Michelle Jackson

For me, art and the need to be creative are as necessary as breathing. While I was growing up my mother was the school art teacher and art projects of every kind were as much a part of my daily life as brushing my teeth. Every day was filled the task of using my imagination to make the world more beautiful. When a child uses their imagination wonderful and sometimes unusual “fanciful” things can happen like strawberry horses, green elephants and blueberry giraffes. Oh My! I remember how excited I was as a child at placing two cut out shapes of different color construction paper next to each other as if they were fairytale characters that took on a life of their own and played out some happily ever after scenario. I discovered the use of color was a way of telling beautiful stories and I could create the characters and embellish them however I wanted. I’m still telling stories in my art today. I start with rather ordinary photographs of common people, places or things and interject color to help create a specific story. I work with fabric and its innate qualities of texture, pattern and color. Fabric pieces are cut, reassembled and fused into place. The piece is layered with batting and a backing and then heavily machine quilted adding detail, additional patterns and texture. The piece can hang from a sleeve attached to the back like a tapestry or be mounted and framed. People have asked me, “How do you come up with the color?” Sometimes it’s as easy the characters in

Art, in one form or another, has always been a part of Michelle Jackson's life. Michelle graduated from The Fashion Institute of Technology and worked as a women’s lingerie designer in New York City. In 2004, she started combining her new love of quilting with fashion, creating wearable art patterns. With a love of color and obsession to be more creative she moved quickly into art quilts. “This is where I feel at home, exaggerating color to capture moments and tell stories.” She says. “The most fun part of the design process is deciding what tweak of color to use to help people see what I want them to see or feel what I want them to feel?” Michelle’s quilts have won numerous awards and appear in many magazines, books, galleries and exhibits. Michelle also teaches and lectures on the use of color and light.

2-D, Fiber Arts