Philadelphia printmaker Fay Stanford will show her fabulist banners at McLean Textile Gallery February 21 — March 30. 

Since the early 2000’s Stanford has transitioned from painter to printmaker. This is her first show executed entirely on fabric–a process in which she carves on wood, prints on cotton cloth, and sews her creations into quilt-like banners.

Stanford creates wry fairy tales about suburban family life — especially death, disease and aging. The Philadelphia Inquirer called her work on dementia “an eye opener” and “an outstanding achievement.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, 2011).

See more of Fay Stanford’s work from the McLean Textile Gallery exhibit at faystanford.com.

McLean Textile Gallery
6819 Elm St.
McLean, VA 22101

Open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm
Closed Wednesdays and weekends

Visit McLean Textile Gallery’s website for more information.

Fay Stanford was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1950. She has no formal training, but has taken classes in art centers, at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and at the Fleisher Memorial. She reports on life as a suburban housewife, with occasional detours into a universe populated by alternative animal life. Her work has been shown in and around Philadelphia. 

The process of making woodcuts on cotton fabric represents low tech at its finest. Stanford cuts away the surface of the block so that those parts of the surface do not print. The remaining parts will be printed. The press consists of her feet and an old wooden spoon. 

The last step is sewing the image onto carefully chosen fabric which provides a setting, a structure, and a mechanism for hanging. A year may pass between the inception and the completion of a project because Stanford may work on as many as eight blocks at a time.