Mary Vaneecke

Mary Vaneecke is an award-winning artist, author, and teacher. Her mixed media art on textiles has been exhibited at regional and national shows throughout the US, and in Europe.  Her work and articles have appeared in Quilting Arts Magazine, Machine Quilting Unlimited, the Studio Art Quilt Associates’ Journal, and The Quilting Quarterly. 
Vaneecke began her art career with a round-robin quilting project in 1999. That quilt is still in pieces, but the project inspired her to open El Sol Quilting Studio five years later.  In 2010, her work Homage won the American Quilters Society’s Longarm Workmanship Award for a Wall-sized quilt in Paducah, KY. 

Artist Statement

“Life is chaotic, dangerous, and surprising. 
 Buildings should reflect it.” 
Frank Gehry, architect

I create to communicate my view of the world, and to remind myself to look for beauty in the chaos that is all around us.  But I must also admit that one reason I create is to control some small part of my life.  My work is solely my responsibility—a fact I find both exhilarating and daunting.  Finally, I make art to take up the intriguing challenge of a friend of mine:  Show me something I haven’t seen before. 

I hope you find my work surprising, chaotic, and maybe even a little bit dangerous.  I hope it’s like nothing you’ve seen before. 

Processes

I take plain fabrics (black or white, silk, rayon, or cotton) and alter their surfaces in different ways.  Some of my processes—bleaching, tearing, cutting and burning—are subtractive or destructive.  Some are additive—like painting, dyeing, stitching and laminating.  Others—like felting— are both.  In most of my work, I layer many techniques on a single surface.  My work has roots in the quilting tradition, so each work is layered onto other fabric and stitched to provided texture, dimension, and durability to each piece.

Off the Wall     39’’ x 26’’     $850     

          

                       

Free Radical IV      39’’ x 38’’      $1250

                         

Maelstrom         32’’ x 18’’      $500

    www.maryvaneecke.com