In the Fall of 1995, I enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology‘s one-year AAS program in Textile/Surface Design. It was designed for people who wanted to condense two years of training into a single year – it was non-stop textile design, with a little sleep thrown in for good measure.

Little did I know that almost three decades later, my work, which had its twists and turns in the ensuing years, would make it onto the pages of their award-winning Hue Magazine! (click on the hot link to read the published online version for Spring 2024)

I was interviewed by F.I.T.’s chief storyteller, Alex Joseph, whose perceptiveness and understanding of my work really came through in his writing. One of Hue Magazine‘s designers, Alexander Isley, also did a wonderful job with the layout design. I notice these things, and I don’t take them for granted.

Having my work published in Hue has allowed my mind to wander back to my time there in the mid-90’s. It was there that I met my life-long friend, Lisa B., as we struggled together to come up with imagery for our first “conversational” fabric print. We can laugh about it now, but I’m not too proud to admit that there were a few tears along the way. (Lisa on the left, and me with newly shorn hair)

One of the people I mentioned in my conversation with Alex Joseph was our beloved Color Theory professor, Eileen Mislove. (Apologies for the very old and blurry photo). I say “beloved”, but that was not how we viewed her at first. She was a complete stickler for both color mixing – we painted everything in gouache – and paint application. She was well known to keep sending students back to their desks to repaint sections or an entire project without even a hint of a smile. Her exactitude and demand for excellence found their way into my heart, and I can honestly attribute how I approach color in my own work to her tutelage. I am forever grateful.

In the mid-90’s, F.I.T. only had a limited number of computers with which to teach their CAD courses, and at that time, there weren’t any allocated for Textile/Surface Design students. All of our work was done by carefully tracing out our designs in pencil and then painstakingly painting them in either gouache or ink (often well into the wee hours of the night).

The following three paintings are from my portfolio from that year. This first one is an ink drawing. I can’t remember exactly what the assignment was – obviously a mixed-motif stripe of some kind.

This floral was made in a class where we were shown many different types of techniques to achieve different textures and feelings. It was a batik on paper.

This one was done in the same class. It’s hard to tell from the photograph, but it was created using a careful splicing technique wherein the colorful leaf shapes were inset into the ground layer. These days, there is a button one can click to do that, but as I reflect on all of the skills and techniques we learned, I’m so thankful for the hands-on craft involved in our design-making.

I could not have asked for a better foundation in my training as a textile designer, or a more transformational year in the course of my life. Not to mention, it was the first time I had ever experienced having an escalator in my school!

A heartfelt thank you to the team of Hue Magazine for their fine work and for everyone at F.I.T. who helped me on my way.