Rebekah Crown has become a staple in both Katrin’s personal and boutique life.

I had the opportunity to interview her via e-mail for a little insight on the things that make her tick, and how she conducts her craft .

Enjoy, and soak up her love for the arts at her vernissage (flyer with dates and times at the end of the post)!

So tell me a bit about what you do!  Everything from Spiritual enlightenment to creating beautiful textiles and artwork it seems!  How did you get into all of these domains?

I grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Land of Enchantment, surrounded by beauty and spirituality. Native religion and art are a part of the fabric of life there. I saw many ceremonies and learned at a young age that it is the dancing of human feet that makes the earth go round, that prayer has an effect on the world, that nature is alive with spirits.  I always looked for and saw the spirits in nature. Native people have always expressed spiritual ideas through design and decoration. When everything used in daily life was made by hand, everything was decorated: painted, beaded, quilled, woven. Beauty all around.

In the 1930s many artists moved to New Mexico from the eastern US because of the quality of light there. SF is 7,000 feet in the mountains and the air is very clear. So there was a colony of artists there. There are murals on the walls, interiors of homes are painted and carved, every day family restaurants are hung with art. When I was a teenager, we spent Saturday afternoons going to art openings. Many of the artists were family friends. So this atmosphere of art and ceremony seemed only natural to me. Those were the things that helped me feel most connected to my true self. When I was young, I was a dancer. Injuries led me into exploring the healing arts. I have studied, practiced and taught bodywork for 30 years. I am now mainly working with Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. You can read more about it on my website: www.spiritinbody.com <BR><BR>

<BR>Name a few of your favourite things

Fabric, red wine, warm weather, baby leaves, fall colours in this corner of the world, the desert.

What inspires you when creating?

What colours/fabrics/textures are you naturally drawn to?

Anything shiny. I also have been known as The Supreme High Priestess of Purple. Black should only be used or worn to show off colour. Purple goes with everything especially orange.

Any special treatments or processes that tribute to your signature styles?

I have explored many quilting and surface design techniques and am not sure I have settled on one in particular. I DO like to embellish with holographic gold thread.

What fabrics and materials are your staples?

I use mostly cotton fabrics, some I dye myself but I also do some felting and bead work. I LOVE the batiks from Bali. They have so much light and movement in them. Did I mention holographic gold thread?

What are you currently working on?

Mostly getting this show up. Since I will have to be there the whole time, I might as well be making something. I will be hand sewing and embellishing some Purple Hearts and hanging them on one wall with some messages. You can read more about this process soon on my blog.

Friends and family told me my name was not prominent enough on the posters so I am making a fabric sign of my name with lots of yes…holographic gold thread.

I just got a longarm quilting machine. This kind of quilting is like dancing with the machine. You can draw with thread. So I am learning that.

I have ideas for a series of abstract landscapes and a series with the theme ANCESTORS. This will take me at least a year.

What does creating do for you?  Is it a release, an excitement, a concentration?

Creating feeds me. It is more of an obsession than anything. Pieces arise within me and demand to be made. A blissful slavery.

What do you see in your future?

One goal I have is to have a show in Santa Fe. I feel I need to develop my work more before that happens. I would also like to have a big piece in a public place in Montreal.

Where do you think your art and spiritual work will guide you?

Into more beauty

If you could travel anywhere in the world right this minute, where would you choose?

Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Malta

Rebekah made the beautiful Rose quilt above for Katrin and Mike’s wedding gift – gorgeous!

For updates on her upcoming show (right across the street from the KL boutique – be sure to drop in and say hi while you’re there!), join her facebook event page .