Jenny Knavel

"My fiber work is an investigation and fusion of cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural concepts of beauty. My many influences include European historical and scientific botanical illustration and photography, Japanese screen painting and kimono patterns, and American quilt blocks."

Knavel creates pieces that draw inspiration from and reinterpret quilting traditions and aesthetics. She merges one of the most traditional American art forms with the impressive and exciting technology of the computer era.

Utilizing Photoshop and her digital camera, Knavel creates patterns and simulated textures with her computer. After she has finalized her designs, the images are printed onto cotton fabric with large-format inkjet printers. The fabric is then cut and pieced together into intuitively constructed compositions.

Jenny received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in painting and drawing. In the spring of 2012, she participated in a workshop offered at the University of Philadelphia, where she spent a week learning about digital printing onto various substrates, including textiles. Both her mother and grandmother were quilters, and they taught her how to sew.