Featured Artist Profile: Kathy Suprenant

Today I'm thrilled to be featuring the work of Kathy Suprenant.   When I first came across her work featuring chromosomes I was excited to find another scientist/quilter, and am always surprised by how many of us there are!   You can find her art online at her website http://kathysuprenant.com/.

1. Who are you and where do you live?

 Lawrence, Kansas, has been my home for nearly thirty years.  I was born and raised in Hudson Falls, New York, and before moving to Lawrence I lived in Santa Barbara, California and Charlottesville, Virginia. 

I work at the University of Kansas where I teach cell biology at the undergraduate and graduate level (http://www.molecularbiosciences.ku.edu/kathy-suprenant).

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

 I decided to make a baby quilt for a friend.  When I got home I realized that I didn’t know how to make a quilt.  The very next day there was an advertisement in our local newspaper for a quilting class at a local fabric store.  What kind of quilt?  A baby-sized log cabin! Truly.  After several classes, I learned how to make many traditional-style quilts.  And then there were THE triangles, a shape that I never mastered and never wanted to master.  From that point onward I began to experiment with small art-like quilts.   

  

3. How do you describe your work?

My small quilts are simple in design, figural and graphic. I use commercial and a few hand-dyed fabrics.  Recently, I started using walnut-dyed fabric that I create in my backyard.  There are ten healthy black walnut trees in my yard that are prolific producers of large green walnuts.

  

Kathy Suprenant, Too Good to Eat

4. Do you have any favorite techniques or approaches?

 I often use freezer paper piecing for the background and hand-applique for the foreground.   All of my recently completed quilts are hand-quilted and occasionally beaded.

Kathy Suprenant, Protozoans

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

I try to combine my conceptualization of cell structure and function with the traditions of quilting and surface design. My goal is to create a unique set of shapes and symbols that CELL-ebrate the exquisite organization and behavior of living cells, and their repeating patterns of growth and death.

Kathy Suprenant, Chromosomes and a Door

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

It has taken years and many boxes of unfinished work to focus on finishing a single piece.  For me, it is more efficient to work on one quilt at a time from start to finish.  I may not make another quilt for several months.  In the meantime, I keep a sketchbook to record any new ideas.

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

I work in a spare bedroom where I installed a large overhead color-corrected fluorescent light.  Everything I need is in this room, including a computer and printer, a large mobile folding table, a drawing table, fabric and other supplies, and a comfortable chair from which I can watch television while I quilt, or just watch television. 

Kathy Suprenant, Butterfly Weed

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

I am very fond of Judith Martin’s website and blog.  Judith is a Canadian textile artist who gathers much of her inspiration from her home on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada.

In addition, I am inspired by the many nationally recognized quilt artists and historians in Lawrence, Kansas.  These include, but are not limited to, Barbara Brackman, Marla Arna Jackson, Chris Wolf Edmonds, and Mary Anne Jordan.


Thanks so much to Kathy for sharing her fabulous work, and check out her website for more information!

Featured Artist Profile: Jan Holzbauer

Today I'm pleased to feature Jan Holzbauer, a wonderful art quilter from Oklahoma.  She can be found online at www.janholzbauer.com.  I was pleased to meet Jan this past weekend at the opening of Fiberworks 2013 where Jan's beautiful piece "Bruiser" is being shown.  I was just amazed at the density and texture in the thread painting; it was fabulous to see it in person.  Bruiser's expression is so very cat like, regally waiting to offer judgment on whatever wanders into his domain.

1. Who are you and where do you live?
I am Jan Holzbauer.   I live just outside of Jennings, OK which is between  Tulsa & Stillwater.

2. Tell us a little bit about your artistic journey and how you got started?
I have sewn since I was a little girl making my doll clothes, then graduated up to making my own clothes.  I got started as a traditional quilter in 1986 when I made my first quilt for my 1st step-daughter when she turned 16 years old.  Then the other three step kids got a quilt, my daughter has gotten several and now I’m working on grand kid #5.  My art quilt journey started when I went back to college in 2006-2010 at OSU and finally talked my professors into letting me do my work in thread painting.

Pinwheel BOM 1, c. Jan Holzbauer

Hadiya 1, c. Jan Holzbauer

3. How do you describe your work?
I like to make representational art pieces using fabric and thread.   I enjoy making portraits of people and animals.  Mostly if you have a photo – I can thread paint it.

Bruiser, c. Jan Holzbauer

Bruiser, detail, c. Jan Holzbauer

4. Do you have any favorite techniques or approaches?
I love free motion thread painting.   I don’t use a computer to digitize my pieces.  Some call it free motion embroidery but it entails so much more than just embroidery.

5. What do you want to communicate with your work?
I like to make memories for people whether it is of a person, place or pet.  To give them a special type of way to remember that special thing.

Rod & Jackie, close up, c. Jan Holzbauer

6. What methods, or lifestyle tips, or time management tips do you find helpful to producing work?
Get up from your work frequently; stretch; get something to drink; take a brief walk.  Take a few steps back away from your work to get a different perspective.

Black Bear, c. Jan Holzbauer

7. What kind of studio/workspace do you have and what features of your surroundings are most helpful for your productivity/work?
When I am working on my longarm quilting machine it is in an upstairs room because that’s the only place it would fit.  But I get my exercise going up and down stairs because I usually have something downstairs in my ‘regular’ sewing room that I need.   Downstairs in my ‘regular’ sewing room is where I do most of my work.  It is where I do my thread painting and painting on fabric.  Although it sometimes feels a little crowded in my sewing room I like it because I know where everything is located and I try to keep it somewhat organized…although that doesn’t always work.

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

I love Pam Holland’s work, Hollis Chatelain, Lura Schwarz Smith & Maria Elkins.

Thanks for sharing your work with us Jan!