fiber @ The Fitton- Christine Sauer

fiber @ The Fitton- Christine Sauer

Years ago, I purchased this amazing little quilt from the SAQA Art Quilt Auction. This piece, called Pair, is by the artist Christine Sauer.

Several years later, I traveled to Philadelphia to attend a joint conference sponsored by SAQA and SDA as well as attend all of the amazing fiber art exhibitions that were on display in conjunction with the conference. On the day we were to tour the exhibitions, I ended up sitting next to Christine on the bus! It took just a few sentences for us to figure out that I owned one her pieces. We spent the day talking about and viewing art. It was a great time, and since then we have stayed in touch via email.

THEN, a couple of years later, we discovered that we were in the same group show at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts! How cool is that?

Christine could not attend the opening reception, but I kept my promise to take lots of photos of her work.

As with the other artists, Jonpaul Smith and Dorothy McGuinness, who are also in show, I am using their words and photos along with photos I took of the actual show.

Here is what Christine has to say about her work.

I was delighted by the comment made by a visitor to a recent exhibition that the art was “whimsical but with gravitas”. Colorful and lavishly textured, my imaginative work evolves intuitively from a playful approach.

The mysterious, fascinating and often strange cycle of life is an underlying theme filtered through my abstract lens.

Embracing the element of surprise and serendipity has led to the creation of a diverse body of work with several recurring motifs.

Figures, geometric and organic structures, and inspiration from nature on the macro and micro level, provide an armature for quirky and inventive explorations in texture, pattern, color and form.

A fascination with materials and process is reflected in the unexpected and non-traditional ways that embroidery, beading, crochet and quilting techniques are used to create dimensional pieces.

Material and image are joined by stitch through the process of layering.

New Orleans’ rich celebratory culture and lush environs also informs the use of bright color and opulent, layered surfaces. An amalgam of processes and materials are used to fashion intriguing surfaces.

Attention to surface interest draws the viewer in like a magnet to examine intriguing details and to discover visual surprises just as one might experience upon examination of the microscopic world.