Thinking Outside the Box II

Asheville artist Niki Bonnett is well known in the quilting community as a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and of LINT (Ladies In New Textiles), as well as a local and national lecturer and teacher. Her recent quilts, including "Thinking Outside The Box II," are influenced by the work of the African American quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama. She favors looser forms over precise geometric shapes and measurements, and likens her work to ragtime jazz. Each of her quilts bears a unique design on both sides and has no prescribed orientation, allowing its owner to determine which side to display. Bonnett hopes that her art can help people to "[r]ecognize the beauty that surrounds us in the simplest of things. Recollect all of your five senses—use them to really 'be' here now. And slow down."