"Midwesterner" by Jen Swearington

Mixed media quilter Jen Swearington has found a use for old, worn bed sheets and pillow cases by turning them into art. Swearington takes fabrics, paint, grease pencils and a sewing machine and creates fiber art featuring rich textures and overlapping images to be made into a quilt or put on a canvas.

“Roundtrips From the Nest,” her latest mixed media exhibition of quilts and paintings, will be on view through October 30 at UNC Asheville’s Blowers Gallery. Swearington will exhibit some 12 quilts and paintings, which document scenes from her travels throughout the American South and Midwest. A reception will be held from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12, in the gallery.

Swearington’s paintings and quilts have been featured in Surface Design Journal and on the cover of Fiberarts Magazine. Ten of her pieces are currently on exhibit in “Fiber Optic: Textiles in Contemporary Art” at the William King Regional Arts Center in Virginia, and her quilt “Season of the Shark” is touring America in the prestigious Quilt National 2005 exhibition. HGTV’s “That’s Clever” will air a segment on Swearington this month, featuring her handmade silk wearable designs. Swearington holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. and a master of fine arts degree in fibers from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She is an adjunct professor of Arts and Ideas at UNC Asheville and in the Fibers Department at SCAD.

Blowers Gallery, located on the main floor of UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library, is open during regular library hours. Admission is free. For hours of operation, call UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library at 828/251-6546.