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‘Fiber Revolution’ makes statement at Port Angeles Fine Arts Center

Published 1:30 am Friday, September 15, 2017

By Peninsula Daily News

Michelle Johnson creates felted garments. This piece, a shawl entitled “Plant Dance,” has been created from various breeds of wool combined with silk using the nuno-felting process. It’s eco-printed with varieties of local fresh leaves and branches. Johnson says the materials were carefully gathered with the hopes of having the plants’ energy embrace the wearer.
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Michelle Johnson creates felted garments. This piece, a shawl entitled “Plant Dance,” has been created from various breeds of wool combined with silk using the nuno-felting process. It’s eco-printed with varieties of local fresh leaves and branches. Johnson says the materials were carefully gathered with the hopes of having the plants’ energy embrace the wearer.

Michelle Johnson creates felted garments. This piece, a shawl entitled “Plant Dance,” has been created from various breeds of wool combined with silk using the nuno-felting process. It’s eco-printed with varieties of local fresh leaves and branches. Johnson says the materials were carefully gathered with the hopes of having the plants’ energy embrace the wearer.
Cathie Wier’s “Turbulence” is a handwoven installation done on a 4- shaft loom using stainless steel thread, copper thread, monofilament, polyester thread and armature wire in a technique called “doubleweave.” Her inspiration is the wild rivers of the Olympics. In the smooth flowing eddies she sees subtle evidence of the tidepools that develop and flow by.
Joyce Wilkerson’s “Low Tide Study” combines her photography with drawing and stitching, using pencil, ink, oil pastels, colored pencil and cotton thread on paper. In this piece, which was inspired by a walk at low tide, she found the seaweed and sand patterns as a textural element and incorporated the woven structures to enhance them.
Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry’s quilted “Citric Abstraction” is a designinspired by citric acid crystals photographed under a microscope. Gentry says it looked like an abstract expressionist painting.She reinterpreted the concept of paper piecing and construction in the quilt world, and this is an excellent example of her process. In the quilting, she used dozens of different colors of thread, shading each area with at least two different colors, often contrasting with the colors underlying fabrics. The quilting zigzags in straight lines suggest the crystalline structure that inspired the design.

PORT ANGELES — Thirty-nine diverse pieces from 26 artists will take residence in the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center on Saturday.

The only common thread is the medium: fiber.

For example, a knitted piece of copper wire might be displayed next to a wool garment dyed with local botanicals. Both accept the term “fiber art.”

“For the past several years, Fiber Art has veered towards a new, exciting direction,” curator Jeannie McMacken writes. “Traditional materials and time-honored techniques have taken on an innovative, bending-of-the-boundaries rewrite resulting in fresh approaches — a revolution of sorts for this medium.”

Aptly named “Fiber Revolution,” the show opens at 5 p.m. Saturday at the fine arts center, 1203 Lauridsen Blvd., with an opening reception and talk. The exhibit will be on display until Nov. 15.

More than just cloth and thread, artists make their statements through woven, cast, sewn, quilted, embroidered, welded, woven and wearable pieces.

Humble items such as newspaper and repurposed plastic junk hang comfortably next to quilts constructed with innovative piecing and an installation of a double weave method featuring hair-fine threads with a twist.

Some techniques involved include felting, paper-making, hand stitching, beading, metal work, collage, weaving, photography, welding, eco-printing, dyeing, thread painting, discharging and overdyeing.

Materials vary from bamboo to inks to antique lace.

“The art in ‘Fiber Revolution’ communicates some sort of message, emotion or meaning that goes beyond the literal,” said Diana Gipson, co-chair and exhibitor.

“In addition to the statements being made, it’s worthwhile to study the execution and techniques in order to put the work in context.”

For more information about “Fiber Revolution” and upcoming exhibits and programs at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, visit www.pafac.org or call 360-457-3532.

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