Featured Artist - October 2013  Ruth de Vos

RUTH DE VOS - Perth, Australia
WEBSITE | EMAIL | artist page

I am an artist. I stitch hundreds of little pieces of hand-dyed fabric together to make bold textile paintings. With a riot of colour and form the artworks aim to enjoy and capture the wonder of small children discovering this awesome world.

Observing small children notice budding flowers, snail trails, ripening fruit, textured leaves, floating bubbles, dripping rain and pencil marks on paper for the first time is a wonderful reminder of just how special these ordinary things are. I want to retain some of that wide-eyed wonder myself and to share it with others. I make vibrant quilted textiles to powerfully record the learning experiences of little children. Many who view my work have commented on how well the artworks capture moments of childhood.

Over and over, viewers are blown away by and fascinated with the techniques that have been used to make my artworks. Hundreds of bits of fabric together are pieced together to form the surface design of the quilts, and intricate stitching bordering on embroidery is performed to add another dimension to the quilts. These techniques are not so far removed from traditional patchwork and quilting techniques, but have been applied with a complexity that many find it hard to get their mind around.

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