Artist
Someone once said to Kate Bridger “why don’t you just paint?” But Kate is quite happy, and tells us that she prefers to “torture her fabrics” with lots of complex techniques, building layers of colour and texture, and the results are the most amazingly painterly textiles.
Text and images by Kate Bridger
Kate Bridger Fifteen years ago I was at an art show and sale. My booth was beside a delightful painter who marvelled at my work and my ability to manipulate fabric into such painterly art. Eventually, he asked: “Why don’t you just paint?” “Because I don’t know how,” I replied in all seriousness, and was tempted to add, “Why don’t you just sew?”. As a self-proclaimed fabric artist,
it has taken the best part of the past three decades to find my niche and, thanks to publications like this and social media, to find other artists who, like me, never leave the house without a thread or two dangling from their clothing. Twenty-five years ago, when I first labelled myself ‘fabric artist’, it was generally assumed that I must be a quilter; however, the Quilting Guild didn’t accept me, nor did
Left: Doorsteps, Kate Bridger
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Through Our Hands Magazine, Issue 7 | winter 2015