Lura Schwarz Smith, Artist

Biography

Photo of Lura In working with fabric as an art form for more than twenty years, I have enjoyed exploring various techniques. I find fabric to be a very attractive medium, extremely tactile and one to which we all relate on a daily basis. Over the years I have worked both three- dimensionally, such as masks and soft sculptural dolls, and more two-dimensionally, integrating traditional and innovative techniques into art quilts. In general I do figurative work, frequently drawing upon dream and meditation images.
My earliest quilts were done in my teens, working with my mother. Neither of us knew anything about quilting, and somehow we never researched it beyond reading those ladies' home magazines that included an occasional quilt pattern at the back. We made a lot of tied quilts, using the awful cotton-poly fabrics available then, making just about every possible mistake in blissful ignorance and having a wonderful time. We did quilt a few, too, with carefree toe-catcher stitches and knots neatly tied at the back. We loved our quilts and found them beautiful, not knowing any better.
In college as an art major at San Francisco State University with an emphasis in painting and drawing, I became interested in the possibilities of fabric as an art medium, and for my final project in senior painting class I produced my first art fabric wall piece. It was somewhat three-dimensional, minimally quilted, used felt weight pellon for a batting, and was pictorial in content. I thought of it as painting with fabric, using mainly applique and soft sculptural techniques.
From then on, I continued to work on these wall pieces, showing and selling them in galleries in Sausalito, Santa Barbara, and Santa Monica, California. During this time my work was being collected by various people, such as Kenny Loggins, the musician, who purchased several pieces from the Santa Barbara gallery for his private collection. All this time I was very unaware of the emerging quilt world, and continued to explore my own fabric techniques.
After a hiatus in serious fabric work of several years, I moved to the Sierras in California, joined a quilt guild and discovered the whole network of quilters' magazines, books and shows. Along with various illustration and graphic work, I continue to work with fabric. I have been especially interested in exploring new techniques of getting images onto fabric. In 1996 I did a piece using photocopying, hand painted fabric, and free-form piecing called SEAMS A LOT LIKE DEGAS which was awarded Best of Show In Quilters Newsletter Magazine's "Artistic Expressions" competition at Quilt Expo V in Lyons, France. In 1999 this quilt was chosen as one of "The 100 Best American Quilts of the Twentieth Century", an exhibit at the 1999 International Quilt Festival in Houston at the Quilt Show of the Millenium. In April of 2000, "LETTING GO: GAIA SERIES" was awarded Best of Show in the"Quilts Crossing Boundaries" competition at the International Quilt Expo VII in Strasbourg, France. In October, 2002, "Dancing Peace" was awarded a Best of Show at Pacific International Quilt Festival XI, Santa Clara, California. In January, 2002, at the first Great International Quilt Festival at Tokyo, three of my quilts were part of a special exhibit which was entitled "30 Distinguished Quilt Artists of the World."
I am currently exploring further ways of working with fabric and expressing images of the inner life. It is a very exciting time to be an art quilter, as fabric is beginning to find acceptance as an art form, and so many quilters are working in such innovative styles.

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