Love of fabric lasts a lifetime

There is a piece of fabric Jamie Kirkell weaves into the story of his artistic life.

The personal tale begins with a boy of 12 or 13 years in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He finds himself attracted to girls and turns to colorful fashion as a way to draw attention to himself. He begins writing on his pants, later deciding a new shirt is the best way to woo.

He spots the cloth he must have in the town's most elite clothing store and promises his mom she'll never have to pay for another.

"It was the equivalent to an $80 shirt today, it was maybe $20 then," Kirkell said, relating his boyhood story. "I asked my mother to buy it for me, told her I wouldn't want any other shirt, this is the only thing I want. So she did. I wore that thing until it was threadbare."

He outgrew the shirt but not the attraction to fabrics. It fueled his creativity years later, when he traveled to Indonesia as a member of the Peace Corps and studied the art of painting on silk. Kirkell only realized the connection to his youth, however, when he returned home to stay with his parents.

"I opened a drawer to put some things away and that shirt was on top. It was almost identical to the designs I was studying in Java," he said. "I just looked at it and looked at it and I realized how life comes around."

The trip and its direct connection to one of his true loves - textiles - resulted in a career covering the artist's life and the globe. In addition to collecting fabrics from all over the world, Kirkell, 66, uses the ancient dying technique known as batik to expose kaleidoscopes of color. The shapes he chooses - flowers.

Called "Irises and Orchids at The Garden," Kirkell's latest exhibit will be shown at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia's visitor's center and conservatory Saturday through Feb. 28. Kirkell will attend the opening reception beginning 2 p.m. Sunday and host a "gallery talk" at 3 p.m.

"Gardens are so conducive and so appealing for the organic forms because it's really all about nature there," he said.

In recent years, Kirkell has exhibited at many botanical settings, including gardens in his home city of Sarasota, Fla., as well as those in Orlando, Fla., Brooklyn, N.Y., Memphis, Tenn., and Cleveland. Internationally, his works have been shown in places such as Israel, Canada and South America.

But his conversation always begins with his nearly five years spent in the Phili

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