It’s not unusual to find art lovers standing in awe in front of work by fiber artist Paulette Landers. Hand-dyed fabrics dance across iridescent panels textured with exquisite stitchery. Her work transcends descriptions of art quilts.

“Ideas In Transition: Paintings, a Fusion of Fabric and Paint ” at Pacific Park Gallery is a exhibit of Landers’ creations. The Artist Reception is 5-7 p.m., Friday, May 6 at the Gallery, 1957 Thompson Rd., Coos Bay. More than 30 of her whimsical designs will be shown on the Gallery’s walls May through July.

The show is an opportunity to see how the craft of quilting has developed into an internationally acclaimed art form. Landers’ art has been included in juried shows in New York, Virginia, Texas, Oregon and California. She has received awards at multiple international quilt festivals and her work has been featured in professional fiber art publications. The acknowledgements validate her mastery of contemporary fiber art.

Her creative process is much the same as any artist. She says she has a vision of what she wants to produce only to find the vision escaping and returning to push her in a new direction. Artists often discuss the battle between the artist and the work and the point at which the art redefines its parameters and moves beyond the artist’s control.
“I work in an abstract style because it allows me to give form to the intangibility of ideas, feelings, or moods. I experiment with that form as far as it will allow me,” Landers said. “I keep working, waiting for a response from the work in front of me. Eventually, a conversation begins and the work progresses in its own direction leading me on.”
Just as a painter applies layers of color to the canvas, she builds layers of fabrics to create texture, movement, and balance to the composition. The final layer is stitching, which she compares to a painter applying final glazes to a painting.

“My aim is not so much to make pretty fabric but rather to give texture, movement, and balance to my work,” she said.
The North Bend resident began creating contemporary art quilts in 2002. She graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with emphasis in Fiber Arts. Recently, she was awarded “Best of Show” at “In Stitches: Not Your Grandmother’s Quilts” at Pacific Park Gallery. Indeed, she blurs the lines between quilting and painting and leaves the concept of Gramma’s quilts far behind.

The Gallery is located in the Pacific Coast Medical Park about a block west of Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay.

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