​Tell us a bit about yourself-where you grew up.  Things you like to do besides your art.  Interesting tidbits.  
I am born and raised in Texas and grew up in the Bay Area. I currently live in the Clear Lake/ League City area with my husband Jonathan, and our two dogs Mini and Baxter. I love to travel, cook, design things, and we love going to the beach with our dogs. Oh and I love wine...

How did you come to choose your medium?
I am passionate about working with metal, I love the sculptural side of metal that you can fabricate into anything you want. I mostly work with silver and alternative materials. But I needed to incorporate my love of color in my work. So I use a lot of enamels, colored stones, polymer clay and other materials like plastics, resin and found objects.
Tell us a bit about your process.  
I don’t usually sketch my designs. It all comes out as I’m working... Sometimes I have one stone or piece of enamel that I love and that starts my design off. Then that one piece of jewelry I created starts a line of other pieces. I fabricate all of my work by hand using traditional metalsmithing techniques. I tend to make one unique piece at a time. 
Where do you get your inspiration for your work?
I am inspired by so many things... Sometimes it’s from architecture, and the clean lines of industrial design and graphic art. I love colors inspired by nature, and whimsical, post modern art. And I’m always inspired by the creative, talented artists around me. I love art that makes you feel happy and that’s what I try to portray.



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Who is your favorite artist?  Why?  
My favorite artist has always been Wassily Kandinsky. His use of bright, vibrant colors always excites me. I especially love his expressive, colorful, abstract modern paintings. He has greatly influenced my work.
Tell us about awards and honors that you may have gotten in your creative life.  Which was the most meaningful?
I’ve received several awards and have been in many national and international  juried shows. I am mostly proud of a international juried show I was a part of for the Enamelist Society called Fusion where I was published in a book.

Please tell us any other info that you think people might like to know about you.  
I love to have fun with friends drinking wine and having great food! And if you throw in going to an art festival that sounds like a perfect day...


To see more of Amber's collection, click on the link below to take you to the online store.  We will be adding even more pieces to the store after the opening reception on Saturday. 

Tell us a bit about yourself-where you grew up.  Things you like to do besides your art.  
.  I was born in west Texas and raised in Colorado and Virginia.  I love the outdoors, especially the mountains, and spend as much time as I can skiing and hiking.
Did you start art as a kid or other creative things like music or dance?
     I have been in the arts as long as I remember having grown up in a very musical family.  I was singing at a very early age and in grade school discovered my passion for the visual arts. Although I have been very blessed to be able to make a living in the arts, my main focus has shifted over the years from musical theatre to visual arts.
When did you start to paint in thread?
    Having taught art for over 20 years, I began selling my art two years ago. Since then, I  have been focusing on yarn and fabric paintings- which was a project I developed and used as part of my art curriculum on folk art. 
   

How did you come to choose your medium of yarn?
    My work in yarn grew out of my years as an art educator. Expounding on the idea of yarn paintings- originally derived from the Huichol Indians in Mexico, I have enjoyed experimenting with the color, texture, patterns and possibilities that this unusual medium presents.
Where do you get your inspiration for your work?
    My work was inspired by the yarn paintings of the Huichol people of Mexico. I recreate works from historically significant art movements and artists who best exemplify those periods, using yarns which emphasize color, vibrancy and texture.

Tell us a bit about your process.  
    Yart (yarn art) is an idea that evolved from my many years of teaching art. It is a conglomeration of one of my favorite projects/mediums along with my favorite art movements, artists and subjects. 
     My yarn paintings are inspired by the folk art of the Huichol people of Mexico. Using their idea of "painting" with yarn, I have continued to experiment with the bright colors and textures of yarn (often combined with fabrics, paint and ink) to create my own version of yarn art which represents the celebration of life, uniting the past with the present.  
     I begin by preparing my surface with fabrics, molding the fabric to the canvas or board. Next, I sketch out my composition, painting in large areas with acrylic wash or watercolor. Once the ink is dry, I begin lying down the yarn one strand at a time, working small sections at a time, using a permanent fabric adhesive. The end result is almost like a tapestry to which I often will add layers of paint to achieve a look of layered depth and texture that appears to jump off the canvas.
 

Who is your favorite artist and why?
    I have so many, it would be impossible to pick one but I tend to gravitate toward the Fauvists/Post-Impressionists like Van Gogh, Franz Marc, August Macke. One of the reasons I liked teaching art is because I got to change up my projects/ artists/ focus every year.
Toot your own horn.  Tell us about awards and honors that you may have gotten in your creative life.  Which was the most meaningful?
     I actually just started showing my art a few years ago and was super excited to win Best of Show at Bayou City in 2017. As a new /"emerging" artist, I had applied twice before and hadn't gotten in and in the fall of 2017 I was waitlisted and really only got in because of the cancellations from the hurricane that year.... so I was really overwhelmed and shocked that I won the Best of Show that year. It felt like a Cinderella moment for me.
Bayou City Art festival downtown- Best of Show 2017
Granberry Harvest Moon Festival- Merrit award 2018
Granberry Harvest Moon Festival- Merit award 2019

Writer Marie W. Watts’ latest book in the Warriors for Equal Rights Trilogy, Only a Pawn, will make its La Grange debut with a book signing during  Second Saturday Soiree November 14, 1-7pm.. 
 
All Alice wants is to do the right thing.  But the powers that be have other ideas.
 
Alice’s struggles to meld her dysfunctional team into a crack federal investigative unit bringing workplace discriminators to justice have paid off.  She doesn’t regret the corners she cut to mete out justice.  But one egregious offender continues to elude her.  As she fights to nail the affluent, arrogant sex harasser, obstacles appear.   
 
To make matters worse, a new employee, Royce, sends the office into chaos all the while the staff’s personal problems distract from their essential work.  The stress and anxiety send Alice into rehab.  Meanwhile, her team attempts to fend off the federal auditor bent on ending Alice’s career over her shoddy recordkeeping and failure to adhere to the rules.  Barely surviving a brutal grilling from a House subcommittee, Alice feels the harasser will go free.  
 
Will a white knight arrive in time to rescue Alice from checkmate?
 

Marie, a Fayette County resident, is a former employment discrimination investigator and human resource consultant. Coauthor of Human Relations, 4th ed., her work has also been published in the Texas Bar Journal and the Houston Business Journal, as well as featured on Issues Today.
Praise on Amazon for Only a Pawn:
Only a Pawn is captivating mystery. Alice is passionate about her work, even with the odds stacked against her and retirement shining at the end of what sometimes seems like an endless tunnel. I love how diverse the team is, and I'm so glad to see them back for a second round. Watts really brings the characters to life, and their personal problems and work lives conflicting just makes the story very relatable. If you love a good mystery and have ever felt like your workplace was working against you, you'll enjoy this book cover to cover.
Marie will be available to sign copies and chat with readers.  The first book of the trilogy, The Cause Lives, will also be available.

To purchase this book, click the link below: