I am a multi-media artist who has been creating art continuously and nonstop for the past 43 years. During this time I have been a painter, a muralist, a jewelry designer, a wearable art maker, a published author of two books and the illustrator of five books for young adults, a Langston Hughes poem and “Winning the Vote” a quilt showing some of the heroines we celebrate for helping to achieve women’s voting rights, a printmaker and for the past 44 years created art with fibers which has evolved into my art quilts.
I choose to work in this medium because within it I am able to use all the media I’ve learned with plenty of room for experimenting and growth. Usually, but not always, I start with a piece of white fabric, which I pin to a piece of foam core board, and a vague or concrete idea of what I want to say. I paint the cloth. Then I add cloth, which I’ve collected from my travels or journeys to New York fabric stores, or created by dyeing, over-dyeing, or silk screening. Or, the entire piece may be created from silk paper, which I also make from scratch. This ‘sketch’ is then appliquéd and/or quilted with rayon and metallic threads, handmade or stock yarns, then further embellished with machine and hand embroidery, antique jewelry pieces, doodads from my travels–both around the block and around the world. I also work with Angelina fibers, which are papers that I’ve made into ‘fabrics and beads.’
Dindga McCannon has had solo exhibitions at the Bentley College Gallery, Waltham, Massachusetts; Mehu Gallery, New York, New York; and the Harlem State Office Building, crated by the Harlem Studio Museum, New York, New York. She is the recipient of the Stitch in Time Wearable Art Award at the International Quilt Show, Houston, and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Craft.
