Mary Beth Yates

I met Mary Beth last September at the Plaza Art Fair, in Kansas City. Kim and I blindly invited her to sit with us at the awards brunch on Sunday, not knowing that she was/is a star, and won several prestigious awards! Early on in our chattage, we discovered that we were both fiber artists and members of Surface Design Association. Little did I know that she was very active and involved in the organization, in fact she was coordinating the Members Show! We blah blah’d at the speed of light, like two girls on 10 pots of coffee, and found that we had a ton in common. I confessed that I had always wanted to come to the SDA conference but never had the desire to come to Kansas City! Mary Beth very graciously said that I must come to the conference, and stay with her. So this is exactly what I did for the past two weeks! Unlike “fish and relatives” we had an easy time being roommates. I’m the morning girl, she is night girl. We laughed our asses off, thoroughly enjoying each other’s senses of humor. Her work is gorgeous, mostly on silk organza with beautiful stitching. She has a fantastic studio in the Crossroads District, and perhaps is the one and only person who might have enough horizontal space.

Mary Beth's printing table

She’ll be doing a lot of shows this year, so if you’re in Denver, you can see her at Cherry Creek, or in KC at the Plaza Art Fair. Check out her traveling schedule here.

We attended the SDA fashion show, and here are her shoes. She is probably the Imelda of KC.