Quinn Hawkesworth (photo by David Grace)
“Siren: A Personal Odyssey,” fabric art exhibit by Quinn Hawkesworth, is on display at The Arts Depot, Abingdon, Virginia, from Aug. 2 to Sept. 16.
Hawkesworth says that as an actress she never really learned to sew. What a surprising statement from an accomplished textile artist. To retell the beginning of her love affair with textile art, Hawkesworth takes you to the time she was an actress in New York City, becoming enamored with costumes of the trade. Textures, brocades, shapes and colors fascinated her, and eventually she amassed bags of brilliant scraps that traveled with her from theater to theater.
Soon after arriving in New York, she visited a Russian costume exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was so captivated and inspired that she created her first piece of textile art. She began to make soft sculpture character dolls with elaborate costumes and one day while walking home from the theater she passed a shop window with Chinese silk pillows and was drawn in to see more. When she showed the shop owner her creations, he immediately commissioned her to make many more of them, and Hawkesworth began to love the process as much as she loves acting.
When asked about inspiration for her art, Hawkesworth said she allows the characters and scenes from her own mind to guide the process. Her pieces tell stories that come from her original vision but are shaped by the pieces themselves as they lead her through the process. Not following a pattern requires the acquisition of new skills each time a piece unfolds to tell a tale.
She says, “I listen to the pieces, and I can hear them tell me what to change. What starts in my mind has to be adjusted as the process goes along.”
Hawkesworth mused that sometimes people don’t know exactly what to do with her art. She made every stitch by hand when creating these textile art pieces. She can use a machine but prefers to work by hand. She does not frame her artwork, and she likes to work outside of expected boundaries.
Visit her exhibit at The Arts Depot and attend her art talk Saturday, Aug. 5 at 3 p.m. The opening reception is the same day from 2-4 p.m.
For more information, visit www.abingdonartsdepot.org.
