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Sharon Walworth
Filed under Past Design Team Members
Sharon Walworth, Rhode Island, USA
I am a latecomer to the world of art. My early love of reading edged out other interests, and my years as an English teacher involved grading papers rather than creating art. A longtime sewer, I moved in the 1990’s from garment making to quilting. Then – just over a year ago – I discovered mixed media collage, and especially enjoy producing miniatures such as quilties, inchies, and ATCs. But whether working with paper or fabric, I look for ways to use my sewing machines.
Fabric will always be central in my work. In my home, an enormous stash of fabric fills closets and basement tubs, and a growing stash of collage papers is treated as an extension of fabric. But that is just the beginning: shoe boxes, zip bags, glass jars, old baskets, aging tins and orphaned drawers overflow with lace scraps, beads, buttons, broken jewelry, little wheels off things long gone, faded family photos and old postcards whispering ghostly messages. Any one of these could be inspiration or embellishment.
Once, visiting Athens, I experienced the sensation of walking through layers of time, with the dust of marble ruins hanging in the air around modern kiosks and taxi stands. Today, I dream of using my fabric and collected “stuff” to achieve a similar layered feeling in my work.