Textile Collage Art in Southern Maine.

Judy Gates is a Maine-based textile artist inspired by Maine’s native flora and fauna and the landscapes they occupy. An environmental scientist by education and profession, she has spent her adult life immersed in the natural world.  Experiences in Maine’s woods and waters, cultivating gardens, homesteading, practicing needle arts, and raising two wildly energetic boys fostered the patience and vision to create unique art works using fabric. Individual leaves, flowers and features are cut from fabrics of different hues and patterns, creating intricate layers reflecting nature's order amid its seeming chaos. As she creates each piece, the feel is of painting with fabrics. Overlaying the collages with tulle and freehand stitching creates texture and depth – ultimately resulting in an intriguing push and pull between 2D and 3D art.  Her first works focused on native Maine wildflowers as drawn and painted by Kate Furbish, a botanist who traveled the state and was among the first to catalogue new plant species. Since those first collages, she has expanded her subjects to include wildlife, domestic animals, garden flowers, fruits and vegetables, quintessential Maine scenery, and the occasional abstract.