The Textile Art Portfolio of Pat Autenrieth
Dedicated to Cheese for No Reason (collaboration), fabric marker, hand applique, hand and machine embroidery, hand and machine quilting
Pat Autenrieth works in textile art and bookmaking, innovating in the field of arts and crafts – particularly quilting. Pat’s works embrace both the unique quirks of the quilted medium, and the aesthetic language of contemporary art, to create a fascinating hybrid.
An Occasion for the Need for Occam's Razor (detail), machine embroidery on muslin
In many of her works, Pat combines a variety of textile art techniques including both hand and machine quilting and appliqué. Her works are often dense with different figures and textures, as though the artist is creating an aesthetic that explores as many traditions of the medium as possible. Pat’s practice reminds me of that of other textile artists like Miriam Shapiro or Katherine Westphal – Pat’s works, especially, are imbued with a sense of playful defiance that seems to resist categorization.
Pat's art portfolio website, www.artsaut.com
The artist’s recent Shopping and Junkmail Diary also functions as a disruption of sorts – the artist creates an art object from found household detritus, the sort of material that might be found in a recycling bin or scrap paper drawer. The object, and the amount of time that likely went into constructing it, alter and deepen the materials’ meaning and value.