Texture
The favorite spice of fiber artists
Even when I worked with fiber and encaustic, I bounced back and forth between letting the wax glow unimpeded versus adding waxed linen and wire to create surface texture. Now that I am creating feathers by screen-printing on fused plastic bags I have started to feel the tidal pull towards adding texture again.
Wandering in the Desert
Every summer I jury a couple hundred applications for the 360 Xochi Quetzal Artist Residency Program. One note I frequently write on applications: work and statement both strong but not integrated. One day I snapped to attention because I realized that my pieces were guilty of this too.
Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga
Long before I met Naomi, I followed her work because she has an uncanny ability to meld the unforgiving hardness of metal with the lyrical softness of thread.
Naomi’s work using weathered sheet metal and crocheted wire thread are autobiographical in the sense that they reflect all of Naomi’s personal history.
El Anatsui
I will be blogging periodically about artists whose work influences mine and why. I’m starting with the Ghanian artist El Anatsui who works in Nsukka, Nigeria. Now internationally reknown, he creates massive wall hung pieces and installations from thousands of bits of recycled metal tied together with copper wire. His work defies categorization and lives […]
Olga de Amaral
I have been mesmerized by the artwork by Olga de Amaral for over 30 years. I first encountered this Columbian artist at Bella Artes Gallery in Santa Fe. I wandered in was instantly captivated by Olga’s work, which like El Anatsui, is a fusion of painting, sculpture and fiber.
Chakaia Booker
Chakaia Booker is the ultimate recycler. Her monumental abstract sculptures using discarded tires embody the ‘making something from nothing’ ethic. Encountering her work is overwhelming. It’s huge. It smells. It’s hard to imagine the physicality required in building with this unforgiving material. Looking at it is exhausting.
It’s also thrilling.
Guadalajara Reporter
Kruger exhibit aims to wake us up “At the opening reception for “Turbulence: Birds, Beauty, Language & Loss,” our minds and eyes were popped open by the colorful, tactile and three-dimensional feathered artwork of Deborah Kruger”. AUGUST 11, 2018GUADALAJARA REPORTER READ REVIEW
Daily Hampshire Gazette
Triangles that echo with myth “…something special, something mythic happens when hands pick up materials like these. Textiles, she demonstrates, are only a step removed from out own bodies in the ways they bend, flex and move.” MARCH 31, 2003DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE READ REVIEW
Greenfield Recorder
Fabric expressions highlight of gallery walk “Working in wax, resin and pigment, applied to neatly cut slices of colorful fabric, Kruger’s fascination with the basic geometry of the triangular form yields a visceral projection of feminine energy that is erotically charged and a marvel of multi-layered design.” NOVEMBER 11,2003GREENFIELD RECORDER READ REVIEW
2011 RECYCLABILITY SALON: World Textile Association Biennial Fiber Conference
About: The theme of this year’s International Biennial Fiber Conference is AIRE. The Recyclability Salon will feature 57 artists addressing the theme of recycling in their artwork. Dates: May 28 – July 28, 2011 Location: Centro de Las Artes de San Augustin, Oaxaca, Mexico Jurors: Teresa Vicencio, Mexico; Julian Ruesga Bono, Spain; Barbara Layne, Canada […]