Liberty Worth – Textiles, Stories, and Slow Acts of Creation

We are delighted to feature Liberty Worth in our Voices of Eutopia blog series. A multidisciplinary artist, art educator, and mother of three, Liberty brings a thoughtful approach to her residency, blending observation, memory, and textiles into work that honors both people and the planet.

Textiles as Memory

Her creative practice is deeply shaped by her love of travel and her fascination with textiles. She believes textiles are not only carriers of personal and cultural memory, but also urgent reminders of our contemporary crisis of waste and fast fashion. Each fabric tells a story, both of the people who once used it and the hands that made it. Much of her work uses discarded and rescued fabrics—once destined for landfill—that she reimagines into artworks infused with color, narrative, and poetry.

Travel has always been a wellspring of inspiration for Liberty. Meeting people outside of her daily life and learning about their stories gives her new perspectives and ideas. These encounters often spark new ways of working with the fabrics she collects, weaving personal memories with broader cultural narratives.

Finding Eutopia

For many years, Liberty dreamed of participating in an artist residency. As both a parent and high school art teacher, she found that most programs were either too long or at times of the year that didn’t fit her life. “

When I found Eutopia, I was excited to see that it was 3 weeks long and had summer availability – both of which were really feasible for me. It was a new residency at that time, so I was a bit nervous – so I reached out to former residents to ask them about their experiences and unanimously I heard wonderful reports back – so I decided to apply. Having been a mother for 20 years, I knew I needed a restful and self-guided residency, so that was another bonus for me – to get the chance to work at my own pace.”

Creating in Kavala

In Kavala, Liberty began by wandering the city and photographing colors and patterns that caught her eye. She painted the neutral fabrics she had brought from Los Angeles with Kavala-inspired hues, then stitched patterns and poetry into them. In this way, the city became both her subject and her palette, grounding her work in place.

She reflects warmly on her time at the Byron House studio: “The studio was fun to share with my neighbors – one of the other residents and I set up a schedule for ourselves daily – we'd start off each day at the beach, grab lunch on our way back to the studio and spend our afternoons in quiet companionship as we worked. We mostly had on our headphones as we worked, but we took regular breaks to ask each other questions, get coffees and connect. It was the perfect rhythm for rest and inspiration and community.” In the evenings, she and the other residents would come together for meals and conversation, weaving bonds that enriched her residency experience.

Equally important were her encounters with local creatives. “Getting to meet Thomai and see her home and studio, learn about her story and experience her hospitality was a very meaningful thing for me. I also made friends with local artists that I met while out and about in town and I am still in touch with them. Meeting Danai and Ersi and Alex was a true gift. The visits with Ersi were a highlight of each week for me. I looked forward to hearing her wisdom and insight every time we met.”

Process and Themes

As both an artist and an educator, Liberty has developed a process that she teaches around the world: 1) collecting inspiration through photography and observation, 2) sketching ideas freely, including drawings and poetry on post-it notes, and 3) allowing those sketches and writings to shape the direction of her work. At Eutopia, she experienced this process as a complete three-week cycle, from gathering inspiration to producing finished work. “Being at Eutopia gave me the chance to distill that work into a 3 week start-to-finish process that was really exciting to me.”

Environmental consciousness is central to her practice, but so too is her exploration of textiles as carriers of human stories. She sees fabrics as threads of history, connecting industrialization with intimate acts of women’s labor, conservation, and care. Through her art, she returns to themes of memory, justice, grief, history, and the natural world, weaving them into tactile expressions that invite reflection.

Looking Ahead

Liberty is now preparing for a new project in Moldova, where she will teach design students and art educators about her creative process, continuing to expand her impact as both artist and educator. She also continues to showcase her textile-based works in exhibitions, including a recent unexpected opportunity to present her Eutopia-inspired pieces in a Beverly Hills home.

Her website also features a selection of her textile artworks available for purchase, offering collectors and admirers the chance to bring her thoughtful pieces into their own spaces.

Follow her journey and explore more of her work on Instagram @libertyworthart and through her website www.libertyworthart.com.

Her journey at Eutopia reflects how art can emerge from attentive observation, patient processes, and reclaimed materials. It is a story of how discarded fabrics, community, and a city by the sea can together spark artworks that speak to contemporary issues and timeless human connections.