PORT ANGELES — Thirty-nine diverse pieces from 26 artists will take residence in the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center on Saturday.
The only common thread is the medium: fiber.
For example, a knitted piece of copper wire might be displayed next to a wool garment dyed with local botanicals. Both accept the term “fiber art.”
“For the past several years, Fiber Art has veered towards a new, exciting direction,” curator Jeannie McMacken writes. “Traditional materials and time-honored techniques have taken on an innovative, bending-of-the-boundaries rewrite resulting in fresh approaches — a revolution of sorts for this medium.”
Aptly named “Fiber Revolution,” the show opens at 5 p.m. Saturday at the fine arts center, 1203 Lauridsen Blvd., with an opening reception and talk. The exhibit will be on display until Nov. 15.
More than just cloth and thread, artists make their statements through woven, cast, sewn, quilted, embroidered, welded, woven and wearable pieces.
Humble items such as newspaper and repurposed plastic junk hang comfortably next to quilts constructed with innovative piecing and an installation of a double weave method featuring hair-fine threads with a twist.
Some techniques involved include felting, paper-making, hand stitching, beading, metal work, collage, weaving, photography, welding, eco-printing, dyeing, thread painting, discharging and overdyeing.
Materials vary from bamboo to inks to antique lace.
“The art in ‘Fiber Revolution’ communicates some sort of message, emotion or meaning that goes beyond the literal,” said Diana Gipson, co-chair and exhibitor.
“In addition to the statements being made, it’s worthwhile to study the execution and techniques in order to put the work in context.”
For more information about “Fiber Revolution” and upcoming exhibits and programs at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, visit www.pafac.org or call 360-457-3532.
Joyce Wilkerson’s “Low Tide Study” combines her photography with drawing and stitching, using pencil, ink, oil pastels, colored pencil and cotton thread on paper. In this piece, which was inspired by a walk at low tide, she found the seaweed and sand patterns as a textural element and incorporated the woven structures to enhance them.
Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry’s quilted “Citric Abstraction” is a designinspired by citric acid crystals photographed under a microscope. Gentry says it looked like an abstract expressionist painting.She reinterpreted the concept of paper piecing and construction in the quilt world, and this is an excellent example of her process. In the quilting, she used dozens of different colors of thread, shading each area with at least two different colors, often contrasting with the colors underlying fabrics. The quilting zigzags in straight lines suggest the crystalline structure that inspired the design.
