Art quilts use the same basic design techniques as the other visual arts, they just use fabrics and embellishments as the medium.
This is Studio Art Quilt Associates's definition:
SAQA defines an art quilt as a contemporary artwork exploring and expressing aesthetic concerns common to the whole range of visual arts: painting, printmaking, photography, graphic design, assemblage and sculpture, which retains, through materials or technique, a clear relationship to the folk art quilt from which it descends.
And this is Quilt National's definition:
The work must possess the basic structural characteristics of a quilt. It must be predominantly fabric or fabric-like material and must be composed of at least two full and distinct layers - a face layer and a backing layer. The face layer may be described by any or a combination of the following terms: pieced, appliqued, whole cloth, stitched/fused to a foundation. The face and backing layers must be held together by hand- or machine-made functional quilting stitches or other elements that pierce all layers and are distributed throughout the surface of the work. At least some of these stitches or elements should be visible on the back of the work. As an alternative, the work may be a modular construction (an assemblage of smaller quilts). Each individual module, however, must meet the above structural criteria.
If your background is in the arts, you have a valuable head start, but it is certainly not mandatory. Quilting Arts Magazine is a good source for new techniques and trends that most readers can successfully master. Learn as much as you can about artistic fundamentals (color, movement, balance, scale, focal point, texture, etc) and quilting fundamentals (piecing, applique, fusing, etc). Then pull out all the stops and let your vision guide you where it will. It's a great ride!! Most of all, have fun! :wink: