Anita Kaplan brings a lifetime of experience as an artist and seamstress to her role as a master quilter. As a youth she spent countless hours studying the world's finest art in the museums of her native New York City. In high school she continued by drawing, designing and sewing her own clothes.

After a brief career as an elementary school teacher and having two children she founded Interiorscapes, a wall graphics business which provided Silicon Valley companies with unique hand painted wall art. In 1985 she was commissioned to paint the 100-foot high water tower at the site of the old Libby's cannery in Sunnyvale, California. In 1995 she returned her attention solely to fiber art.

Anita works in a studio full of light, fabric, beads, buttons and threads. With an eagle's eye view of the Pacific Ocean she gathers images from her environment, her travels, books, surface ornament and modern art in all forms. These images may not emerge literally in her work, but inspire her abstract images with bold line and vivid color. She works spontaneously, sometimes starting simply from a fabric that sparks her interest. Her work is pieced and appliquéd, hand and machine quilted and embellished with all sorts of things. Her most recent quilts use her own hand dyed and hand painted fabrics.

About Anita Kaplan