Amy Engel

My lifelong passion for art began in early childhood Saturday art classes, continued through high school in art club, and was further shaped by art classes at Colorado State University 1972-1975. My fiber art journey began in 1995 with the design and construction of 1800-era garments for Arizona reenactors and cowboy shooters. In 2010 I gravitated toward quilting and after creating hundreds of quilts I sought greater artistic freedom. In 2021 that exploration led me to experiment with fabric appliqué art quilts, which was short lived. Magic happened when I combined my love of painting with fabric and thread—an approach through which I have found my artistic voice in the work I create today. My work is inspired by the world my grandmother shared with me. I spent my summers at Grammy’s cottage on Lake Michigan walking the beach, feeling the sand between my toes, swimming, sailing and boating, filling my soul with the smells and sounds of water, laying in the sand soaking up the sun, feeling the wind as it dances across the water and sand. Painting with a variety of paints, machine thread sketching and hand embroidery slow stitching I create the impression and magic where the sky meets the water and dances in the wind, capturing the beauty of life’s sustaining water. The work of Claude Monet influences my technique substituting his dots with French knots. Through my art, I capture those memories sealed in my heart, inviting viewers to find respite amidst the demand of daily life and inspiration in the essence of life-giving water as it flows upon our earth, vaporizing into the clouds and raining upon the earth nourishing and cleansing the world.