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If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased. - Katherine Hepburn
The concept of art cloth arose from a related idea—that of "complex cloth." I wrote a book by that name, which was published in 1996 by Fiber Studio Press, an imprint of Martingale and Company. Complex Cloth details a series of surface design patterning processes, all of which can be combined in endless permutations, to create a cloth surface with richness and visual depth.
Art cloth springs from revered fine craft traditions. In Asian culture, for example, artisans who spend their whole lives perfecting dyeing and weaving skills are honored with the title National Living Treasure. In the United States, traditional crafts—quilt making, basketry, ceramics, weaving, and metalwork—have always occupied a special niche, renowned as examples of the human impulse to create. Within the past thirty years, many traditional craft forms have evolved into something more than perfectly executed, functional works. Nonfunctional pieces—in basketry, metalwork, ceramics and glass—are all examples of the finely crafted "object," a work of art with roots in a craft medium. "Art Quilts" sprang from the uniquely American tradition of piecing cloth and sewing it into a layered bed covering. As mundanely useful objects, traditional quilts offered women with limited artistic opportunities a chance to explore color and pattern in a socially approved setting. The move to appropriate the quilt as a nonfunctional art form—literally taking it off the bed and hanging it on the wall—was stimulated at least in part by an updated version of this sensibility. Art quilt makers found appeal in the link to the past and to other women, in the recycled aspects of quilt making, and especially in the notion that this was uncharted territory. And uniquely female uncharted territory at that. Similar impulse informs the growing interest in "art cloth". With roots deeply embedded in the fertile soil of fine craftsmanship, art cloth encourages the entwining of branches that include traditional women's work, high fashion, and historical textile processes like batik, shibori and African mudcloth. Art Cloth pays homage to all of these but synthesizes them in a specifically contemporary way. The cloth becomes an object with a rightful existence as itself. These one-of-a-kind lengths tell stories, challenge perceptions, and invite contemplation. Like all good works of art, they refresh and renew every time they are encountered. Unlike many other forms, art cloth can be transformed—into home furnishings, and into individual special garments—without being compromised.
And so the interactivity continues. The viewer is involved and the owner is drawn in. If the piece is to be transformed into some other object there is the dialogue about who and what it will be. If the piece becomes part of a collection, the interaction takes on a different character. But there is always interaction. Owning art cloth is never static. It satisfies because it is active, it is tactile, it is extremely personal, and it is about beauty. I hope you will enjoy exploring this site—one that we've built to be rich in imagery and inspiration. Explore the galleries and read the tutorials—and may your life by fueled by the creative spirit in all its many guises.
Houston Festival of Quilts November 2007
The cloth was displayed against black curtains because of the enormous size of the convention hall. This setting allows thousands of visitors to see “art cloth”—some of them for the first time—so an exhibition like this is worth doing, even though the setting is not as pristine as a gallery. The Festival staff does make placards available that describe an artist’s techniques and ideas about the work, and this is a wonderful way for people to get a glimpse of the maker’s creative process.
Art Cloth Takes Many Forms This exhibit sought to showcase a variety of approaches to the expressive cloth surface. In these images you will see examples of woven structure as the main force of the work, dyeing, printing, discharging, and the use of metallic threads and leafing as embellishment. Hand and machine stitching may also be added to the surface as it nears completion.
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What is Art Cloth? 
Complex Cloth is created using dyes, color removing agents, paints and foils—combined through processes which include silk screen printing, stamping, stenciling, and hand painting. Artists work to layer imagery—both abstract and representational—with sheer applications of texture and color. The end result can be as developed and complex as a Chuck Close portrait, or as ethereal and subtle as a Rothko color study.
Cloth can also be collected with the intent to keep it forever intact. Hung over a rod, displayed against a wooden screen, draped inside a lighted box, suspended from the ceiling—art cloth is suited to the world of small and personal spaces. A collection doesn't have to take up much room. It is interactive in a way few media are. This ability to invite interaction is part of what draws artists to the idea of cloth. The actions of creating cloth are physical—lifting cloth into buckets of brilliant dye, washing it out later, ironing and stretching, folding and smoothing. A real satisfaction comes from the physical effort that goes into making the cloth. It stems from an ongoing interaction with the process, and from an ongoing interaction with the spirit of the cloth—as it whispers advice about what to do next, as each length approaches completion.
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