When you take a classically and extensively trained artist with a sense of adventure and a zest for experimentation and put her on a small island where there are few distractions but copious natural beauty and serenity maybe this is what you get: riveting fabric multi-media collages that look remarkably like traditional canvases but are three dimensional and tactile. To bring her canvases to life, the artist uses a variety of fabrics combined with drawing, painting, batik and textile dyeing, … enhanced with machine and hand embroidery.
Excerpts from ‘Art in Stitches’ by Cherie Thiessen, Aqua, Gulf Islands Living, Volume 12.
The images featured in the 2023 Textile Art Calendar are a sampling of Art Quilts varying in size.
The art quilts are made with three basic layers plus many other layers of collaged and appliquéd fabric. Some fabric is hand-dyed, painted cotton and silk. A variety of recycled and commercial fabric is also used.
Pieces are then heavily machine stitched (thread painting), plus added machine and hand embroidery. Touches of metallic, acrylic paint add highlights and ‘bling’.
The coloured backgrounds are added to the photographs to fit the 11” x 8.5” calendar format.
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The Galleries
About the Artist
Donna-Fay Digance is a contemporary art quilter, who lives and works on Saturna Island, BC. Themes are influenced by her natural surroundings as imagery is an integral part of her designs.
Donna uses a variety of fabrics combined with drawing, painting, batik, and textile dyeing. Many layers of these modified fabrics overlap to form a fabric collage. The sewing machine becomes a drawing tool to create line and texture as the collage is quilted using machine embroidery and free motion machine stitching.
