Luxury Organic Home Textiles Inspired by Art

NOELLE ANDERSON

“Art is the highest form of hope.” This renowned quote, articulated by painter Gerard Richter in 1982, states the power of art in its most simple form. That is, art has a unique ability to provide us with faith — faith in people, ideas, and the world around us. Artists themselves have an ability to captivate and inspire people across intersections of identity, opening up an extensive and beautiful platform to speak their truth. Linda Cabot takes this sentiment to a whole new meaning through her sustainable, art-inspired textiles. It all started with one breezy abstract watercolor painting that inspired so much more. Linda has painted our natural world with oils, encaustics, and watercolors for over 30 years. Her love for the environment, paired with an unwavering commitment to celebrate and protect it, drives her vivid landscape paintings. Paintings where you can feel the wind whistling through tall blades of field grass. Paintings where you can hear the ocean lapping against a cool, jagged rock. Paintings where you feel the earth. And feel hope.

Linda Cabot hails from Massachusetts and has found incredible inspiration in the rustic beauty of the New England landscape. Perhaps most influential is the small island of North Haven off the coast of Rockland, Maine. A community of fishers, farmers, teachers, and small business owners make up the small Fox island. Linda has spent summers on North Haven her entire life. The island boasts beauty that is both subtle and dramatic, gentle and raw… encompassing amazing colors, from the deep blue-green of the Penobscot Bay to the pinks and corals of sunsets and beach roses. Below is just one of the many paintings Linda has made to capture such beauty.

From this watercolor alone, all of the prints present in Linda Cabot Design’s ‘North Haven Picnic Collection’ were born! To create the textiles in this collection, Linda creates patterns derived from various elements and flourishes from the painting. That may mean a horizon line turns into a striped motif, or a small flower from a field becomes a punchy pink floral repeat—each pattern is digitally printed in an eco-friendly technique. Kate Carrabba, the team’s operation manager will perfect color, scale, repeat and pattern coordination along the way.

These are textiles from art inspired by nature – an unprecedented amalgamation of earth, art, and utility. Linda Cabot Design’s first ever collection is just like the island of North Haven itself, many things at once — dynamic. The products are fresh and vibrant, yet also cozy and delicate.

Linda believes that to make a product truly inspired by nature, that product must also work to preserve nature. Linda Cabot Design textiles are made from 100% organic cotton. Conventional cotton is a toxic crop that accounts for nearly half of total pesticide use in developing countries. Up to 77 million cotton workers suffer poisoning from pesticides each year. Additionally, the intensive pesticides and fertilizers necessary in conventional cotton production often drain into water systems. Lastly, conventional cotton uses a huge amount of water: an average of 11,000 liters for 1 kilogram of cotton produced. Organic cotton does not use these dangerous pesticides and has a 98% less severe water-pollution impact. Linda Cabot Design, therefore, helps to save farmer’s lives, precious water, and the environment. These textiles are a purchase you can actually feel good about.

Linda Cabot set out to celebrate our earth in her early landscape paintings. That original artwork is now being repurposed into usable textiles. Not only is the art more livable and practical, but it also continues to live on in new ways. This time, in a way that not only celebrates the earth but also protects it. Linda Cabot Design believes that producers should create and produce ethically. That responsibility is reflected in the product. That, more than anything else, epitomizes hope. Hope for farmers, for workers, for water, for land. For art!