As the Center for Birds of Prey’s first Artist-in-Residence, fiber artist Lauren Austin finds inspiration in the feathers, talons, and even bones of our resident raptors.
Austin made her first quilt at the age of seven, with help from her mother. Over the course of her career, her process has evolved to incorporate a variety of different textures and media: photos printed onto fabric using different methods, painting, dyeing, and even burning fabric. She is continually inspired by kuba cloth, a type of textile created in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In addition to her work as an artist, Austin also teaches workshops on many of her processes, including cyanotype printing, machine quilt drawing, and creating memory quilts using photos and other artifacts. She frequently hosts workshops at Hannibal Square Heritage Center in Winter Park, where she also exhibits her work.
Austin’s interest in birds began early in life, watching the feeder in her childhood backyard in Syracuse, NY, and visiting nature centers with her mother. When Austin sought inspiration for a new quilt series called “Birds are My People,” she turned to the Center for Birds of Prey. She liked that she could visit the Center and sketch the Ambassador Birds for hours, and eventually she got to know the staff, who showed her another side of the Center: the Raptor Trauma Clinic. It’s there that Austin first became inspired to use x-rays of injured birds in her art.
Becoming the Center’s Artist-in-Residence was a natural fit for Austin, and she has used the role to connect the Center with the local community, including working with staff to present a Birds and Arts program at the Eatonville Library.
Austin hopes that her work shows that “the ordinary, intimate, and difficult stories of our own lives make intriguing art,” she says. “Art is not owned by certain people, it belongs to everyone.”
