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| Mixed Media Textiles & Quilts |
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I cannot remember a time when I wasn't making art. My illustrator mother was determined I would be an artist, and when I grew up enough to choose, I chose art as well. Only in the last few years have I realized that art is no longer just what I make. Art is how I see, how I think, and how I try to interpret our challenging world. In every piece of art I make I balance the overwhelming complexities of global life with the vast potential of an everyday act of kindness and the simple beauty of a domestic object.
Niki Bonnett received her BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978. She was a graphic designer for fifteen years and operated her own design firm in Connecticut for nine years. Since 1993 Niki
has been a full-time artist whose mixed media work, with an emphasis on textiles, includes art quilts and collages.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including such venues as Quilt National, Craft USA, Wesserling Textile Museum in France, Palais Rastede in Germany and the American Craft Museum in NYC. Niki has been featured in FiberArts and Art/Quilt magazines; in Robert Shaw’s book, The Art Quilt ; and in Creative Collage. She was the cover artist featured in the March, 2005 issue of The Laurel of Asheville magazine.
Bonnett’s recent quilts has been heavily influenced by the artistry of the women of Gee’s Bend — a black community of quilters in rural Alabama. Reflections of those influences can be seen in Bonnett’s newest series called Ragtime Bed Quilts. “The original, bold patterns of the Gee’s Bend quilts are as kinetic and exciting as Ragtime Jazz. Having never been a fan of the precise piecing of perfectly measured geometric shapes, I love their rule-shattering masterpieces!.” says Bonnett.
Niki lives and has her studio in an old farmhouse in East Asheville. A member of both the SHCG and Ladies in New Textiles (L.I.N.T.), she teaches and lectures locally as well as around the USA. |
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| Photo by: Tim Barnwell |
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| "Thinking Outside the Box II" |
In the collection of UNC Chapel Hill
84 x 72"
Double sided quilt for bed or wall.
All cotton. Machine pieced and quilted. |
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