Fiber, Fiber Everywhere: Thread Paper Cloth
Although it is not my intention to focus only on fiber art in my posts, lately so much of it has been in my orbit that I’ve set aside other art topics. In May, there were exhibits I visited in Denver, CO. In April, there was a show in Mill Valley, CA. Now there’s one at the Marin County Civic Center, on view from June 6 to August 4, which makes a trip there an encounter with architecture as well.
Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Source: marincounty.org/depts/cu/tours
Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, (1867-1959), the Marin County Civic Center was his last major commission, one that became a national and state historic landmark. Its unusual sculptural sky blue roof, scalloped balconies, and golden spire were the location for the 1997 science fiction movie Gattaca. The entire complex includes an 11-acre lagoon, a 20-acre park, and the Marin Center Auditorium and Exhibition Hall.
The building is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9 am–5 pm, so anyone can enter to view Thread Paper Cloth on the first and third floors. The art pieces gracing the walls and sitting on pedestals were created by Untitled, a group of 8 Bay Area artists who met in Carole Beadle’s fiber sculpture classes at the College of Marin. Individually, they work with different materials, techniques, and conceptual content, transforming traditional craft into contemporary fine art. If you’re in the area, a reception will be held Thursday, July 21, 4-6 pm. Since there are 50 or so works on display, several by each artist, all I can do here is whet your appetite to see everything in person.
Pages from a Life, by Anne Faught. Scroll: fan-folded paper.
Anne Faught calls herself a mixed media artist. She is interested in incorporating “materials that have had a former function: ephemera, maps, tickets, etc., bringing bits of memory and experience into the work.” For her, doing art is the way she integrates experiences: “bringing the outside to the inside, the inside to the outside, the invisible to the visible.” She calls Pages from a Life (images above and below) a paper tapestry. She constructed it after moving from her home of 35 years into a smaller space. As she emptied the attic and sorted box after box of documents, letters, old paintings, mortgage payments, journal pages, receipts, sheet music, etc., she folded the papers, grouped them sequentially, and tied them all together. The resulting scroll is as tall as she is. Having watched her grandmothers and aunts in the Ozarks crochet rag rugs with any available cloth bits, she likens her paper tapestry to those rugs and the instinct to make something from nothing.
Detail of Pages from a Life, by Anne Faught.
Susan Kathleen Doyle enjoys taking recycled materials to explore different views about political, global, and personal issues that concern her and provide inspiration for her work. Her art is inspired by color and relationships, both personal, political, and in nature. She uses traditional fiber techniques in non-traditional ways, such as weaving aluminum or pages from a book, or constructing a dress that has more meaning than simply making a fashion statement.
10,000 Lies, by Susan Doyle.
Detail of 10,000 Lies, by Susan Doyle.
One part of Cake in the Time of Corona and Its Consequences, by Susan Doyle.
Detail from Cake in the Time of Corona and Its Consequences, by Susan Doyle.
Carole Beadle is a fiber sculpture artist who pioneered flax paper, crocheted and knitted wire, and patterning techniques for three-dimensional fabric forms. She has stimulated so many fiber artists to stretch themselves over her many decades of teaching. Creating art is a way to give herself space and time to gather her thoughts and express through materials, structure, and color what is otherwise difficult to articulate with words.
Imprint (Fingerprint), by Carole Beadle. Crocheted wire.
Side view of Imprint (Fingerprint), by Carole Beadle.
Drought, by Carole Beadle. Fabric, wool felt, needle felting.
Teddy Milder is intrigued by the tension that is generated between hard and soft surfaces, and their characteristics of both fragility and strength. She explores inequality, shifting boundaries, and spaces between what is ancient and contemporary, creation and destruction, gentleness and aggression. Her hanging sculpture, no right angles are abstract, is her interpretation of neurons invaded by Lewy bodies, clumps of protein that can form in the brain and cause problems with the way it works, including memory, movement, thinking skills, mood, and behavior. It is a disease attacking her friend Jim, an architect, painter, and photographer. For a closer view, watch this 19-second video:
Detail of no right angles are abstract, by Teddy Milder. Handmade pigmented abaca paper; reed armature.
let me outa here, by Teddy Milder. Handmade pigmented abaca paper; machine and hand stitched thread and embroidery floss.
Detail of let me outa here, by Teddy Milder.
Chris Motley describes her art form as having originated in early childhood, when her mother taught her how to knit. It was a lifelong hobby until she retired from a left-brain career and gradually turned the knitting into abstract sculptural forms. Through them she explores texture, color, and dimension. Her works reflect a mood, an emotion or idea, or a societal condition. Free from any knitting patterns, she lets pieces evolve as they will.
Garden Galaxy Red, by Chris Motley.
Handknit wool, fulled and stitched.
Calm, by Chris Motley. Handknit wool, fulled and stitched.
Detail of Calm, by Chris Motley.
George-Ann Bowers derives “inspiration from visual evidence of biological or geological processes” and celebrates “the infinite intricacies of the natural world.” She employs weaving, hand sewing or free-motion machine embroidery, and mixed media construction to “capture fleeting moments in nature’s continuing cycle of creation, destruction, and change.” She is intrigued by the structure of trees, seed pods, and rock formations. She notices weaving patterns in canyon walls and thrills to the fine lacework of lichens on rock or bark.
Annie Creek, by George-Ann Bowers. Fiber/weaving.
Detail of Annie Creek, by George-Ann Bowers.
Detail of Mallow Pod Cluster,
by George-Ann Bowers.
Katie Richardson processes her thoughts and feelings about disturbing social and political issues through her art. She uses farcical imagery and materials ironically to comment on the status of women, dependence on technology, and acquiescence to terrifying new political norms. Her work protests conformity and celebrates imperfection, in defiance of her earlier graphic design career. She often integrates objects usually taken for granted and abused—rags and socks—as a metaphor for women and other marginalized populations.
Mug Shot Afghan, by Katie Richardson. Crocheted yarn, portraits in gouache on paper.
Detail of Mug Shot Afghan, by Katie Richardson.
Quilted Hide, by Katie Richardson. Hand sewn fabric scraps, socks, leather gloves, yarn.
Roz Ritter calls herself a visual storyteller. Using hand embroidery and digital photo transfer techniques, her fiber art pieces together personal stories that “explore family relationships, transformation, and upheaval” and challenge “social mores, societal expectations, and class structures.”
Journey on a Sugar Cube, by Roz Ritter.
Hand embroidery, photo transfer.
Detail of Journey on a Sugar Cube, by Roz Ritter.
Ode to Freidenreich #2, by Roz Ritter.
Hand embroidery on linen.
Detail of Ode to Freidenreich #2, by Roz Ritter.
I hope you have an opportunity to walk through Marin County Civic Center to peer closely at the many diverse works by Untitled. Given the lighting limitations, no matter how much I try to capture the details, especially of texture, photographs can never replace the experience of being right there with fiber art.
Questions & Comments:
If you have a chance to visit the exhibit, what struck you about it?
If you’re someone who loves fiber art, what is it that draws or intrigues you?
If you prefer paintings and sculptures made of wood, clay, or stone, is it because those materials speak to you more than cloth, thread, paper or yarn? Or is it something else about these art forms?
