Ten fiber artists present their explorations at Gallery 100 beginning September 3. The exhibit showcases the breadth in design and thematic expression possible through fiber techniques. For this exhibit, curators, Millie Danielson and Nancy McKay have chosen artists who challenge traditional boundaries of the medium.
The use of computer technology is evident in the works of weavers, Joyce Lavasseur and Lois Bryant, and of silk painter, Nancy McKay. Millie Danielson has chosen a 3-dimensional viewpoint, notably with her stitched and manipulated paper tiles that resemble pewter. Art quilts and wall pieces here tell a story and bear witness to the world around us. As explored by Jill Ault, Carolyn King, Sandra Kunkle, Michelle Montour, and Karen Turckes, these works incorporate many surface design techniques, embellishments, and non-traditional fabrics. Finally, Jan Waller takes a light-hearted approach with her felted and embellished wall pieces.
“The show is beautiful, funky, and incredible,” said Shawn Personke, director of wellness and PR for Silver Maples. “It’s amazing what can be done with fabric and fiber. Some of the pieces you would have no idea that it’s ‘material’ that is the basis for the piece.”
The show runs through October 30. Hours are Monday through Sunday, 10 am to 5pm. Silver Maples Gallery 100 is located at 100 Silver Maples Dr., Chelsea.
Artist Statements
Jill Ault
Jill has been working in the quilt medium since she retired from Ford Motor Company, where she worked as an accountant. Here she has explored the many ways that fabric can be patterned. One is Shibori, a careful form of tie-dye. Another is called controlled discharge (or color removal). Also, fabric can be patterned by directly drawing on the surface with colored pencil.
Lois Bryant
Lois began weaving at an early age, with serious study at Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills. She specializes in digital Jacquard and multi-harness weaving as well as embroidery, mixed media, and photography. Illusions of depth, luminosity, transparency, and iridescence are hallmarks of her work that can be found in major museums and gracing public spaces locally and throughout the U.S. She has taught at Parsons the New School for Design, University of Michigan, Rhode Island School of Design, Eastern Michigan University and Adrian College.
Millie Danielson
Millie’s curiosity and capacity to problem-solve have fueled her artistic endeavors for over 30 years. Her grasp of design and skillful use of symbolism and abstraction in her religiously-inspired woven tapestries have led to numerous commissions. Original fashion designs have garnered many awards as well. For this exhibit Millie presents her explorations in three-dimensional fiber construction.
Carolyn King
Carolyn comes to the art world via a career in social work. She is “endlessly stimulated by nature and at the same time at peace there. I want my quilts to reflect both of those attributes”. She works from photos using commercial and hand dyed fabric, rayon and invisible threads, beading, hand embroidery and does some painting on here work. She has exhibited widely at local, national, and international exhibitions.
Sandy Kunkle
Sandy frames life by the aesthetics of things. Her memories are filled with color and beauty. This visual orientation to beauty has continued throughout her adulthood. She shares ideas sparked by poetry and reactions to life events intending to bring joy to the viewer. She dyes and creates surface design by positioning cut pieces of cotton, silk, and rayon onto a foundation of cotton and batting, then enhances the surface with stitching and hand-embellishment.
Joyce LaVasseur
Her weaving adventure began in 2007 after retiring. Through weaving, Joyce pursued a lifelong interest in art. She is interested in weaving imagery and velvet. Recently, she has explored using multi-shaft computer-assisted looms and software to create original weaving designs. This has enabled her to incorporate more complex designs into her explorations of color and composition.
Nancy McKay
Residencies at 3 national parks and 2 with the area’s Legacy Land Conservancy have provided Nancy ample opportunity to interpret protected landscapes. Through photography and silk painting she translates her connection to these special places into universal concepts like radiance, joy, stillness, fragility, and peace. To do so, she often invokes connections between seemingly disparate elements as seen in this exhibit – birds with prophesy, turtles with radiators, and geese with stillness.
Michele Montour
Michele feels a strong connection to bodies of water – how water makes up a large part of what we are and what we need to exist. Water yields patterns found in light, sound, brain, and heart waves. Color flows into water-like patterns on silk and merino wool through a Japanese pole-wrapping technique Michele uses called Arashi Shibori. By layering these fabrics, secondary patterns emerge adding dimension and continually present new color combinations and patterns.
Karen Turckes
Karen’s art is about the spirit of the earth. Her work honors its many moods and colors. A favorite subject is water – giver of life, powerful, peaceful, magical and mystical. Karen has honed her skills through formal training in surface design as well as clothing and textiles. She often includes her own one-of-a-kind patterned fabrics in her art quilts.
Jan Waller
This British felter now calls Plymouth, Michigan home. Inspired by life around her, family, fairy stories, folk lore, and womanhood, Jan translates images from her sketchbook into felted wall hangings. She felts with merino, silk, plant fiber, and hand-dyed fabric. Some pieces are further enhanced with needle-felting and embroidery.