About the Artist: Anne Muñoz

Anne Muñoz resides in Salt Lake City with her husband. Trained in art and textile design, she worked as a freelance graphic artist for many years but continued to produce her own artwork, taking part in art festivals, juried shows, and exhibits. Her creative interest has centered on batik art, which involves the application of wax to textiles in order to achieve layered shades of color. 

I start with a piece of white pima cotton. The design is drawn on the fabric in pencil and the colors planned. (I usually do a water color of the piece first.) A mixture of hot beeswax and paraffin is painted onto the fabric in the parts of the picture that are to be white. Then the fabric is dyed the lightest color (say, yellow) and hung to dry. The wax “resists” the dye so I now have a piece that is white and yellow. I next wax the areas of the batik that I want to remain yellow and dye the piece the next color. This process continues until the whole piece is covered in wax except for the final color, usually black or dark blue. Colors must be planned carefully because each color combines with the previous colors to give a new color. When all the dyes have been applied, the batik is ironed out between newspapers (changing them often as they soak up the wax). Only when nearly all the wax is re moved do I really know what my picture looks like. As I work on a piece, the wax build-up makes it difficult to see the detail of what I really have. It’s always exciting to iron out a new batik and see the real image emerge. The last of the wax is removed by dry cleaning. 

Front cover: Anne Muñoz, Daughters of Gaea; 60 x 65 in.; quilted batik; 2001 (First Place Award Non-Traditional Quilts at the Winter Celebration International Quilt Festival 2002) 

Back cover: Anne Muñoz, Sunset in Sunrise, Kentucky; 57 x 44 in.; quilted batik; 2005–06 (First Place Award for Wall Quilts at the AQS Nashville International Quilt Festival 2006; First Place Award for Pictorial Quilts at the 2007 National Home Machine Quilting Show)