Dan Olfe - quilt artist
I started creating art quilts in 1997, after a career as an engineering professor (primarily at the University of California, San Diego). Because of my technical background, it was natural for me to create designs on a computer, using a variety of 2D and 3D programs.
My quilts have been exhibited in major national juried exhibitions, including Quilt National, Quilt Visions, Interpretations, Pushing the Surface, Art Quilt Elements, TECHstyle Art Biennial, The California Art Quilt Revolution, and others, as well as traveling exhibits sponsored by SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates).
I started by making pieced quilts (shown in the bottom selection on the gallery page). For these quilts, I created a computer design to use as a guide for cutting and placing the fabric.
Later, for more detailed designs, I hand-painted each quilt top on whole cloth. Again, I created my designs on a computer and printed them on paper as a guide.
The next shift in my design process came when it became possible to print computer designs directly on fabric. My quilts then featured rendered images of 3D designs. For a later series I created abstract designs by layering textures in Photoshop. I downloaded some textures from the internet and created others with my camera.
For my next designs, I collaged or layered my own photos. More recently, my designs consisted of color squares and rectangles, with each design featuring the colors of a well-known artist. To obtain the colors I used single-pixel wide scans of photos of the artist's work.
I am using 3D software for my current designs.