Hope hangs by a thread in new art exhibit

Posted

Local artists have packed a lot of hope into a tiny space.

A new exhibit of textile art created during the COVID-19 shutdown is now on display in the North Olympic Surface Design Association’s Uptown Port Townsend “Fiber Habit” display window at 675 Tyler St.

The show, called “Isolated Inspirations,” represents a collection of different textile art techniques, and includes hand embroidery, quilting, felting, free-motion and hand stitching, applique, boro, beading, crochet, hand-dyeing, rust-dyeing, resist-dyeing, mixed-media and silk painting.

Work by 15 members of the North Olympic Surface Design Association are on display in the Fiber Habit window, and the pieces are also online at https://sda-np.com/fiber-habit-june-2020.

Linda Carlson, a Sequim artist, said the chapter’s leadership decided to challenge its members to create pieces 8-by-12 inches in size while sheltering at home.

“There was no requirement to speak to the shutdown but, obviously, people did,” Carlson said.

Beyond the pandemic, other pieces in the exhibit were inspired by nature and the environment, the artists’ gardens, and what artists had on hand.

Hope was a theme that recurred in nearly every piece, Carlson noted.

Artists represented include:

Port Townsend:

Leslie Dickinson, “Isolation” and “Pandemic”

Sue Gale, untitled

Pat Herkal, “Hope”

Kindy Kemp, untitled

Debra Olson, “Paper Leaves” and “The 2020 Times”

Janice Speck, “Oranges and Lemon” and “Give a Dog a Bone”

Erika Wurm, “Starret Tufted Puffin”

Marrowstone:

Joyce Gordon, “Rust and Stitch”

Port Ludlow:

Elaine Girard,” Here’s Hope”

Carol Reynolds, untitled

Port Hadlock:

Mary Tyler, untitled

Sequim:

Linda Carlson, “Coppery Strands” and “Inspired by Boro”

Liisa Fagerlund, “Over the Garden Fence” and “Dungeness Moss and Lichen”

Port Angeles:

Evette Allerdings, “Focus”

Barbara Houshmand, “Hanging by a Thread” and “One Last Tree.”

The pieces in the Fiber Habit window will be on view (from the sidewalk) until July 5. Though the pieces are not priced, contact information for the artists is available in the window, or via the website, and most pieces are for sale.

The exhibit was curated by Debra Olson, Sue Gale, and Leslie Dickinson.

Carlson said the stay-home existence has been advantageous for some artists.

She recalled a conversation with Olson, a
Port Townsend artist, who found she could retreat to her studio and work for hours without having to look at her email.

The chapter has about 40 members, and most had careers outside the art world before becoming involved in textile art. Before the COVID-19 shutdown, chapter meetings were held at 2 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at various locations.

For more information on the local chapter, visit https://sda-np.com.