Artist Information
Carol Rockwell
I was Born in New Jersey a few decades ago and my life's journey has taken me to Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado and, for the last 14 years, Montana...my heart and soul are at peace in the West, especially the mountains...I love anything that pertains to nature, and draw much of my artistic abilities from the majesty of northwest Montana...
Though I was an art major in college and have been sewing all my life, my career as a quilter did not begin until about eight years ago when I went to work at a local quilt shop in Kalispell...I had taken some classes there, and was hired for my sewing skills and artistic abilities...I have those fellow employees to thank for teaching me the ropes, or rather, the threads, of the quilting world...
I absorb much from the beauty of my natural surroundings in Bigfork, Montana, where I make my home, and try to translate some of that majesty into my quilting creations...I used to paint with acrylics, and have now discovered this exciting new medium where my canvas is covered with bits of fabric instead of paint...because I'm so new to this fiber art field, I have not truly developed a 'style' as yet...I'm still exploring all the wonderful possibilities of working with cloth, from traditional designs to the abstract 'cut and paste' techniques...this medium is definitely teaching me patience, for it sometimes seems to take forever to get all the pieces in place for the top of the quilt, with the quilting, or stitching, part still to be completed...I find the 'trying part' of quilting to be that it is 'slow going'...taking large pieces of cloth, cutting them into smaller pieces and combining them by stitches into one large piece again sometimes seems an eternity...one never truly knows what the end result will be until the final stitch is in place, and if the finished product is not what was anticipated, the best thing to do is start over, and learn from mistakes...
I have recently added a large studio to my home where I spend countless hours wrapped up in the creation of fiber pictures...in the cold gray winter months, it is truly a joy to be able to surround myself with bright colors and the warmth of cloth ...I purposely placed my sewing machine where I can look up at the majestic Swan Mountain Range, and that view constantly provides me with inspiration, be it shapes, a riot of rainbow colors, or textures from rock, vegetation, reflection from the front yard pond, deer or an occasional grizzly wandering through...most times I have more ideas than time to put them into a quilt! When I'm not coming up with new creations at home, I can be found working ( I actually call it 'playing'...) with fabric at a new quilt shop in Bigfork, the Bigfork Bay Cotton Company, teaching and sharing the friendship of this wonderful field with an amazingly talented group of fellow fabric artists...
I belong to the Bigfork Piecemakers Quilt Guild, and have won numerous awards for my quilting at the annual show we present yearly at the Masonic Lodge in Bigfork...over the years I have also garnered a few 'blues' at the annual Flathead Quilter's Show in Kalispell...
I have participated in seminars conducted by nationally known quilters and and am continually amazed at the broad scope of this medium...I am proud to be a part of the continuation of an art form that is now becoming recognized as just that...it is a beautiful expression of design and love through fiber, rather than what used to be considered simply a functional item...
Art Samples
