Description
This is my response to a ‘soul food’ challenge theme. To me, art is like breathing, so it keeps me alive!
It is both an art quilt and a book.
As I stitch, my thoughts flow – the importance of love, what being starved of love might feel like, the way we relate to each other personally, locally and globally, and how love feeds our souls.
Title inspired by a song performed by Wendy Matthews:
“when I’m hungry, love will keep me alive”
[Eco dyed/printed wool blanketing, hand stitched; eco dyed and commercial threads, found buttons, eco dyed torn silk (front). Eco dyed/printed and rust printed vintage doilies and table napkins; free motion machine quilted (back).]
I am a Canadian-born eco artist living and working in the island state of Tasmania. I hold a Bachelor of Education (Art Major, distinction) and a diploma of Art Craft Design; I taught within the state education system, did management and community work, and then found my true calling after having a work-related breakdown in 2002. I opened my gallery/studio exactly 1 year later to the day and discovered eco printing and dyeing in 2008. I have always loved textiles and stitching and part of my mission is to raise awareness of them as a valid art form. My underlying philosophy is to create products and source materials as ethically as I can. I find and reinvent vintage and preloved clothing, fabrics and other materials with natural dyes, paints made from the earth and deconstruction techniques, allowing them to inspire my work. Materials for natural printing and colour are mostly foraged from our own property, where I can manage the trees and plants respectfully. My business is based in northeastern Tasmania, Australia; this is where I display and sell my work.
art is like breathing to me – life and thoughts impressed on paper, cloth, the air; fleeting sounds and images captured before they escape forever
(c) Rita Summers
Visit my website to see what is current in products and workshops. I do offer a few online workshops if you are not local to Tasmania. Gone Rustic Studio
