skafte design

I am a Charlottesville, VA artist and designer. I received a MFA/ MA in Studio and Textile Design from Syracuse University and BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My first career was in textile design, then surface pattern design for home furnishings. My current creative work is as a fine artist in watercolor. I have always been motivated to create art in which the primary expression is in the movement of the eye as it follows the rhythm of a geometric pattern. I taught 2D design, painting and drawing at universities (including James Madison University), for over 10 years. I produced museum quality reproductions for the Smithsonian, Monticello, and presently work at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA.

My Artist Statement

I have always been fascinated by the way information is displayed visually in architectural drawings, scientific illustration, geological diagrams of plate tectonics and mathematical schematics. For years I have created drawings, paintings, prints and designs based on abstracted architecture and scientific illustration. By flattening space, overlapping and twisting perspectives, familiar architectural details dissolve into intriguing intersections and complexities which to me suggest personal inner spaces. I then use these geometries as a vehicle to create dynamic flat patterns. My first career was in textile design, and I have never lost my love of pattern for the sake of decorative effect, and my palette still reflects this love of design. My favorite medium is watercolor, because it so easily simulates the effects of dyes on cloth.