Therese May

  First Time Art Party Participant

Big Tree for Artful Home

Artist’s Website

www.theresemay.com

Artist’s Statement

I like to draw and make art quilts out of the many images that come to me. I have a variety of embellishment techniques to choose from, such as machine applique and longarm quilting to enhance the surfaces of the quilts and give more texture to the pieces. Art making has always been central to my life and I’ve focused on art quilts for a long time. I make the quilts that feel good to me and that convey what I have in my heart. I’m an artist, a painter and a quilter. I like to think in pictures and to share that vision in my art. When I teach a class or workshop, I offer ways of exploring techniques with fabric, thread, drawing and painting, but mostly I offer a way to find a student’s own voice or unique creative expression.

About the Artist

Therese May has a Bachelor of Arts degree in painting as well as a Master of Arts degree in design, emphasis on the art quilt. She has exhibited throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. Her works have been shown at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., as well as at the Louvre in Paris, France. Her work is published in numerous books and magazines including The Art Quilt, America’s Glorious Quilts and American Quilts: The Democratic Art, 1780-2007. She has taught at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cabrillo College, UC Santa Cruz, Dept. of Art & Design, University of Minnesota Split Rock Arts Program, as well as for many quilt guilds.

Therese May’s 1969 quilt “Therese” was selected by The Alliance for American Quilts, the American Quilt Study Group, the International Quilt Association, and the National Quilting Association, as one of the 100 best American quilts of the 20th Century.

Her work is in the collections of the Smithsonian Institute, the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, The National Quilt Museum, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, the Triton Museum of Art, the Jack Walsh Collection and many private collections.