Oregon Coast Council for the Arts welcomes Theresa Richards Chickering who will show her art quilts in the Coastal Oregon Visual Artists Showcase in May. “Cut From A Different Cloth” will open Friday, May 3, at noon, with an Opening Reception from 5pm to 7pm.
The Lake by Theresa Chickering
Douglas County artist Theresa Chickering lives in Reedsport with her husband. She loves sharing quilting with others and has taught beginning quilting as well as more advanced classes about color, perspective and design. “Replicating water and the night sky hold a special appeal for me. Living on the beautiful Oregon coast in a rather rural area offers so many opportunities for subject matter for my work and the chance to study nature to improve my work. I don't have any formal art training or education. I've independently studied various aspects of art I feel will enhance my work, like perspective and color,” she states. “Trial and error has been a special teacher over the years.”
Theresa has been crafting and sewing since she was a child. Her mother encouraged her and her sister by making sure there were supplies for art, crafts and sewing and by enrolling them in 4-H.
Chickering began to quilt about 20 years ago after a friend showed her how to strip quilt. She made queen or king sized quilts for “everyone she knew,” she said. “Just like when I was a child trying every new craft, I keep trying new forms of quilting, all the new techniques and supplies…” Most of her work is organic and nature themed.
“My latest work is probably the area in which I'm the least comfortable. I like things to look very realistic, almost like a painting, so the more abstract and modern, the less sure I am about it. It is very freeing however. Once I learned to let myself be less concerned with all the rules I learned in quilting over the years and begin doing whatever it takes to make a piece ‘work,’ the easier it's becoming.”
Chickering has shown her work and received various viewers’ choice awards at many local quilt shows and has had work in the traveling Hoffman Challenge show. She has designed and self published several patterns through her pattern company, Fabric Tart Designs. In 2011, she was the featured artist for CDABA (Coastal Douglas Arts and Business Alliance).
In 2012 she was in two joint shows with other quilt artists, at Gallery By The Bay in North Bend and Tsunami Gallery in Gardiner. In 2012 the quilt art group that she belongs to, Oceans of Inspiration, presented a group show based on their various challenges at ECEC (Elkton Community Education Center) for CDABA.
The Dragon and the Pearl by Theresa Chickering
The studio art quilts in this show represent a move from more traditional work with geometric shapes, 100% cotton, and hand appliqué to more contemporary techniques, materials, and methods including raw edge fusing, dyes and paints, and computer printed images.
Lisbeth by Theresa Chickering
Quilting is Chickering’s passion. Her exhibit of art quilts will be in the showcase through June 2. She says, “I can't imagine not always owning, touching and manipulating fabric. I love the colors, textures and comfort of all things cloth. I have to always be exploring and trying new forms of quilting.” A short video about Theresa can be viewed on the touch screen computer across from the showcase.
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Oregon Coast Council for the Arts is the regional arts council for Curry, Coos, Lincoln, Tillamook, Clatsop and the coastal areas of Douglas and Lane. OCCA brings high quality art experiences to the coast. The Coastal Oregon Visual Artists Showcase features mid-career artists and rotates through the coastal counties. For more information, call Sally Houck, OCCA Director/Visual Arts Center, at 541-265-6569. The Visual Arts Center is located at 777 NW Beach Drive in Newport’s Nye Beach neighborhood. The showcase on second floor is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 4pm.
