I began working with wool in 2005 to create sculptured textiles and wearable art. I turned to wool because of its color, warmth, and sociability after a long period of working with mild steel. I discovered that wool, with its pliability and saturated palette, is similar to other fine art mediums like paint and clay. I enjoy exploring wool and other fibers as a fine art medium and felting techniques in particular which involve wool's natural ability to matte together or to be enmeshed using barbed needles to create dense materials. Wool has an ancient history that has only recently been rediscovered; I try to engage with it and to fully explore its artistic implications.
I begin on a flat surface by laying out the fiber in painterly fields of color. I then use hot soapy water to bind the fibers together by hand and with rollers in a process similar to sculpting with clay. Finally, I embellish each work using a barbed needle to enmesh fibers into the surface of the felted work to create a desired illusion. I enjoy the journey that each piece entails and the variety, effect, and visual resolution of the fibers involved. When I work with wire or steel to create an armature for sculptures, I rely on my experience working with metal and enjoy a lyrical and spontaneous approach to building the form that will later be transformed with felted fiber. When I approach felting in a painterly way, I enjoy the textures and juxtapositions of materials and the dynamics of color and form.
Conceptually, these pieces are a mix of responding to real-world events, autobiographical experiences, and revisiting historical themes. I usually choose a familiar (or totemic) subject/object for discrete sculptural pieces: a doll, a brain, a dodo bird. I choose subjects that can be a springboard for multiple themes: history, memory, nostalgia, feminism, commercialism, and an ecology that evokes an impending future. In this way, I try to create a contemporary body that speaks to living in the present moment. These pieces are like poems, allowing me to express particular stories that are slightly obscured by the aesthetics of form, colors and alluring textures.
Conceptually, these pieces are a mix of responding to real-world events, autobiographical experiences, and revisiting historical themes. I usually choose a familiar (or totemic) subject/object for discrete sculptural pieces: a doll, a brain, a dodo bird. I choose subjects that can be a springboard for multiple themes: history, memory, nostalgia, feminism, commercialism, and an ecology that evokes an impending future. In this way, I try to create a contemporary body that speaks to living in the present moment. These pieces are like poems, allowing me to express particular stories that are slightly obscured by the aesthetics of form, colors and alluring textures.