As I shared last week, I am in a four person show at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in Hamilton, Ohio.
This show, called fiber, is a creative exploration of what is fiber and color, and furthermore, what do four very different approaches to fiber and color look like together?
I decided that while many of you won’t be able to see the show, I can bring the show to you.
I shared Jonpaul Smith’s work last week in this blog post.
Today, I’d like to share Dorothy McGuinness’s work. As residents of the northwest, Dorothy and I have previously shown our work together in the Bellevue Arts Museum’s Biennial High Fiber Diet. Dorothy’s work is beautiful, complex, and unusual–every time I see her work, I am amazed at the twists and turns of the shapes. How does she do that?
For this post, I’ve used some images I took of the actual show along with some professionally photographed images and Dorothy’s own words about her work. Here we go.
After 27 years of exploring the woven form, I have mastered the art of diagonal twill, with which I create forms and structures not normally found in the basketry world.
My medium for this unique work is watercolor paper, which I’ve painted and cut into very narrow uniform strips to achieve the precision I seek.
Approaching my work as a puzzle drives me to discover new shapes and weaving innovations. I often think, “How will it work out if I try this, or how can I get this shape or pattern combination? What if I use these colors in this combination in this order? What if…”
I am also very much interested in the math and geometric constraints of the work.
Using hundreds of strips of paper at a time, I explore new structural forms: multiple woven units, asymmetrical corners, weaving opposite corners together, multiple-stepped corners in tandem that add structure to the work.
This creates a singular look to the pieces, building unique and intriguing forms that are encoded with energy and elegance. I am intrigued by the potential outcome of any new design.
The evolution of my body of work is built on taking risks, and avoiding the “known”. The risks offer challenges, which often lead to new directions.
This is the excitement that keeps me working in a repetitive medium: it is an on-going meditation on improvisation, a continual experiment through which my work can progress and develop.
Dorothy’s final words really resonate with me. Weaving and quilting are both repetitive/ process based art forms. It is the within that repetition that the new can emerge. Isn’t that lovely?
If you would like to experience more of these beautifully colored, exotically shaped weavings, you can by visiting Dorothy’s website.
Tomorrow, the wildly imaginative work of Christine Sauer.
Unique and very interesting!She has to have the patience of a saint!
I agree Sue. Dorothy’s work is so surprising–how does she get paper to do that?