“Mountains and sky, rocks, wood and water mingle to create an intriguing, inspirational resource.   I see and hear and taste the land that surrounds me. To pull out the abstracted memories of place and time and piece them into rhythms that evoke a response is my primary goal. Colors and natural images are a universal language and the conversations I have with these works are a constant, exhilarating challenge.”

~ Murray Johnston

Artist Statement ~

Beginning with an idea /memory, the surface design of the quilt grows and changes as I work to have it become the unique expression of the original memory. This surface is a combination of fabric collage and machine piecing. Cotton fabrics and batting and rayon threads are the medium. Textile inked fabric and hand printed words on fabric may be incorporated into the work. The process is primarily done on a large work wall. The whole image is finally enhanced with free form thread drawing, outlining and filling in the abstract images of the surface design. The images that make up the quilt come from my heart and my head with little drawing ahead of time.

My quilts continue the structural tradition of a three layered fabric component held together with stitching. The nontraditional elements are there in the fabric collage that comes closer to painting with fabric than more common piecing or appliqué does, as well as the free form thread drawing when the needle and thread become my paint and brush.   

I continue to feel that they are part of a tradition of quilt making that goes back in time.  

The large quilts are hung directly on the wall by means of a dowel or rod strung through a sleeve stitched onto the back of each quilt. The hanging rod does not extend beyond the quilt edge and thus the quilt appears to be floating on the wall.

What I term a box framed piece is a small quilt that has been put on a stretcher and framed with no glass covering.   The frame is a deep one so that the work may be hung on the wall or can stand alone on a table or shelf.