I grew up in a creative household surrounded by original artworks.  My mother appeared unafraid to try anything and my father practiced black and white photography.  I was enamored with photography at a young age and got my first camera in elementary school.  I enjoyed puzzles of all kinds and when I had no new jigsaw puzzles, I would turn them over and do them from the back.  I studied math at Purdue University as it was a form of puzzle. I began quilting to use my photographs on fabric to make memento quilts and soon saw the potential of quilts as an art form and wanted to break out of the rectangular formats of quilt blocks and photograph and saw the puzzle of how to integrate photographs in art quilts.

My process is to pick a subject and to puzzle out what techniques and materials can best be utilized to push boundaries, materials, and design to culminate in a unique expression.  Pushing the definition of quilt and exploring the use of non-traditional materials is often an exciting part of the process for me.  Some explorations are printing photos on nontraditional materials like leather, metal, silk, and vintage lace.  Other explorations are using rust in a controlled manner to rust designs of my choosing rather than serendipitously.  I also enjoy exploring sheers and layering, as well as, integrating hand embroidery.  An import part of my designing is to incorporate visual design elements that are visible at both distance and near so that a viewer is rewarded with details when they take the time to look closely.

The content of my art is often sharing a moment from my photography, but more often recently concepts, driven by themes or challenges of exhibitions or groups, are the impetus and lead me down paths I wouldn’t have gone down without the prompt.  After my dad died, I couldn’t work in my normal manner and began an abstract piece exploring the way our life’s paths are dreamed of by our loved ones and ourselves from conception.  We want an idealized path to be attainable, but outside influence, people, and events alter that conceived path and leads us in ways we don’t expect or hope.  This concept has become a series of thirty pieces so far. 

Thanks for your interest,

Barbara Triscari