Chris Roberts-Antieau

b. 1950

Chris Roberts-Antieau was born in 1950 in Brighton MI.  She was creative from a young age, but was introduced to her primary medium of sewing in a high school home economics class. Following a non-recommendation for college from a high school counselor, as well being told by an art teacher, "you'll never be an artist," Roberts-Antieau continued to create art on a self-taught basis. Chris entered her first art fair in the 1980s where she sold her first piece, a 3-D soft sculpture, for $20.  She continued to make fabric works, focusing on clothing, finding success and national representation at the American Craft Council.  A friend suggested presenting her appliqué works in a frame, which became the primary work she produces to this day.  She describes her work as “fabric paintings” composed of applique and embroidery.  She also draws, paints, and produces mixed-media work and is largely characterized by humor, joy, and whimsical commentary.  After a bout with cancer in 2009, much of her work "pushed deeper into a place of introspection, addressing themes of personal mortality and interconnectedness."