Carol Watkins
Medium: Fiber
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About Carol Watkins
Carol is a contemporary artist melding modern digital technology with traditional needle arts to create a new form of expression. Fiber art is part of our cultural history. It is the feminine art of creating warmth and beauty in tactile quilts and tapestries. Digital media as an art form began in the second half of the 20th C and continues to grow. Images on a computer screen are dependent upon computer code that is seen but not touched.
Digital technology has given Carol the opportunity to create more personal art. A piece of white cloth is imprinted with her own imagery. The process begins with a photograph that is digitally adjusted until it expresses the tone, feeling, story she wants to convey and is then printed with archival inks. The resulting fabric may be pieced, painted, and, finally free motion stitched.
Carol has a deep connection to and appreciation for nature. Having been raised in urban areas Carol found solace as a child in quiet places. She now lives at the foot of the Rocky Mountains where she hikes renewing body and spirit. As artist-in-residence at both Rocky Mountain National Park and at Mesa Verde National Park, Carol was able to provide education and inspiration to visitors while hiking, photographing and renewing her own sense of purpose.
She also loves to photograph and interpret urban images of our life on this planet including peeling paint on buildings, broken sidewalks, graffiti, details of windows and doors. Both the beautiful and ugly draw her in demanding attention.
Carol states, “I strive to create art that connects each of us to nature and the world
around us. I use art as my means of communication just as a writer uses words.
I hope to share my vision and awaken others love of nature through imagery created in fiberart.”
As a studio artist and teacher with over 30 years experience as a social worker and psychotherapist focused on healing and strengthening the body-mind-spirit connection, Carol brings a unique background to her artwork and teaching.