Featured Artist Barbara Danzi

Artist Barbara Danzi shares an dazzling collection of colorful abstract quilts created in large format. Enjoy, and visit her website to see more of her portfolio.

 

 

I am an artist, driven to make an impact. My medium is fabric and thread. I learned to sew as a pre-teen at the Brooklyn YWCA and took after school art classes at the Brooklyn Museum. I studied Engineering at Cornell, and worked in science and technology for many years. Nature and the environment have always called to me, and my art is rooted in science, the outdoors, and the contrast with manmade structures.

 

 

I’m a quilt maker making large-scale abstract quilts for the wall. I work by freehand cutting solid-colored fabric into expressive lines and shapes. I use a rotary cutter which is like a pizza wheel, and make big gestural movements, using the cutter as if drawing with a pencil or paintbrush.

 

 

I climb a ladder to arrange these parts on my 20-foot wide design wall, and rearrange until I’ve created a compelling composition. I sew pieces together with my sewing machine, creating seams that appear as hand-drawn lines. After sewing each seam, I put the parts back on the wall to check the composition and add or rearrange if that would make it stronger.

 

 

My palette includes hundreds of colors of solid-colored fabric, some that I’ve hand-dyed, and I often include some unexpected colors or values to enrich the composition and create contrast and depth.

 

 

Once I’ve sewn all the pieces together I layer the quilt top with batting and a backing fabric and stitch through the three layers. These quilt stitching lines add texture, more color, and additional lines and shapes to infuse more meaning into the finished quilt.

 

 

I exhibit frequently through juried and curated shows as well as solo shows for which I create a body of work related to a theme. My quilts have been exhibited on four continents, and are owned by personal and corporate collections. I have won numerous awards including Outstanding Abstract Design and Best in Show.

 

 

I am working on a body of work related to the Los Angeles River and the environmental and social justice issues surrounding the river.

 

 

My goals include exhibiting in museums, and working with gallerists, curators and art consultants to bring my art to more audiences.

 

 

I am a Juried Artist Member of Studio Art Quilt Associates and an active member in Textile Arts Los Angeles, the Textile Study Group of New York, Textile Art Gallery NYC, the Modern Quilt Guild and Surface Design Association. I am a Certified Judge in the National Association of Certified Quilt Judges.

 

Barbara Danzi invites you to follow on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

 

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