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Fiber artist, potter
display in gallery

Artist’s Statement – Guillermo Cuellar

I make everyday pots to live within the home, objects that contribute to the texture of daily life. In simple pieces like teapots, coffee cups or cereal bowls, I relish the delightful, surprising interaction of elements and forms of diverse origins. I hope the pots provide as much enjoyment in their use as the pleasure and anticipation they bring me in the making.

Artist’s Statement – Nancy MacKenzie

I’ve always drawn, painted and constructed things, but fiber art was not a concept in my college days. When I took my first surface design workshop in 1983, I began to see new possibilities for creating pattern on cloth that could become art, whether on the body, table or wall. In 1984 I took a workshop in roketsu-zome (wax and dye in Japanese) and became hooked on combining painting with garment construction. The great pleasure in this labor-intensive process is in the flow of the wax and dye from a Japanese brush into the fabric. I began to sell my scarves and garments and identify myself as a fiber artist.

When I could devote full time to my art, I began to make wearables that projected social commentary and were more concerned with message than utility. Experimenting with only marginally wearable materials such as barbed wire and baling twine led me off the body and onto the wall where three-dimensional structure is uninhibited by the need to move arms or sit down. Constructing wall pieces opened up new avenues of aesthetic and technical challenge and experimentation. However, since an initial idea grows and changes in the process of construction, what begins as a wearable frequently metamorphoses into a wall piece and vice versa.

My recent work includes wall pieces as well as wearables that have become increasingly sculptural. The baling twine that I collect from my neighbor’s fence posts serves my delight in scavenging and recycling. When it’s sewn into channels, it stiffens soft fabrics and encourages sculptural manipulation. It invites combination with my hand-dyed textiles as well as selections from my hoard of commercial fibers and found objects such as recycled plastic nettings, wine corks, pyrometric cones, plastic industrial tubing, coffee filters and twigs. I enjoy the challenge of improvising techniques to solve the engineering and aesthetic problems that emerge in the process of construction.

I’m fascinated with the process of transforming mundane materials into unique and ambiguous forms that are subject to individual interpretation. I produce one-of-a-kind pieces that are designed to engage the eye over many years of intimate observation. (Photo by Petronella Ytsma)