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SHELBY TOWNSHIP — The Shelby Township Senior Center’s featured artist for November and December is Laura Rangos, of LRDesign LLC, for her fabric art.
The featured artist program has been running since 2005 and each featured artist has an exhibition at the Shelby Township Activities Center, 14975 21 Mile Road, for two months.
Rangos has lived in the Rochester area for the past 25 years. Her work features custom-made, framed pictures that resemble fine paintings, but they actually are made by using patterned cotton fabrics that are cut and assembled to match designed artwork or original photographs. Each piece of material is individually stitched together and stretched over a wooden frame or base — like stretching a canvas — to create a colorful collage of quilted beauty.
“I also make the frames myself, finishing them with various colors of ‘milk paint’ that accent the artwork they surround. In addition to my original works of art, I have different sized color print reproductions, as well as an extensive selection of greeting cards that vividly capture the originals,” she said.
Kate Jones said she admires the work that Rangos does.
“I absolutely love the artwork Laura Rangos creates. Her pieces are so unique. I’ve never seen anything else like it. You can tell she loves what she does because you feel the energy coming from each piece. I have more than several pieces of her art and each one brings so much happiness to our house. I find her at every art show to see her new creations,” Jones said.
Rangos said she has been drawing and painting since she was very young, but she has also been an avid seamstress for much of her life.
“My art has evolved over the years and I now work almost exclusively with fabric. My love of texture and vibrantly colored fabric led me to experimenting with my technique, to the point of now being able to stitch together beautiful works of art to create a colorful collage of quilted fabric pictures. I love using playful prints and luxurious batiks to form the highlights, shadows and midtones of any subject that interests me. Creating pictures of animals, flowers, landscapes and architecture has been my latest focus, since they all challenge me to juxtapose fabric in different combinations, forming one-of-a-kind artwork,” she said.
Exhibiting her work at art shows and art fairs has been enjoyable.
“Art fairs are definitely hard work, but the rewards are plentiful. Other artists I’ve met have been very kind, offering helpful advice and sharing their art fair stories. It’s also been extremely enjoyable meeting the people who visit my booth. I’m normally a little shy, but find it easy to talk with people about my artwork and to hear about their impressions. By far, quilters are most attracted to my work because it involves a lot of quilting techniques and gorgeous batik style fabrics,” she said.
He business website address is lrdesignllc.com and she can be reached at lrdesign@comcast.net.
