Photography, Meet Fiber

So how do these two go together?

My first creative pursuit was being taught to quilt by my mother and a friend’s mother in high school. I loved seeing the neat lines of stitches emerge from the sewing machine and the visible progress of piecing together a quilt top. The grids and patterns of quilts gave me a structure to work within that I experimented with color gradients and small patterns - a theme that continues in my work today.

In college, my interest turned to photography. I moved from Texas to Vermont and was inspired by the conspicuous minimalism of the snowy winters there. I taught myself how to use my father’s Nikkormat film camera. My first photography exhibit was at Middlebury College during my senior year, where I displayed twenty photographs from a summer working with wolves in southern Arizona. From there, I continued taking pictures and exhibiting work in solo and group shows in Oklahoma.

I was fortunate to serve on the Board for 108 | Contemporary in Tulsa, Oklahoma and began to see incredible work done in fine craft and with fiber in particular. It reminded me of my quilting days but showed me how much more could be done with the medium. After a few years of marinating ideas, I proposed an installation series of installations at a gallery in Tulsa.

My first fiber exhibit was Levels and Evens at AHHA Tulsa in Winter 2017. I created four ceiling-based installations, one representing each season. Wall pieces were the color studies that complemented those hanging works. I integrated photography into the fabric leaves by printing some photographs onto fabric and using that fabric as the backing for the leaves in Spring.

Several of the pieces from Levels and Evens have been permanently installed: Fall at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Winter at a private residence in Tulsa. I have also created several commission of fiber installations for private residences.

In early 2019 I installed the largest installation yet at The Gathering Place in Tulsa, Oklahoma entitled Cambria. They were looking for a piece to be installed on the chain link fence covering the walls of their conference room. I fabricated over twelve thousand layered leaves for over fifteen linear feet of fence for this piece and installation took nine days. Although this piece is not in an area open to the public, images can been seen here.

Throughout the season of installations I have continued photography and have combined the fiber work and photographic work where I can. My future visual artwork will include a deeper integration of these two disciplines and some examples can be found here.