Dena Crain: Artist & Teacher in Kenya

Art quilts are made of layers of meaning and experience as well as layers of fabric and stitchery. Quilts possess many desirable aesthetic qualities: color, value, pattern and print, light reflection and absorption, texture, and tactile appeal.

I have loved working with fabrics since I was a child making doll clothes at my mother’s knee while she sewed clothing for our family. As a mature artist, I have taken my love of fabric to the wall.

My work is varied, and I produce different series simultaneously. A conceptual artist, I find inspiration in method and technique, and apply a designer’s approach to the work. Although sometimes definitions overlap, my quilts can be loosely categorized as shown below.

SPIRIT WORKS

Like automatic writing, these surrealistic images unfold while I am in a meditative state of mind in my work. Quilted in black thread on white fabric, one stitch at a time by hand or on the sewing machine, the lines that define shapes unfold without prior sketch or intent.

When the full design magically has appeared, I paint the shapes with thickened dye or paint, and adorn each piece with appropriate beading, reverse applique, and more. Uniquely intuitive, these works of surrealism truly are artistic creations of the spirit.

SYMMETRY SETS

Building traditional patchwork quilting, I stretch a square into a rectangle, tessellate the long sides and design the new repeat unit. Multiple repeats stack easily into a column. Reflection at strategic axes turns simple designs into complex images expressed in luxurious silks pieced with extraordinary precision, and other fabrics constructed by more improvisational methods.

Five design symmetries derive from this work: Butterflies, Quarters, Ladders, Crystals, and Designer Pinwheels, the last based on four-fold rotation of a tessellated right triangle. Patterns for similar designs can be found on the Patterns page, and specific instructions for my design and piecing methods can be acquired in my online quilt design classes at Quilt University.

Designer Pinwheels

Crystal Quilts

Ladder Quilts

Quarter Quilts

Butterfly Quilts

Built Quilts

Improvisational cutting, piecing and layering lead to playful but serious experimental work. Unexpected irregularities of form and position produce rhythmic movement in each piece, in addition to certain kinetic qualities and a lively dancing style.

Three styles of design appear in this series. Darned Quilts explore options for color and value manipulation made possible by raw edge piecing. Structured Fabrics are specialized quilts built as combinations of stripes, checks, and plaids. They are quite three-dimensional and like all quilts they beg to be touched.

Darned Quilts and Structured Fabrics are available as online quilt design classes at Quilt University. African Rhythms quilts incorporate African fabrics and colors to give distinctively ethnic character. Look for another perspective on Africa in my African Rock Art Quilts.

Darned Quilts

Structured Fabrics Quilts

African Rhythms

From simultaneous design and sewing processes, my pieces seem to grow of their own accord. I do not control their development, but they dictate to me what should come next. The nature of the materials, in conjunction with an artist’s passion, produces unique results. I am never so happy as when my creative spirit takes control and the work flows.”

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