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May Issue 2010
Caldwell Arts
Council in Lenoir, NC, Features Works by Jeana Eve Klein, Sharron
Parker, Lindsay Rogers
The Caldwell Arts Council in Lenoir, NC, will present the exhibit, New Threads, featuring works by textile artists Jeana Eve Klein (Assistant Professor, Fibers, Art Department, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC), Sharron Parker (a Raleigh, NC felt-maker for 30 years), and Lindsay Rogers (Hickory, NC). This exhibit will open on May 7 and continues through May 28, 2010.
Jeana Eve Klein
Abandoned houses inspire Jeana Eve Klein. She thinks about the individuals who once lived there, what their stories were, and why those stories weren't important enough to be preserved. She wonders when the first broken window was left unfixed, when the first roof tile wasn't replaced, and why the former inhabitants fled. Souvenirs, mementos and family heirlooms inspire her. Each has its own story, its own history.
Klein makes works of fiction, colored by her own true stories. She relies on the inherent narrative qualities of tangible objects with their own histories. She explores the boundary between abandonment and preservation; the intersection of personal stories and broader histories. Klein's process is obsessive, as she layers recycled fabric from her grandmother's church quilting group with painting and dyes and stitching. Through these layers, she captures the subtle stories that might otherwise be lost ... or may never have existed at all.
Sharron Parker (detail)
As a child Sharron Parker says she chased butterflies, scrambled over rocks, and read romantic tales of faraway places. Years later, she studied butterflies and rocks, and traveled to many of the places the Amazon rain forest, craggy cliffs with castle ruins, remote island beaches and has never lost the wonder of them. Yet exotic beauty can be found everywhere. She uses the ancient technique of felt-making, not to capture what she's seen directly, but to create something new. The simplicity of the technique combing, layering, and working dyed un-spun wool in hot water until the fibers lock allows Parker to work spontaneously, and often experimentally. The shape of a piece might come from a bird's wing, the color from crystals under a microscope, and the texture from the bark of a birch tree. Her wish is to celebrate nature, not to mirror it.
Lindsay Rogers
Lindsay Rogers chooses to use traditional textile techniques which require patience and an intimacy with the process. Almost every layer or element of these pieces has been made through an accumulation of detail. This slow, rhythmic and structurally repetitive process is parallel to the meticulous and enduring growth of nature. Rogers makes large, loosely knitted fabrics, "lashes" created from layers of thread embroidered with a sewing machine, and various shades and consistencies of paper pulp used similarly to paint or clay. These elements are cut, arranged, sorted, and/or stiffened to create her palette of textures and marks.
For further information
check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Council
at 828/754-2486 or visit (www.caldwellarts.com).
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