JUDI NIKOLESKI

The subject matter of my textile artwork comes from my own immediate material world but with an emphasis on human interraction with the landscape and nature. I am drawn by the brilliant colours, unusual pattern juxtapositions, richly textured surfaces and opportunities for a larger scale in textile artworks.

I especially love the creative possibilities and technical complexities of art quilts. I am also attracted by the unnerving combination of initial careful planning and the ongoing inclusion of opportunistic accidental effects necessary for a truly aesthetic outcome. I believe the medium itself must be an essential part of the artistic expression.

My creative textile work has incorporated expressively hand dyed and pictorially hand painted cottons combined with commercial fabrics, mainly cottons. These are both hand and machine pieced together.

I like to combine traditional machine piecing with hand pieced precise, hand dyed or painted pictorial elements. Details may be added using applique, free machine embroidery with polyester threads, original digital and/or hand embroidery. Couching using various yarns is usually used for emphasis with machine quilting threads adding colour and profile as a significant part of the textile artwork.

To date I have not worked in series but always on one off artworks to a predetermined subject matter or theme. I start with the main essense of the concept clearly in mind and develop and resolve the detail of the theme through the working process itself.

THE THREE CONTENDERS - 1.5 x 1 metre art quilt
Finalist in 2010 AP&Q AQC Challenge - "REMEMBER"

WALKABOUT COUNTRY - 2 X 1 metre art quilt
Best of Show and 1st in Contemporary Quilting & Patchwork
2009 Australian Cotton Fibre Expo

CONNECTIONS - 1 x 1.5 metre art quilt
Finalist in 2009 AP&Q AQC Challenge - "FANTASY"

MY COUNTRY TOO TRUGANINI
Quilted table mat using several techniques