Deidre Adams

When I first began to make "art quilts", I was inspired by the work of Deidre Adams. I continue to find her work a revelation, and I am especially impressed by her crossover between stitch and paint. Perhaps it was ten years ago that I observed how Adams would dry-brush paint over her stitched and quilted surfaces, and I began to use that technique in some of my own work.

Deidre Adams, A System of Phonological Parameters, 30" x 40"
acrylic and mixed media on panel

Adams is no minimalist. She achieves rich textures and transparencies by building layer upon layer, to create a kind of "primordial soup". In the last few years, she has begun to work very large, sometimes achieving dimensions of 100" or more by combining several canvases, often a triptych of equal-sized panels.

Deidre Adams, By Chance and Necessity, 48" x 72"
acrylic and mixed media on panel

Adams, based in the American Southwest and a member of SAQA, is currently showing her work in a solo show, "Metaphors & Mysteries" at the Point Gallery in Denver, August 5 - 31, 2016 and in a group show, "Colorado Women in Abstraction" at Denver's Centre for Visual Art, July 15 - October 1, 2016.