Topic: My history of a 30-year voyage of discovery in making art quilts

Speaker: Alice Beasley

I am an artist who lives and works in Oakland, California. I have been making portraits of people and objects since 1988. Fabric is my chosen medium of expression through which I incorporate the same light, shadow and realistic perspective used by artists in other media. Rather than using paint, dyes or other surface treatments, however, I rely instead on finding color, line and texture in the print of commercial fabric and thread or in fabrics that I print myself. I work directly, gradually building a composition in the same manner as a painter working on a canvas; cutting all pieces free-hand from fabric and then machine appliqueing them.

My subject matter is primarily the human figure. I distill what I see around me into portraits of living in a multicultural world. As one reviewer described it, “it [is] the details in the needlework, the subtle patterns in the fabric that are so haunting.” Ultimately my goal is to celebrate the human condition in work that both intrigues and inspires the viewer.

My work has been exhibited in many venues throughout the United States including the De Young Museum in San Francisco, the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum as well as abroad in Madrid, France, Japan, Namibia and Croatia. My work has been purchased or commissioned by private parties and by a number of public entities including: the City and County of San Francisco, the De Young Museum, the United States Embassy, the County of Alameda, Kaiser Hospital, Highland Hospital and the Sunnyvale Medical Facility.

Website: https://alicebeasley.com