My work is a hybrid of photography, digital art, and quilt art. The inspiration for most of my work comes from the forms, colors, and patterns of the natural environment and close-up views of manmade structures. Exploring the mysteries, the nuances, the intricate patterns, the enigmatic qualities found even in everyday environments remains my focus. I am constantly seeking the evocative photographs which I can work on in the digital studio. Whether designing at my computer, or observing and photographing while hiking and traveling, I am looking for strong images that I can incorporate into my digital transformations.
Techniques
My techniques involve three major activities:
1) Taking Photographs: I start with realistic or abstract images that I have captured with my camera– single moments in time that focus the attention on the details of what I am observing. I like the idea of “found art” appearing in ordinary things, whether it is drippy lines on walls, the patterns in bark , or distorted images of buildings reflected in the water.
2) Making Digital Art: I love playing with, altering, and combining images on the computer. I aim to highlight abstract patterns unnoticed at the initial observation. My resulting images are an exploration of these patterns, both natural and manmade. The result is often an imagined landscape-like impression which has a sense of both familiarity and mystery but communicates an added beauty to the viewer’s experience.
3) Creating a Quilt: Printing my digital paintings on cloth allows me to take advantage of the textures and light reflecting variations of different kinds of fabrics. Stitching is an important part of my process. It is fascinating and mesmerizing as a process and allows me to participate in the traditions of the quilter’s world (the repetition of the stitched line, the patterning of grids and block arrangements, and the resulting bas-relief effects of stitched, quilted cloth).
The combination of my photography, my digital art alterations, and my physical layering and stitching on cloth allows me to tell a multi-layered story of my impressions of the real and imagined landscapes.
detail of Anticipation: Autumnal Equinox #5 Charlotte Ziebarth
More of my techniques can be found on the blog portion of this website, Digital Textile Thoughts, or in my book, Artistic Photo Quilts, available from the publisher, C&T Publishing, quilt stores, or Amazon.com. It is also available as an ebook.
For more information and availability of quilts, please contact the artist: mailto: cziebarth@aol.com
