Evening Showcase Artist
Kestrel Michaud
Kestrel Michaud is a classically-trained, imaginative realism fine artist with a passion for illustrating in fabric. She started working with fabric in 2004 as a Junior in high school. By the time she graduated in 2006, Kestrel had developed her own unique style and technique and had completed almost 30 unique fabric pictures. Her work was hanging and selling in galleries across Pennsylvania as part of the National Road Heritage Corridor program. Kestrel had also won more than 50 local, regional, national, and international awards for her artwork, including a Grand Prize for the Student Art Competition at the 62nd World Science Fiction Convention when she was 15 years old.
Kestrel attended the Ringling College of Art and Design. Her senior thesis of six gallery-sized fabric artworks were made entirely from fabric. In 2010, Kestrel graduated with honors and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, having gained an extensive understanding of how to create captivating works of art out of fabric.
Until 2017, Kestrel worked as a full-time graphic designer, working with organizations including Judith Leiber, Kenneth Cole, and NASA. That year, her passion for fabric was reawakened by discovering there were other artists in the world using fabric to create art. Kestrel made her first art quilt in 2018, won her first major award in 2019, and has gone on to win top prizes at quilt shows across the country. In 2021 and 2024, Kestrel won Master Awards at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, and in 2024, she won Best Wall Quilt at AQS Paducah in Kentucky. Her works have also traveled to galleries, museums, and quilt shows across the US and internationally to countries including France, England, South Korea, the Czech Republic, and Australia.
Today, Kestrel works as a full-time, professional quilt artist, exhibiting and selling her work around the world. She also shares her knowledge by teaching her process through Patreon, through live and virtual lectures, and live workshops. In 2023, Kestrel was invited to be a guest on The Quilt Show and Quilting Arts TV. The former was published on July 30, 2023 (episode #3303). The latter aired on PBS in December 2023 (episodes 3001, 3003, 3007). Kestrel and her work have been featured in a number of magazines, including Quilting Arts Magazine, Quiltfolk, and Art Quilting Studio. Her fine art training, creative mind, inventive nature, decades of experience, and unique style make Kestrel’s work unlike that of any other artist.
Kestrel attended the Ringling College of Art and Design. Her senior thesis of six gallery-sized fabric artworks were made entirely from fabric. In 2010, Kestrel graduated with honors and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, having gained an extensive understanding of how to create captivating works of art out of fabric.
Until 2017, Kestrel worked as a full-time graphic designer, working with organizations including Judith Leiber, Kenneth Cole, and NASA. That year, her passion for fabric was reawakened by discovering there were other artists in the world using fabric to create art. Kestrel made her first art quilt in 2018, won her first major award in 2019, and has gone on to win top prizes at quilt shows across the country. In 2021 and 2024, Kestrel won Master Awards at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, and in 2024, she won Best Wall Quilt at AQS Paducah in Kentucky. Her works have also traveled to galleries, museums, and quilt shows across the US and internationally to countries including France, England, South Korea, the Czech Republic, and Australia.
Today, Kestrel works as a full-time, professional quilt artist, exhibiting and selling her work around the world. She also shares her knowledge by teaching her process through Patreon, through live and virtual lectures, and live workshops. In 2023, Kestrel was invited to be a guest on The Quilt Show and Quilting Arts TV. The former was published on July 30, 2023 (episode #3303). The latter aired on PBS in December 2023 (episodes 3001, 3003, 3007). Kestrel and her work have been featured in a number of magazines, including Quilting Arts Magazine, Quiltfolk, and Art Quilting Studio. Her fine art training, creative mind, inventive nature, decades of experience, and unique style make Kestrel’s work unlike that of any other artist.
