About the Artist
Largely self-taught, fiber artist Lauren Camp’s innovative, award-winning pieces have been pictured in major publications; exhibited at performance spaces, cultural centers, and museums in the U.S. and Europe. Her images and companion poetry have been featured in the Santa Fean, Jazziz and World Watch, and poetry journals including Brilliant Corners and Impetus, among other publications.
Her pieces are housed in numerous private and public collections, including the Fenster / Sanditen Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, St. Vincent Children’s Hospital of Indiana, and the United States Embassy in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The City of Greeley, Colorado has commissioned her to create four large works for their Jesus Rodarte Community Center.
A 9-year project, her series of jazz portraits entitled “The Fabric of Jazz,” will be exhibited in museums across the country from January 2004 to December 2006. Other works have been part of traveling group exhibitions, including “Expressions of Freedom: Quilts Celebrating Human Rights" and “Roots of Racism: Ignorance and Fear.” She was invited to take part in the 2002 Fiber Art Biennial in Chieri, Italy, and has exhibited works for the NAACP.
She has held residency positions at Working Classroom, Albuquerque, New Mexico and the New Brunswick (New Jersey) Public Schools, working with elementary and high school students in disadvantaged communities. She was also granted a “Sea Change” residency through the Gaea Foundation.
She is a board member of the Southwest Jazz Orchestra, a jazz DJ for public radio station KSFR 90.7, and an active volunteer with a number of other organizations, including the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe.

Artist’s Statement
I am intrigued by the complete sound that comes from several instruments collaborating. To me, it’s very much like choosing fabrics for one of my artworks. I might pick a color I don’t care for but, if I integrate it with others that are comfortable to me, the whole thing sings. I like the deeper sounds in jazz — the bass, the drums — but I appreciate them more in combination with the round sounds of the saxophone and the higher notes of other brass instruments, the tinkling of the piano.
Jazz is the music of freedom and a chronicle of American history. If you study jazz, you learn about wars and about racism and integration. You learn about social customs and culture, love and loss.
I love the education I’ve gotten from listening and reading and looking with a critical ear and eye. When I listen, I hear colors and shapes. The sounds I hear are the designs I make with my threadwork. The colors I hear sometimes take my breath away. I like the friction of the colors and the way they sparkle like the music. My art form gives me a way to “play” what I hear — a chance to doodle and delight.
This is one of the most innovative forms of music there is — constantly changing, evolving. There is so much diversity to jazz — from salsa to bebop to the cool jazz of the West Coast and the sounds of today. Jazz is challenging and sophisticated: music for grown-ups.
In fact, jazz is just like me — creative, improvisational, sometimes moody, sometimes whimsical, curious, demanding, constantly in motion, roots in the blues but head in the clouds, fearless, fanciful, free.

“If it’s possible for music as richly textured, inventive,
and purely American as jazz to take physical form, it is in
Lauren Camp’s remarkable fabric portraits of jazz greats.”
— Arts Writer Gussie Fauntleroy

“The Fabric of Jazz” is a series of artworks created by fiber artist Lauren Camp.
Made entirely from cloth and thread, these larger–than–life images of jazz instruments and musicians are currently traveling to museums across the United States.

Cross Over, 2003, jazz violin in performance
threadwork on layered and dyed cotton and silk, 26" x 68"
(based on photos by Jim Gale)

The Swirls I Hear, 2004, tribute to the saxophone, threadwork on layered fabrics, 38" x 72"
(based on three photos by Francis Wolff ©Mosaic Images and one photo by Herman Leonard)

Tones of Blue, 2001, tribute to the soprano sax
threadwork on layered silk and cotton, 25" x 30"
(based on a photo by Charles Peterson ©1945)

Trumpet Solo (Study in Brown), 2001, tribute to the trumpet
threadwork on layered silk, cotton
and other fabric, 36" x 18"
(based on a photo by Herman Leonard)

U.S. Tour Venues

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, Golden, CO (January 5 to April 3, 2004)

Museum of the American Quilter’s Society, Paducah, KY (June 12 to September 25, 2004)

Albright Community Cultural Center, Reading, PA (March 9 to April 2, 2005)

American Jazz Museum, Kansas City, MO (May 7 to July 4, 2005)

Delta Blues Museum, Clarksdale, MS (August 1 to October 9, 2005)

Mesa Southwest Museum, Mesa, AZ (November 12, 2005 to April 1, 2006)

The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM (May 28 to July 23, 2006)

Detroit International Jazz Festival, Detroit, MI (August 20 to October 3, 2006)

The Burroughs - Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC (January 26 to March 25, 2007)

Rocky Mount Arts Center, Rocky Mount, NC (July 6 to September 26, 2007)

Limited-edition giclée prints of the artwork are available.

• Only 50 prints of each image will be produced.

• Printed with archival ink on acid-free, museum-quality watercolor paper.

• Each is signed by the artist, and is a collectible work of art unto itself.

• To commission a print, contact the artist at (505) 474-7943.
 

Backbeat, 2004, tribute to the drum kit
threadwork on layered polyester, silk and cotton, 32" x 45"
(based on a photo by Jim Gale)

So Black and Blue, 1997
portrait of Louis Armstrong
threadwork on layered cotton, 50" x 48"

Bless the Child, 2000, portrait of Billie Holiday
threadwork and acrylic paint on layered and dyed cotton,
39" x 70" (based on a photo by William Gottlieb ©1979)

The Shout, 2003, portrait of Charles Mingus
threadwork and laser toner on layered, dyed
and painted cotton, rayon and silk, 47" x 52"
(based on a photo by Yoram Kahana)

Stride, 2002, tribute to the piano
threadwork and acrylic paint on layered and dyed cotton
40" x 38" (based on a photo by Herman Leonard)

Rhythm Sticks, 2002, tribute to the vibraphone
threadwork on layered and dyed cotton, linen and silk,
33" x 48" (based on a photo by Francis Wolff ©Mosaic Images)

In His Own Language, 1999, portrait of Duke Ellington
threadwork and laser toner on layered and dyed cotton, silk and other fabrics, 36" x 59"

Deep Sliding Curves, 2003, tribute to the trombone
threadwork on layered and dyed cotton and silk, 31" x 38"
(based on a photo by Francis Wolff ©Mosaic Images)

Loudest Noise, 2002, portrait of Thelonious Monk
threadwork on layered and rusted cotton, rayon and silk, 39" x 59"
(based on a photo by Don Hunstein)

The Whole Damn Orchestra, 1998, portrait of Ella Fitzgerald
threadwork and acrylic paint on layered, and dyed cotton, 52" x 51"

Center Stage, 2001, tribute to the voice
threadwork and beads on layered silk and cotton, 37" x 23"
(based on a photo by Herman Leonard)

Just Swing, 2001, portrait of Benny Goodman
threadwork on layered and dyed cotton, silk
and other fabrics, 50" x 41"

Take a stroll through the exhibit by moving the scroll bar at the bottom of your browser.

Sidemen, 2001, tribute to the Ellington Orchestra with Billy Strayhorn
threadwork, acrylic paint and laser toner on
layered and dyed cotton and other fabric, 61" x 60"

 

City Walk, 2002, tribute to the upright bass
threadwork on layered and dyed cotton and silk, 50" x 20"
(based on a photo by Francis Wolff ©Mosaic Images)

Conguero, 2003, congas in performance
threadwork on layered and dyed cotton and silk,
58" x 38" (based on photos by Jim Gale)

 

“One is at a distinct disadvantage without seeing the work of Lauren Camp in person.
A magazine, postcard or tearsheet cannot project the energy, compositional integrity, movement and flow
of her work. When I visited this show, I was literally stunned by the full range of Ms. Camp’s body of work.”
— Ken Endick, Vice Chair, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and art critic for The Easton Express-Times

To find out more, call (505) 474-7943.

“Lauren Camp interprets jazz musicians and instruments in fabric, creating rich wall hangings that reveal the strength and vibrancy of the music.”
— Tempo, the magazine of Temple University Public Radio, Jul/Aug/Sep 2003

“The resulting effect is a lively graphic art quality that combines
images and texts in a medium with its own visual characteristics.”
— The Albuquerque Journal North, 10/13/2000

She wants to draw the viewer in with color and imagery, then get them to read (sometimes literally) the whole message. In the Billie Holiday quilt, the background pattern turns out to be lynching statistics and eyewitness accounts from 1890 to 1999.” — ABQ Arts, July 2000

“I was astonished when I first saw her work, as it shows an unusual sensitivity to these
great performers.” — George Stone, Board Member, Fine Art for Children and Teens

“Camp translates the music into colors and shapes.” — The Albuquerque Journal, 12/9/2001

“I like your style.” — Wynton Marsalis
.