Haiku in Cloth + dry-dye-demo
Judith Content finds inspiration in nature’s landscapes, from coastal marshes to desert canyons. Referring to her work as visual haiku, Content synthesizes the poetry of color and light through complex techniques of arashi and itajime shibori. Her silks are variously pieced, quilted, stitched and assembled into works for the wall as well as 3D sculptural compositions.
Judith’s in-person slide presentation for the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association will explore highlights from her long career in the field of fiber; wearable art, site-specific commissions and T shaped art quilts. It will also focus on the new and unexpected directions her work has taken in the last five years, particularly sculptural compositions with layered meanings and ephemeral land-art installations.
Following the lecture, Judith will give a “dry-dye-demo” exploring her uniquely contemporary approaches to Japanese resist dyeing. For this Judith will bring intricately dyed silks to the presentation, still wrapped on their individual poles. Unveiling the silks will reveal inner layers of pattern and design created through meticulous pleating techniques and various methods of layering dye. The element of surprise is just one of the many magical things about Judith’s approach to contemporary dyeing.
Snow under the moon
Is blue, dyeing with its blue
The darkness of night
Kawabata Bosha (1900-41)
Learn more about Judith at https://www.judithcontent.com/
Judith Content has been a full time studio artist for 45 years. She graduated from San Francisco State University in 1979 with a BA in Fine Art, Emphasis in Textiles. Her arashi-shiboridyed, discharged, pieced and quilted silk wall pieces have been exhibited nationally and internationally and are included in major public, private and museum collections worldwide.
Her art quilts and ephemeral Land Art Installations have been featured in gallery exhibitions, publications and documentaries including the Textile Arts Council Fiber Artist Archive: Continuum in Cloth, Ana Lisa Hedstrom and Judith Content,(2025), Textile Talks: Ephemeral Land Art with Judith Content and Craft in America: EpisodeQUILTS
Judith has juried and curated numerous fiber exhibitions. She has had solo exhibitions at the Visions Museum of Textile Art, The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles and The Texas Quilt Museum. She is President Emerita of the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA and maintains a studio in Palo Alto, CA.
