Vivien’s father always had a camera slung around his neck and her mother was always stopping to look at flowers, so it’s no surprise these influences crept into Vivien’s psyche. She always stooped closely to admire nature’s details or stepped back to enjoy grand vistas. Now she’s taking a picture to capture the magic moment or memory.
Vivien started quilting because she was besotted with the array of fabrics in a quilt shop along her bus route home from work. Once she took a hand piecing class, she was hooked on textiles. She bought a machine and eventually built an attic studio when she and her husband renovated their home.
Over the years, Vivien’s photography and textile work have informed one another. Vivien grows a vibrantly colored garden that provides endless photo opportunities; the colors combinations and saturated hues often make their way into Vivien’s fabric work. Vivien’s creative side is balanced by the intellectual rigor of her work as a docent trainer at the Katonah Museum of Art. Her nerd brain gets immense pleasure from doing deep-dive research for curators as exhibitions are prepared. And Vivien loves speaking with museum guests; there’s great fun in talking about the history and context, colors and emotions, biases and facts that come from good conversations about art.
Vivien is a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates and the Surface Design Association. She’s had articles published in Quilting Arts Magazine, been a guest on Quilting Arts TV, and has had photographs and textile works accepted into national juried exhibitions. She and her husband live in New York in a colonial-era farmhouse with wonky walls and floors.
