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Biography
BARBIE
SWANSON
– Lake City, Florida
Barbie Swanson is a nationally known fiber artist, teacher, designer and
inventor. She is a member of many fiber art organizations including the
Surface Design Association and the North Florida Art League. She invents
tools to aid in design. And she creates specialty hand-dyed and painted
fabrics and yarns which she incorporates into her art pieces. Because
of her love of nature and the way she brings this love into her art, she
has won many awards for her art creations and has been published in
several magazines. She loves to teach, from the very basics to the more
complex, and the motto for Barbie’s students is “YES, I CAN!” It is what
she believes in and anyone working in class or on individual projects
with her realizes that they CAN and DO. With patient guidance, that
allows a student to explore, most find that after even one session, that
they can pursue an avenue that lets them grow in a direction that is
beneficial to their needs and desires. In her art classes, she
encourages her students to find their own way and not make copies of her
art samples. Her goal for everyone is to move him or her to create
something that has meaning and gives pleasure.
She has
developed techniques for stress free-tool free paper piecing and of
chain paper piecing. She has also designed a technique and quilt
style she named “Florida appliqué”. She devises new fabric designs
through her exploration and development of individual and unique
techniques. Any fiber is welcome in her creations. Barbie will always
tell you that there are two criteria for making quilts & fiber
sculpture: having a meaning or message and having a highlighted effect
that invites you to look closely at it, as well as seeing the impact
from afar.
Barbie exhibited some of her quilt pieces at the ARTSERVE
Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, Stretching Art and Tradition exhibit
annually in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, The Orchid Society in Palm
Beach County, Florida, Columbia County Library in north Florida,
Quilts at the Crossroads in Flint, Michigan, Visions “Fiber
of Coronado” special exhibit and various local & national shows.
Her quilt, “Lurking-We Should Have Known” was chosen to and
traveled for 3 years around the world with the “America
From the Heart” exhibit
sponsored by Quilts, Inc. This quilt is in the book entitled
America From the Heart which memorialized the sad stories of the
events of 9/11. Her Journal Quilts were on display at the
2003 Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas.
Three of her quilts were displayed in
January & February of 2004 at the "Beyond the Bed" exhibit at the
Pasco Arts Council in Holiday, FL In 2004 & 2005 her quilts were chosen to travel in the Robert
Kaufman Quilt Quest 2005. Since 2005 she has exhibited and won
awards in the the North Florida Art League
Art Shows in Lake City, FL. She and her pattern Tree of
Life was featured in the September/October 2005 issue of
The Appliqué Society newsletter. Her Florida Panther art
creation was shown in the Museum of Natural History in
Gainesville, FL and was one of the pieces featured in the poster for
the Quilting Natural Florida exhibit in 2008. More works of art are always in
progress, so look for more to come.
She teaches and lectures in local,
regional and national venues. As well as teaching standard and
innovative techniques, she is a Sulky Certified Educator. She enjoys hand and machine appliqué of
any kind and in 1999, established the first Florida chapter of The Appliqué
Society, Appliqué Artists of Southeast Florida. In addition, she has
served and officiated on various quilt guild & show boards. She owns
FABRIC ART SHOP, which started as an online and traveling specialty shop and held
classes and retreats at her studio. In 2006 she opened her FABRIC ART
SHOP storefront, lovingly known as the purple shop in Lake City. Barbie is also
the inventor of the EASY GLIDE® tools for industrial machines,
co-designer of the EASY GLIDE® Creator Free Motion Machine and
distributes these as well as other products to quilting shops and
consumers.
http://fabricartshop.com (home page)
 barbie@fabricartshop.com Barbie Swanson
May You Be Moved to Create! |
