Thomas Features Annette Houston as Artist of the Month

Thomas College is featuring the original art quilts of Annette Houston in its art gallery during the month of January.

The exhibit on display includes several quilts and fabric bowls. Art quilts go beyond designs using only stitching to include many and varied visual art techniques, such as painting on fabric and embellishment using a variety of materials.

Houston grew up in Waterville, Maine. She began her interest in art early under the direction of Muriel Ragsdale, both at South Grammar School and Waterville High School. A mural completed while she was a student still hangs in the high school. She majored in art at Colby College and sculpture at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Houston and her husband, Ken, live in Newport, where she maintains the "Bee Hive Studio" at her home. She offers workshops both at the studio and elsewhere. Now partially retired from her teaching career, which began in1963, she is currently teaching part-time in Newport's gifted and talented program. She and Ken have three grown children.

Houston's work is on display in the College's art gallery in its administration building at 180 West River Road in Waterville. The gallery is open to the public Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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