Featured Artist Profile: Linda Filby-Fisher

Today I'm thrilled to present the work of Linda Filby-Fisher, one of our region's SAQA artists from Overland Park, KS.  I find her work and approach inspiring and hope you do too.  For more, check out her website at www.lindafilby-fisher.com.

1. Tell us a little bit about your artistic journey and how you got started?

In 1970 I was a psychotherapist and the director of a small neighborhood mental health center.  After consultation with my grandmothers [experienced needlewomen], I launched a quilting project for clients in our day treatment program, and also began my first quilt.  In 1987 I became a professional quilt maker, in 1989 a quilt artist, and in 1998 a collage fiber artist.

From the Outside In, A Seeing Way Series, Linda Filby-Fisher

2. How do you describe your work?

I am primarily a collage fiber artist with an art quilt base using mixed media to express a concept.  Text and poetry in many languages are an integral part of each piece.

3. Do you have any favorite techniques or approaches?

Photography has been and continues to be a significant element in the creative process.  And now, for the past few years, I have been very excited about various printing techniques--especially hand printing.  I am constantly learning; constantly looking for the method/the media that will best help me manifest the concept--to give the concept visual form.

Dignity 3, Quilt on a Frame Series, Linda Filby-Fisher

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We Rise 1, Medicine Wheel Series, Linda Filby-Fisher

4. What do you want to communicate with your work?

It is important for me to bear witness, to bring a voice.  I am driven to add a certain energy to the Universe.  Each piece has a purpose; each is an offering----and the Medicine Wheel sings.

Earth Song 3, Medicine Wheel Series, Linda Filby-Fisher

5. What methods, or lifestyle tips, or time management tips do you find helpful to producing work?

It is important for me to work in the studio Monday - Friday for about 8 to 10 hours each day.  This is my time to create and to do the administrative tasks that are required to maintain a professional studio.  It is important for me to set aside time Monday-Friday for meditation, exercise, and reading--all are crucial to a productive workday.

Be curious, be interested, and listen in the silence.

Dignity, Celebration of Life Series, Linda Filby-Fisher

Dignity-Detail, Celebration of Life Series, Linda Filby-Fisher

6. What kind of studio/workspace do you have and what features of your surroundings are most helpful for your productivity/work?

My studio is now in my home--an old home with banks of wood windows that fill the studio with natural light and wood floors that make clean up of paint spatter and copper shavings easy.  A large worktable and a floor to ceiling design wall are surrounded by books [including a dictionary collection and Learning Journals], photographs, stones, twigs---special small things that quietly sing.

A place of vibrant peaceful energy.

From The Outside In 3, A Seeing Way Series, Linda Filby-Fisher

Leaving 6, A Telling Series, Linda Filby-Fisher

7. Which artists, other individuals or subjects currently inspire you?

Observations from daily life: a snippet of conversation, a brief glance at a profile--a stance--a gesture, all inform the work.  People's stories--their joys & challenges--their feet and hands--their music, the bend in a branch, the colors-the sounds, the stones and the earth, all bring form to the work.

Meditation insights, tongues of nations gone, words of poets and sages, microscopic and macroscopic science, all nurture the work.

Unity 5, Medicine Wheel Series, Linda Filby-Fisher

 Thanks so much to Linda for sharing her art and thoughts with us!