I was born in Connecticut in 1947. My father was a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, and besides several years in Connecticut, my family lived in England and Morocco. We eventually settled in Michigan where I attended high school and college. I have a B.A. in chemistry and an M.A. in library science. In February 2009 I retired from Carteret Community College in eastern North Carolina where I had worked for ten years as Director of Learning Resources.

My husband, Ed, and I have been married since 1970. We spent our first years in Michigan, gainfully employed. In 1978 we purchased a sailboat, sold everything and went cruising. Tropic Moon, a 42-foot, steel-hulled ketch, was our home for 14 years. Our travels included three years in the Caribbean, a couple years cruising the East Coast from Maine to Maryland, an Atlantic crossing, four years in the Mediterranean, back to the Caribbean for a couple more years, and then a return to the States. Our landfall was in North Carolina where we’ve been living ashore since 1992. The picture of us on Tropic Moon was taken in Zante, Greece.

I’ve always loved crafts and for years was into weaving, macramé and needle arts. One day I looked at a stained glass picture and wondered how I could get the wealth of detail into a woven tapestry. I decided that I couldn’t accomplish it with a weaving, but considered the possibility of trying to reproduce the picture with bits and pieces of fabric. While I’ve yet to create a quilt from that particular image, I’ve been making art quilts since 1995. A few years ago I took up acrylic painting, then painting on silk, and I find that the painting and quilting complement and inspire each other. Now I'm also into mixed media, and some of my small quilts are mounted on painted canvases.

In April of 2004, I was invited to do a one-woman show at the Quilt & Sewing Fest in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I exhibited forty of my art quilts, and enjoyed interacting with visitors at the three-day event. This picture shows me with Marty Macaw, taken at the entrance to my exhibit.

The principle source of inspiration for my art work is nature. Birds, fish, trees and flowers make frequent appearances. And then there’s the fabric. Thrift shops exist to provide me with fascinating fabrics for my art quilts. Whatever clothing is colorful, strange, unique, or weird makes its way home with me. Old blouses are the bread and butter of my fabric stash.

I have a strong sense of spirit, and the belief that we’re here on earth to be creative people. When I took a computer art class several years ago, one assignment was to produce a piece of work that reflected my personal vision. I scanned part of one of my art quilts (Pink Flamingo, 2001), and wrote a poem to go with it. I feel that Reflection does a good job of expressing my philosophy as an artist.

Jean Baardsen
Blog