Santa Fe Artist Joy Busch is quite literally living a colorful life. For the past 25 years as a resident of Santa Fe - and before that in Breckenridge, Colorado - this vivacious octogenarian has been creating kaleidoscopic fabric wonders - everything from couture jackets to jewelry to quilts to her latest fiber adventure - fabric bowls. Idle hands have no place in the Busch household.
Joy invited me into her Canyon Road studio and it was like stepping into a gigantic box of crayons. Primary colors everywhere. Art everywhere. It was wondrous.
These beautifully-stitched quilt portraits are a masterwork of color, texture and design.
And as your eye wanders and takes in all the accouterments of her trade that fill bowls and tabletops and shelves in her spacious studio, you see that Joy is an avid hunter and gather of charming fabric swatches, buttons and vintage minutiae that wend their way into her delightful creations.
White walls and furniture are a perfect 'stage' for her work and her vintage folk art collection.
A bit of fun with an amazing Peruvian hat...
Her latest project - Quilt/fabric Bowls - began with figuring out the dynamics of creating a buckram mold.
Buckram is a starched woven material used as an interlining in clothing and also as a protective cover for books.
Once that challenge was met, there was no stopping her creativity.
Fabrics waiting to become a bowl...
AND THEN THERE are the coats/jackets that are simply stunning...
And her tour de force is this fabulous long 'vest' that was part of the prestigious wearable art FAIRFIELD FASHION SHOW that traveled for a year across the United States and Italy.
These were the initial drawings for the show...and the final photographs on the model.
The detail work is amazing...
If you would like to meet Joy Busch and see a retrospective of her work, then drop by the SELBY FLEETWOOD GALLERY for the opening of -STITCH AND LINE - A CREATIVE LIFE.
Opening April 22 5-7:30 pm
Through April 28, 2016
S E L B Y F L E E T W O O D G A L L E R Y
600 Canyon Road - Santa Fe
505.992.8877
