Artist Statement

As a teacher and an artist I feel that it is important to have time to create a body of work. Because I am a teacher I often work through an idea as I have time, creating a series of images that relate to one another. As I dye and print fabrics I am constantly thinking about the roles that women have played throughout history. I often use vintage hand crafted items and recycle them in a contemporary way these "recyclings" remind me how women have created practical utilitarian items for their families and communities through out history.

The use of these various "recyclings" offers me the ability to combine media that has interesting sensory and textural feeling with ideas from my personal experiences. The quilts I create are developed from these experiences often they include interpretations of my surroundings both urban and natural. The experiences that I draw my content from range from teaching and living in an urban school environment to escaping to a forest or my garden.

Some of my quilts use color as their theme, intertwining the colors found in my gardens to create abstract images. Others are inspired by trips to the north woods and the wonders of the wooded landscapes. The city and living in an urban community has also been an inspiration for a series of quilts that I call "What It Takes".

Biography

Katie Loss holds a Masters Degree in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. She works as an art and reading specialist at a public Montessori School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Katie is also a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee in the Peck School of the Arts.

Katie devotes herself passionately to both teaching and to creating with fiber.