About Me

I am Barbara Danzi, an artist who makes art quilts to be hung on the wall like paintings. I incorporate bold fabric shapes and lines and sew them together, creating a one of a kind hand drawn look.

I begin each piece cutting expressive lines and shapes from fabric and stitch seam lines that look hand drawn and painterly. I approach my work improvisationally cutting textiles into shapes and “drawing” the lines that become stitched seams. There is a sense of the “hand of the maker” in my work. Art, craft, science, technology merge in my work. I focus on blurring the line between quilting and fine art. 

The color in my work is inspired by my outdoor adventures and urban life. From backpacking in the lush green forest in Maine to kayaking in California’s Channel Island caves, bicycling along SoCal beaches or hiking in the southwest deserts. I photograph interesting scenery and the shapes I notice in nature or made by city buildings, bridges, train tracks, gates and archways.

I create the art composition by arranging the pieces on a 14’x8’ design wall. Sometimes I rearrange the elements many times to achieve the best figure/ground tension. I then sew the pieces together with my sewing machine, leveraging an engineering process to achieve a flat quilt while preserving the hand cut lines and curves.

My professional and educational background in engineering, technology, and cybersecurity trained my brain to be curious, absorb information through diffuse awareness, and assimilate disparate facts and images into a cohesive vision. My goal is to make beautiful art following good design principles, and I often incorporate a deeper meaning from social justice or environmental concerns.