Melody Johnson has been an artist all her life, starting at age 3, with her newly painted bedroom walls. On those she drew her first prehistoric monsters, in black crayon.
But it was at age 15 when she understood her feelings about color:
"I saw a window display of nylon ripstop bags, one each in yellow, purple, orange, hot pink, turquoise, red and royal blue. I wanted one, but just one color wouldn't do. It was the combination of the colors all together and the effect of playing off one another that resonated for me.
Ever since that moment I have been using that experience of adjacent color and contrast in my work."
Melody's undergraduate studies focused on painting and printmaking but in the last few weeks before graduation in 1981 she was introduced to quilting by a classmate. Since she was already an accomplished seamstress, she dove in to the craft and forgot all about painting. After her first two or three bed quilts, she began designing original art quilts for the wall.
Radiant Orb 48x45"
Cotton and silks, fused, machine quilted.
blogged
fibermania.blogspot.com/2011/11/radiant-orb.html
Treehouse series:
Small quilts with a Treehouse theme, all are a combination of hand dyed fabric and commercial prints, fused, hand and machine quilted and embroidered. http://fibermania.blogspot.com/2010/07/process-pledge-working-in-series-while.html
Her blog chronicles her life there as well as the artwork she continues to create. www.fibermania.blogspot.com
blogged
fibermania.blogspot.com/2011/11/radiant-orb.html
Treehouse series:
Small quilts with a Treehouse theme, all are a combination of hand dyed fabric and commercial prints, fused, hand and machine quilted and embroidered. http://fibermania.blogspot.com/2010/07/process-pledge-working-in-series-while.html
Matchstick Moons I
Hand dyed cottons, fused, machine quilted, 2004, 45" x 41
In 2007, after her career of teaching quilting around the world, Melody and her husband retired to rural Tennessee where she found a slower pace and more than agreeable surroundings.
