About Me Larkin with blue hair

 
Larkin Jean Van Horn is a mixed-media textile artist working in the areas of art quilts, beadwork, wearable art, and liturgical art. Each piece represents the combination of her imagination, inspiration from the world around her, and her strong sense of drama. The intense forms and colors of her work are sometimes a response to the grey Pacific Northwest winters, other times they reflect the natural energy of spring and summer. Whether exploring the variety of textures found on the island — the waves and tidelines, wind-bent trees, strata and fissures in the rocks on the seashore — or the inner landscape of emotions, spirit, and self, it's all about texture. Larkin wants her work to have as much interest for the fingertips as for the eye — hence the decision to work with fabric, fiber, beads, and found objects. She is also drawn to the alchemy and serendipity of dyeing and painting her own fabrics and yarns to create her “paintbox” of materials.

As well as producing her own creations, she is in demand as a teacher and lecturer among quilters, fiber artists, and bead workers. Her second book, "Beading On Fabric" was released in 2006, and she has also published patterns for wearable art garments and fabric vessels. Her work has been displayed and won honors both regionally and nationally. In 2007, Larkin made her sixth appearance in the Bernina Fashion Show (and its predecessor, the Fairfield Fashion Show), where she received the 2002 Judge’s Merit Award.

Locally, Larkin is a past President of the Pacific Northwest Needle Arts Guild, a founding member of the Wearable Art Study Group, and founder of a group for beadwork enthusiasts on Whidbey Island, The Bead Nuts. She is active in a small art quilt group which exhibits locally and participates in fund raising for humanitarian causes. Additionally, she is a member of the International Quilt Association, the Studio Art Quilt Associates, and the Surface Design Association.

Larkin lives on Whidbey Island in Washington State with her husband/photographer/webmaster, Van, and her eclectic collection of fabric, fibers, and beads.