ART QUILTS
Does Niki Bonnett, art quilter and teacher of a class called "Finding Your Own Style," have a consistently identifiable "style"? On the surface, it might not appear so. There are so many possibilities to explore just in the field of art quilts! So many types of material ... from hand-dyed cottons and silks, to theatrical costume fabrics, to fantastic clothing finds in thrift shops. Furthermore, different methods of presentation are often dictated by individual pieces of artwork, and I strongly believe that the integrity of an individual piece of art is more important than calculations about its life after completion. If it is good, it will find an appropriate venue and audience. I believe my unique style is defined by my desire to never settle, to endlessly explore and relay my discoveries to my audience. The Fabric Diary Quilts and Treasure Map Quilts exemplify this.
With my move to Asheville in 2003, I began a striking new series of bold and colorful bed quilts called the Ragtime Bedquilt Series. The emphasis here is on composition and color-play; no surface design work or found-object embellishment here. They just make me feel happy! These machine-pieced and quilted, cotton quilts are machine washable AND two sided... there's another completely different quilt on the reverse side!
