in many fiber shows and winning awards for my tapestries. I also did commissions and Moya Lear of Lear Aviation fame owns three of my pieces.

Returning to college late in life I earned an AA degree in Art and Journalism in Reno, Nevada. Classes in drawing, design and painting rounded out my art training. Ceramics interested me at that time and one semester I created 50 ceramic masks which I dressed in natural fibers and exhibited in California and Nevada. I also worked on the editorial staff of the school newspaper and helped publish an art and literary magazine.

When I started traveling in a motorhome to work in the national parks, I sold my loom and kiln, packed dyes, paints and fabric, and "went on the road" where I began my "Fabrications."

My fabrics are mostly commercial although I use paints and dyes to achieve specific results. Then I cut and assemble the fabric pieces to create landscapes, somewhat like working a jigsaw puzzle. I have exhibited these "Fabrications" at art centers in Weaverville, California, Flagstaff, Sedona, Tucson, Tubac and Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Cottonwood, Arizona, became my home base when I tired of full-time traveling and I expanded into my quilted tapestries. My love of forests, mountains, flowers, deserts, etc. inspires my work.

Being a member of the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery gives me the opportunity to offer my art to the public and have interaction with other artists.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Fabrications