Laurie Fagen is creative across multiple media. Music and theatre have been a big part of her life, both as a child and now as an adult. She enjoys writing and has written several crime fiction novels. And, you’ll also find her creating visual art with textiles and found objects.
When did you first realize you are a creative person?
My creativity has ebbed and flowed since I was young.
Music and theatre were big parts of my life in elementary and high school, but I was also on several athletic teams. It wasn’t until I was an adult that visual arts came into my life in a big way.
Music was encouraged at an early age when I’d sing with my mother and the congregation at church. Apparently I wrote short stories in elementary school, given the old pages I’ve discovered in my archives, but my memory is fuzzy about those times.
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However I went on to learn clarinet and sing in choir in fifth grade, and continued in chorus, madrigals, and performed in school plays as well.
I played a variety of wind instruments through high school, and was named Outstanding Vocal Musician and Outstanding Instrumental Musician my senior year.
I majored in theatre for a couple of years at Drake University, but saw too many of our graduates going to New York but returning in a short time to work in bars and restaurants. I decided I didn’t want to be a starving artist, so I finished my education at Arizona State University in Radio & Television.
I started my broadcasting career at KTAR Radio in Phoenix while still going to college, and the station hired me full time when I graduated.
But the lure of television beckoned me back to my home state of Iowa where I worked for KWWL-TV, an NBC affiliate in Waterloo as a reporter, photographer, editor, anchor and much more. After three years of small market experience, I returned to my beloved Arizona to work for the City of Phoenix in their Public Information Office, eventually founding and running The Phoenix Channel, the City’s government access TV channel. I spent about six years there, with a $1 million budget, 11 full timers, 30 part timers, a 24-foot remote truck and 24/7 programming.
I also started writing spec TV and movie scripts, a call from Universal’s Programming Department was an ego boost. She told me my “Magnum, PI” script was well written, had great dialogue and that I had nailed the characters. But the show’s star, Tom Selleck has just announced he was not going to return for another season, and they were already committed for the rest of the season.
I started performing in professional and community theatre during this time, working my job during the day and singing and dancing in musicals at night.
When the cable TV job became more administrative, I left to start my first business- Word Painting, as a writer/producer/director for corporate video, which I did for about 12 years. I also allowed me to work out of our house when our one-and-only child came along.
It was while our son was watching Barney for the 19th time and I needed something to do that I learned hand appliqué and hand quilting. A few years later, I started my second business- Fagen Designs, to support my “addiction” to fabric and thread.
I often quip that I have a “short attention span,” but the writing, singing and fiber art all ended up being integral parts of my life. While each art medium is distinct, it allows me to be creative a great deal of my waking time.
In addition to my art, I have published several crime fiction mysteries, and will publish a new mystery thriller in 2025 called “Raw Image.”
In thinking about your fiber art, what different creative media do you use in your work?
I have primarily been working with commercial and hand dyed fabrics for about 30 years, using various methods of surface design and heavily machine quilting. One of my latest series has been taking my original photographs, having them printed on cotton sateen, silk or other fabrics then “thread painting” them with rayon and metallic threads.
I am in the process of moving away from art quilts and going to mixed media, which can incorporate a wide variety of mediums including fiber, paper, yarn, ephemera and much more.
When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?
I am definitely a “plotter” when it comes to writing, and generally outline my chapters so I know where I’m going. However, my characters often “talk” to me and tell me to go a different direction than I had planned — and usually it’s better!
With fiber art, it’s more organic. Sometimes I have an idea based on a specific call for art and other times when I audition fabric, it, too, “tells” me what it wants to be.
I’m inspired by life and things around me. Some of the tales in my crime fiction novels are loosely based on actual stories I covered during my radio and television career. In others I just make stuff up, which is very freeing!
For my art, I’m inspired by the medium, and often by whatever I’m feeling at the moment.
Describe your creative space.
I was very fortunate to take over what would’ve been the dining room of our house we built in 1999 as my office and fiber studio. I have a great set up with windows that face the backyard and a beautiful greenbelt and plenty of space for storage, thanks to lots of cabinets and drawers, designed for me and the space. Since my son moved out I’ve taken over a couple other rooms for a recording studio and my polymer clay/mixed media studio.
Scraps. Saver? Or be done with them?
I’m a saver. I even save many of the ends of threads, put them in a little box then periodically use them as “confetti” and “entrap” them under tulle netting in a fiber piece. I have a box of “mish mash” — just various things I’ve saved over the years — and they often end up in quilts or mixed media pieces.
How do you manage your creative time? Do you schedule start and stop times? Or work only when inspired?
I have always been a scheduler. I know when I make time on my calendar for a project, it has a 50-50 chance of getting done. Not on the calendar? it probably won’t happen.
I typically write or do marketing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, from 9 to 1, then go on with my day and any appointments needed.
I am able to break down a project into portions that go on my calendar, back-timed from the due date, and I do believe it’s how I get as much done as I do. I also don’t need much sleep so that helps!
What plays in the background while you work? Silence? Music, audiobooks, podcasts, movies? If so, what kind?
When I’m quilting or doing polymer clay or mixed media projects, I often listen to audiobooks by mystery or thriller authors. When I’m writing, I usually have mostly instrumental spa or new age music to listen to. Watching TV or movies is my relaxation time at the end of an evening.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
I’m almost always working on multiple fiber projects at a time, and often a writing project or two as well. I can easily move back and forth between the mediums and pick up where I left off.
How has your work evolved over the years?
I have had a few artistic and personal epiphanies recently.
After 30 years making art quilts, with varied degrees of success, I am moving to smaller mixed media pieces, and will most likely still use fabric but other mediums in those creations.
I have concerns about our economy and the world in general for the next few years, so I am also rethinking how I want to spend my volunteer hours. I have enjoyed my association with several different nonprofit organizations, and have been on the boards of several. But with ongoing issues such as abused children, homelessness, childhood cancer and more, I have decided to use my fabric to make charity quilts for ill and traumatized children and veterans; and will use the yarn I have “collected” for years to make caps and scarves for the homeless. No meetings; no committees; projects I can do at home in my studio.
As a long-time singer and musician, I am happy to be back singing with the Valley Unitarian Universalist’s VUU Ensemble, and performing solos from time to time.
As a writer, I’m debating about whether I have more crime fiction novels in me, or whether I want to move to a different type of writing. To be determined!
Where can people see your work?
After many years of creating and managing three different websites for art, books and music, with the assistance of my talented son, I merged the three into one site, where the urls all are directed to the one place:
My artwork can be seen at www.FagenDesigns.com as well as on Facebook and Instagram as Laurie Fagen Designs.
My writing website is www.ReadLaurieFagen.com and I’m on Facebook and Instagram as Read Laurie Fagen.
My singing information is at www.LaurieFagen.com.
Interview posted May 2025
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