Oregon Coast Council for the Arts presents coastal Douglas county artist Theresa Richards Chickering’s art quilts in “Cut from a Different Cloth” at the Coastal Oregon Visual Artists Showcase during May.
“My latest work is probably the area in which I’m the least comfortable,” she says. “I like things to look very realistic, almost like a painting, so the more abstract and modern, the less sure I am about it. It is very freeing however. Once I learned to let myself be less concerned with all the rules I learned in quilting over the years and begin doing whatever it takes to make a piece ‘work,’ the easier it’s becoming.”
The studio art quilts in this show represent a move from more traditional work with geometric shapes, 100% cotton, and hand appliqué to more contemporary techniques, materials, and methods including raw edge fusing, dyes and paints, and computer printed images.
Chickering lives in Reedsport with her husband. She loves sharing quilting with others and has taught beginning quilting as well as more advanced classes about color, perspective and design. She has shown her work and received various viewers’ choice awards at many local quilt shows, and her work has been included in the traveling Hoffman Challenge show. She has designed and self-published several patterns through her pattern company, Fabric Tart Designs.
In 2011, she was the featured artist for Coastal Douglas Arts and Business Alliance (CDABA). Chickering has been crafting and sewing since she was a child. Her mother encouraged her and her sister by making sure there were supplies for art, crafts and sewing and by enrolling them in 4-H.
She says, “I can’t imagine not always owning, touching and manipulating fabric. I love the colors, textures and comfort of all things cloth. I have to always be exploring and trying new forms of quilting.”
Showcase Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 12:00pm to 4:00pm