Artist Spotlight: Roxane Lessa

I’d like to introduce you to another artist (and good friend!), Roxane Lessa. Her work is always inspiring, and often experimental. It’s always fun to see what interesting and sometimes crazy thing she is playing with at the moment.

She makes the gloriously beautiful botanicals pieces that I just love. Many of them are trees or plants that are all around me in the North Carolina landscape. Often they are large. I really like large… even if I have a hard time bringing myself to work large these days – simply because of time restraints.

Lyric: Did you always want to be an artist?  

Roxane: Yes and no.  I always wanted to be a ballerina, and I did that, but then I had to retrain for a new career.  I went back to college to get a degree in clothing design and textiles.

Lyric: Why Textiles as a medium?

Roxane: I have always loved textiles, the textures, the colors, the patterns.  Since I was a little girl, I was always teaching myself needlepoint, embroidery, knitting, anything to do with fiber and textiles.  I love all the possibilities that textiles afford that a flat canvas and paint can not.  Textiles have tactile and 3 dimensional qualities that are easier to manipulate than other media, such as sculpture.

 

 

Lyric: Describe your journey to becoming an artist.

Roxane: I took my first basic quilting class in 1998, but by then I was already a pretty competent garment designer and sewer.  I loved the whole process and began making large bed quilts.  But at the same time, I began taking classes from art quilters and making less traditional art quilts.  Exploring with textiles, color and design really go me jazzed!

Lyric: Why do you teach?

Roxane: I began teaching art quilting in 2008, and have learned so much from my students.  Teaching forces me to get clearer and better at all the techniques and design principles just so I can get it across to my students.  At this point, I teach at guilds and in my studio.  I enjoy teaching a small group of dedicated art quilters who are not satisfied with reproducing other people’s patterns.  They have a vision for their own work and, I love to help them make their vision a reality.  My Saturday Art Quilting Salon is a monthly group class that introduces quilters to new techniques they have always wanted to try.  Also, this year, I am opening up some spots for my private Art Quilting Mastery Program.

Do you love her stuff as much as I do!?
If you are in the Raleigh area, you’ll love this
Salon style class with her as well!

This way of building wall sculpture as you go is really fun.  It evolves organically and tests my design skills.  While creating these sculptures, you have to focus on balance, and scale, as well as color.

The Saturday Art Quilting Salon is on!!!!!  We will be focusing on making cool 3-D fan art.

DATE:  AUG. 3

TIME: 10 AM-12 or 1PM

PLACE: ROXANE’S STUDIO, 1237 N. Blount St. Raleigh, NC 27604

FEE:  $45, includes materials and use of my machines and tools.  Bring any fabric, heavier threads, decorative threads, perle cotton, yarns, trims, you want to work with. If you bring a friend, your fee drops to $35, but you MUST RSVP, so I can make sure I have adequate supplies and room.  Pay when you arrive, cash or check is preferred.

If you would like to learn some of these fun techniques and make your own 3-D textile sculpture, email her atroxane@roxanelessa.com and let her know.  Space is filling up fast, so don’t wait.  I hope you can make it.