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 to train her own artist’s hand and eye by copying Japanese prints in pen and ink and designing and sewing her clothes.

After studying art and education at Brooklyn College, she became an elementary school teacher and, following that, founded Interiorscapes, a wall graphics business which provided many prominent 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 turned her attention to fiber arts.

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.

For Anita, quilting is a sweeping expression of vision beyond the conventional rules. “My quilts are meant to reflect the beauty of this amazing world.” Her show, Al Fresco, which was exhibited at the Sea Ranch Lodge in December 2005 is the culmination of an intense two year study of plant life, flowers and the seasons.

Anita has exhibited at many venues in California. She has won awards at the Pacific Piecemakers Quilt Show, Art-In-The-Redwoods, Gualala, at the Marin Quilt and NeedleArts Show, Marin, the Sonoma Museum of Visual Arts, Santa Rosa, and Art Quilt Tahoe, Lake Tahoe. Anita teaches classes in beginning quilting, design and color. She is the subject of several magazine articles and her work is represented in many private collections. Anita is a member of the professional fiber art group, California Fiber Artists.