AUBURN -- According to Donna Lamb, the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center's director, a trunk show is when an artist gathers up a bunch of pieces to show off their work.

"A lot of designers do trunk shows," Lamb said. "It is a pretty common thing. It gives the artist a chance to show their work and talk about it. It is sort of a show and tell."

On Sunday, the art center hosted Melissa Craven Fowler, an Ithaca-based quilter, who brought a number of her pieces to show and discuss the evolution of her craft and the inspiration behind many of them.

"She has had several pieces hung here," Lamb said. "Every year we pick three or four to come and show their work and she is a very accomplished artist who has worked in a variety of styles and we are very pleased to have her with us."

Fowler brought numerous quilts, chronologically organized to show her personal journey from a beginning quilter to her present stage of creativity and success.

Fowler talked about attending a Quilting by the Lake workshop, during which she pushed her abilities as an artist to what she believed were then her limits.

"I was there from 7 a.m. to midnight cutting fabric," Fowler said. "But by the time I was done, the instructor said some not so nice things. After that I was totally blocked for six months. I didn't know where I was going or who I was or what I was doing."

But this period in the doldrums only served to strengthen her reserve and helped her become a better artist.

"Slowly I started working with fabrics," Fowler said. "And I was pleased with what I was doing. What I learned from that whole experience is that this isn't something that just leaps from out of your heart."

From that point on, Fowler has found inspiration in many forms, whether it is the paper cut work of Matisse or from her own life experiences.

Fowler addressed the idea of creativity and how an artist is impacted by everything they see and that those influences are often reflected in an individual's art.

"I asked a friend who is a professional sculptor," Fowler said. "I asked her if that was all her own work and she said no, to look at the posted on the wall and how that had influenced her. I don't think any artist isn't influenced by other artists."

Through many serendipitous moments, Fowler has found herself pushing her art in new directions and finding new influences in various mediums including paints and photography that have allowed her to express her own voice more clearly.

"I had one workshop for landscapes," Fowler said. "After I had all these Finger Lakes shaped pieces and I started arranging them and after I had this enormous starburst piece. I thought then that I had found myself, that that was the first piece I had done that was all mine."

But art is a constant state of flux and Fowler has continued to push forward.

"My sculptor friend asked if I sold any of my pieces," Fowler said. "She told me that I had to get rid of them or nothing new, no new inspiration was going to come to me."

For Fowler, every piece she creates is a highly emotional one that expresses a piece of herself and often she finds others can relate to as well.

"I made a piece called 'I'm Going to Dance on This World,'" Fowler said. "For a friend who was going through breast cancer that was very personal for her, because she didn't know if she was every going to dance again. Art is like poetry we all read it with our own experiences and it may be something the artist didn't even intend, but it is what we each as individuals bring to it that helps us relate and take something away from the piece."