Artist's Name:

Carole Lyles Shaw

As an African American artist, I joyously work at the nexus of multiple worldviews and traditional and contemporary cultural legacies. All boundaries are transparent and porous, allowing me to see, experience, borrow, learn, share and create. Spirit guides me. My art is me and more than me.

I started working with textiles in 1990 when I decided to make quilts as gifts for young relatives. I quickly left traditional methods behind and began exploring quilt-as-art. My work ranges is usually abstract, always intuitive and usually starts with a dream/vision of the spirit of the work. Color calls me, but it is through my continuing work with black and white that I learn the most about color. I have several series in progress, such as the Pentecostal Quilts, the Sisters series and the Angularity quilts. Working in a series pushes me to explore unique ways of expressing a simple idea or image.

Carole’s work has been juried into "Contemporary Works of Faith '95" Liturgical Art Guild of Ohio, 14th Biennial International Exhibition and "Women In the Visual Arts," Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. Her work appears in several publications including Spirit of the Cloth by Carolyn L. Mazloomi; Artquilts and Quilts Today: A Living Tradition by Robert Shaw, formerly of the Shelburne Museum; and Great Patchwork: Working With Squares and Triangles by Eleanor Levie. She is one of the artists featured in "Creativity: Touching the Divine" a documentary film co-sponsored by ABC-TV and the US Catholic Conference that has appeared on national TV.

Carole is the author of two articles: "African American Artquilters" (Surface Design Journal) and "Inspiration From the Spirit" (American Quilter).

Carole Lyles Shaw
410.997.7352