Exploring Fiber Art Exhibit @ the Osage Branch

Sharon Kliethermes Gulick and Rita Schaefer are sharing their fiber art talents with us in the Osage Woodland Art Gallery from April 2 through May 28.  Come out to view their designs and be amazed at their creativity!

A native of Loose Creek, Sharon has explored several art forms over the years starting with photography while in college.  A few years ago, she began to look for a hobby, beyond photography, that would allow for creativity and personal expression.  She took up watercolors and still enjoys that medium.  In 2018 Sharon and her friend Rita Schaefer discovered fabricscapes at an art show and fell in love with the art form.  Coming from a family of quilters – Margaret Bescheinen Kliethermes, an accomplished quilter, is Sharon’s mother – she has access to a lot of fabric!  It took about a year of experimenting to master the essentials of the artform and her work continues to evolve. 

Fabric art is essentially painting a picture using bits of fabric.  A typical piece takes 15-30 hours of planning and patience as you work out the layout of the image and experiment with various colors, prints, and fabrics to create the image.  Sharon finds inspiration from her photography, travel, and the world around her.

Rita Schaefer has always enjoyed sewing, starting with learning how to do crewel embroidery and then cross-stitch and, most recently, painting with oils and acrylics.  At an art show in Columbia a few years ago, Rita and her friend Sharon Gulick came across an artist who combined pieces of fabric with painting and threadwork, fusing them together as if one was doing a quilt but in portrait form. Rita and Sharon explored the artform and each have come up with a different approach to creating their fabric artwork.