Phyllis Cullen will be teaching five classes during Road@Home:

On Wednesday, January 20^th: WL02 and on Thursday, January 21st: T117  It’s All About The Face

W122 – Easy Stained Glass Quilts

F124 – Wild (Fabric) Animal (Or Bird) Collage

S116 – Lava Landscape (Fire On The Mountain!)

Doctor Fabric Artist

Phyllis Cullen started quilting in 1985. At the time, Phyllis was a physician practicing anesthesiology. She would paint between cases in the doctor’s lounge and some of her colleagues objected to the smell of the paints. So, she started collaging –painting with fabrics instead.

During this time, she decided to take an official “quilting” class. Phyllis recalls, “Quarter inch seams? Repetitive triangles? not my style!” Luckily for Phyllis, she had already discovered that “playing with lots of fabric scraps in a free form style was lots of fun,” so she told the teacher, “Thanks but I guess I’m not a “quilter”, just a fabric artist who quilts her artwork.”

Phyllis’ Studio

Phyllis Cullen’s quilting area is a huge studio with two walls full of shelves of fabric.  Since she looks at her quilting as painting with fabric, Phyllis says she needs to have a full palette!

What are the quilting tools that Phyllis can’t live without? First and foremost, her stash!! Next it’s her tiny rotary cutter for slashing up the fabric, then her students, – and finally, her imagination!

During the COVID lockdowns, Phyllis has been exploring different styles, converting all her classes to virtual. She says that she has learned “way more than I ever wanted to know about zoom, and dual cameras,and video editing, etc,” And she wrote a book,”It’s All About the Face: Quilted Fabric Portraits”  which has been really well received (And is the source for some of her classes she’ll be teaching during Road@Home).

Teaching at Road@Home

Phyllis Cullen has been teaching for 15 years, in Hawaii, on the Mainland, and all over the world, from Israel to Australia. Since she retired from practicing medicine, Phyllis feels like she’s become a full-time teacher.

What does Phyllis like most about teaching?  She says, “I love seeing my students succeed and take off with their artwork when they thought they couldn’t do it at all. I love showing them the easier way to do things, and to trust their own choices.”

For Road@home, Phyllis Cullen says that she will be trying to compress day-long classes into shorter time periods. She will be getting in touch with her students before the actual class days, helping them complete “the preliminaries” so that everyone can “really accomplish” what she wants them to do during the class. Phyllis shared that she takes pride in being available to her students for life. She adds, “I really, really want them to succeed, each and every one. I really look forward to sharing everything with students I haven’t met yet, and turning them on to the artist within them, and getting them excited about new possibilities, ways of working, and materials they might not have thought of using.”

To learn more about Phyllis, please visit her website.

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