Harrison Public Library presents, “Rhapsodies” by Anne-Claude Cotty

Exhibition is on display February 4, 2024 to March 1, 2024.
Gallery is open to the public during regular library hours.
You are invited to attend an open reception on Saturday, February 10 from 10 AM – 12 PM at the library.

Artist’s Statement:

In the time of Homer, rhapsodies were performance pieces said to be “stitching poems”.  They were full of color and emotion.

So too are these fiber pieces which I’ve stitched as odes to the natural world.  The physical beauty of our planet captivates, fills us with awe with its exuberant displays.  But that beauty is transient if we aren’t careful to protect it.  So I attach to them a cri de coeur–a cry of anguish–as a warning and a call to action.

My quilts begin as photographs which I print on silk and cotton. They are appliquéd by hand over a layer of cotton batting and are embellished with hand and machine embroidery, free motion quilting and beads.  The human figures are “filled” with flowers and leafy branches to suggest the power we have within us to respect and steward the natural world.

About the Artist:

I’ve returned to Westchester where I grew up after living and teaching in Maine for 40 years.

In so doing, I set aside my career as a printmaker, book artist and experimental photographer and began sewing wall-sized quilts.    My work has been exhibited across the country and abroad and included in the collections of a number of special collections libraries (Yale University, Boston Athenaeum, and the like).  I hold an M.S. from Georgetown University and an M.F.A. in Printmaking from the University of Alberta (Canada).