Northport Artist Invents the ‘Painted Silk Collage’

Art is a joy for the eyes, but even better when you get to know the story behind the artist and their work.

Char Bickle is an artist from Northport who essentially invented her own artistic style of expression.

“I come from a family of creative people,” she says. “My dad did lots of carpentry, and he was always drawing lots of little pictures of animals on envelopes. And my mom was an incredible fiber artist, knitting, and all the domestic fiber arts— sewing. She made our clothes.”

Char comes from a family of creative people, which no doubt lent a hand in the development of her own, unique medium.

Not your average artist, Char creates something truly different when she uses a paint brush on silk.

“I’m self-taught, because I came up with a medium that combines those two in a way that nobody else actually uses,” she says.

Char makes what refers to as a “painted silk collage.”

She paints the fabric first, and then cuts, shapes and glues a collage together—sometimes even adding a complicated series of layers.

This self-taught artist sees her pieces as windows through which her creative spirit can truly come to view.

“I love the spontaneity of painting and the beauty of the brush stroke, but I also love the construction and the makiness of fiber and all the associations that come with fabric,” she says.

You can find her work in the Michigan Artist’s Gallery, the Two Fish Gallery in Leland, the Suttons Bay Art Festival, and the Leland fiber show.