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March Issue 2004
Folk Art Center in Asheville, NC, Features Works by Lizabeth Shannon and Marilyn Sharp
Works by weaver and designer Lizabeth Shannon and baskets by Marilyn Sharp are being featured in the Focus Gallery at the Folk Art Gallery in Asheville, NC, from Mar. 6 through Apr. 27, 2004.
Shannon, a local artist who recently relocated to Oneonta, NY, seeks natural, elemental materials that have been used throughout the ages to create her one-of-a-kind pieces. The works on view incorporates wool, alpaca, organically grown cotton and natural dyes indigo, madder and iron.
Designing handwoven wearables is a second career for Shannon who worked for 13 years in the textile industry. To acquire the skills necessary to become a professional handweaver, she attended the craft program at Haywood Community College in Clyde, NC, in 1999. She is now self-employed as a production weaver, instructor and designer, and she makes and markets textured scarves, wraps and woven garments. One of her pieces was recently acquired for the permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.
The fabrics in the exhibit illustrate Shannon's latest efforts to expand her design vocabulary. Geometry Shawl utilizes alpaca in natural colors. Two scarves Twister and Puzzler combine natural black alpaca with merino wool colored with natural dyes. The fabrics have two distinct layers and the wool shrinks more than the alpaca creating undulating shapes. Shannon intentionally makes fabrics that are monochromatic but physically and visually textural. The colors in the Harvest Wrap are an evolutionary step in the development of her style with both the cotton and the wool dyed with natural dyes. The exhibit includes samples of the fabrics that may be handled and inspected more closely by visitors to the gallery.
Basketmaker Marilyn Sharp's work has been influenced by her travels throughout this country, Canada and part of the Orient. She blends cultures for her unique style executed through precise workmanship. Sharp has invested years of study and experimentation in drawing, painting, sculpture and fiber arts to develop her techniques and expresses the theme of her work as "creatively reinterpreting Native American arts."
Sharp's unique baskets are wrapped forms made by ti-twining, a method she learned while living in Washington State. She seeks symmetry, simplicity of sharp and restraint in form and scale in each of her pieces. The baskets include paper rush, waxed thread, wire and beads and the artist wants the wrapping process to be visible to viewers.
The Southern Highland Craft Guild is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1930 to bring together the crafts and craftspeople of the Southern Highlands for the benefit of shared resources, education, marketing and conservation. The Southern Highland Craft Guild is authorized to provide services at the Blue Ridge Parkway's Folk Art Center under the authority of a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Center at 828/298-7928 or on the web at (www.southernhighlandguild.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.