Biography
Marti Plager grew up in Iowa and has lived in many places throughout the United States. She now makes Louisville, Kentucky her home. She learned to sew in 9th grade home economics class and was a garment sewer for many years. She graduated from Iowa State University and worked as the education manager for Simplicity Pattern Company in New York as well as a retail fabric store manager in Florida. In Kentucky she took her first quilting class and became passionate over this form of creative textile art. Using her sewing machine skills and expertise she now works full time as a studio artist creating contemporary wall quilts as her form of personal expression. Her work may be found in many private collections throughout the United States.
Artist Statement
I am a fiber artist who works with fabric, thread and the home sewing machine to create contemporary art quilts from my studio in Louisville, Kentucky.
I love to sew. The hum of my machine is like music as I bring to life the texture that I so love on the surface of the quilt. I derive great pleasure in exploring the variety of techniques that can turn white cotton fabric into color and pattern.
Dyeing, over dyeing, screen printing and flour paste resist are just some of the techniques that play a role in my work. Best of all is the joy of cutting up the textiles and piecing them together to create new work.
Currently my work is quite abstract visually. Daily life is as much an inspiration as fabulous trips. I feel very much a participant of the world in which I live. It is both exciting and challenging to take my observations of the world around me and translate them into art.
Through my art I feel connected: connected to the earth, to history, to God, to daily life and to the opportunities that life presents each day.