Tools of the Trade: Muffy Clark Gill

Editor’s Note: In a first for NAWA’s NOW Magazine, we present Tools of the Trade in video form by providing readers links to two presentations by NAWAFL Board Member Muffy Clark Gill about the intricate wax and dye resist painting art form known as batik.

Award-winning batik artist Muffy Clark Gill, in honor of the 2024-2025 International Year of Batik, introduces the artform of Batik in a videotaped tour of the 2024-2025 International Year of the Batik exhibition, “Patterns of Change”, at the Naples (Florida) Botanical Gardens. Gill juried into the exhibition. She also videotaped a presentation “From Apples to Art: Using my Mac for my Artwork” which discusses using photography as the backbone of her art, and computer programs to achieve her vision in batik.

Gill’s presentations were given as part of the NAWA Florida Chapter’s ongoing member workshop series.

Gill says she fell in love with the batik process when she was in high school. While visiting the African country of Uganda with her mother, Muffy attended an exhibition of batik arts and crafts, and it piqued her curiosity. She returned home and started to explore the medium on her own, winning awards for her early works while she was still in high school. After graduating with a degree in Graphic Design from Boston University, Muffy took additional classes in the art of batik, and was later mentored by internationally known batik and rozome (Japanese-style batik) artist Kiranada Sterling Benjamin whom she had met while attending a batik conference hosted by Kiranada and Mass Art in 2005.

Currently, Gill exhibits her batik artwork online and teaches batik workshops. Muffy is a member of the board of Silk Painters International as well as the Batik Guild, a UK based international organization of batik artists.

Muffy co-organized the juried exhibition, “Patterns of Change,” in the Naples Botanical Gardens Kapnick Hall, which featured 31 works from international artists. In the first presentation below, Muffy discusses her Bermuda-inspired exhibition piece, and the variations on the batik process reflecting the interpretations by other batik artists in the exhibition. View the presentation below:

In this second presentation, given in September 2024 to the Florida Chapter members, Gill delves into the inspiration for her work, and the wax tools and computer applications she uses to create batik paintings, many of them from Southeast Asia:

You can see more of her work at: https://mcgilltropicalart, and https://muffyclarkgill.com, on Facebook at MuffyClarkGillFineArt and on Instagram @muffyclarkgill. She can be reached by email: [email protected].