Arts Alive San Antonio

A visit to the Fiber Artists of San Antonio’s Annual Juried Exhibit, Rooted in Fiber: The Natural Textures of Texas, is well worth your time.  Held at the University of the Incarnate Word’s Semmes Gallery, the show runs through November 14, Monday- Friday, 10:00 AM- 5:00- PM. 

Paula Owen, artist and President Emerita of Southwest School of Art, juried the exhibit. 39 Texas artists present 61 pieces constructed from a wide range of media, including natural fibers, carboard, canvas, wire, pain, and cloth. All highlight personal and communal connections to nature.

“This exhibition reveals the incredible breadth of creativity in Texas through materials both humble and extraordinary,” explained Exhibition Committee chair Zet Baer.

What makes this exhibit stand out is the artists’ inspirations and creativity to incorporate common leaves, and even trash. Their combination of techniques to merge color and texture create surprising beauty. Even Polly Boren Hansen’s hand-felted winners’ ribbons were saturated with fall colors that harken back to the exhibit’s theme. 

Polly also presented “Monarch Metamorphosis,” which illustrates the lifecycle of monarch butterflies on a hand-felted background.  Polly states, “I was inspired initially by pearl milkweed fibers she collected a year ago.  When I saw the theme of the exhibit, I knew what I could use it for.  I had also taken a class on on working with stained glass.  The way arches are constructed in glass led me to include the trellis “on which I incorporated needle felted winding milkweed vines that supported bead-tipped pearl milkweed flowers, a dried seed pod containing the milkweed fibers, and a monarch caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly.”  To find the right perfect colors and movement, Polly blended wool, silk fibers, Angelina fibers, and silk threads.

Like Polly, Shirley Morehring discovered her inspiration in fibers from plants grown in Texas.  “I had grown cotton from seeds a friend gave me. The cotton bolls reminded me that cotton grew in the Panhandle,” she explained. This was the inspiration that led to “Tex-Tures,” an intricate map of Texas set on a background of decoupaged teabags. This detailed piece took the artist 3-4 months to finish because she needed to layer tiny pieces of paper and attach them though free motion stitching.  The brown-dyed cotton found its way onto the Panhandle, while wool appears in the Hill Country, where she found it.

Shirley was also in charge of a smaller piece exhibit themed “Unexpected Art Created from Unexpected Items.”  Pieces displayed here included bits ofcopper dish scrubbers, grandmother’s doilies, and two works by children, aged 5 and 10.

Leslie Tomlinson won the Members’ Excellence award for “Anatomy of a Walk.” Leslie could be described as an artist- forager.  “I collect leaves, seed pods, and anything else I finds while walking in my suburban neighborhood, she explains.   In this case, “I was inspired by round, fibrous remnants of firecrackers I discovered on the morning of July 5- along with a many-times-runover piece of red yucca.”  Leslie combined uses earth pigments and ink made from oak galls and acorn caps. She drenched the felt circles in color and stitched them onto the background. The artist also painted one side of a metal grate and then pressed it onto fabric to create a textured image.  Finally, she enhanced the yucca with diagonal pieces of hemp and touched everything up with her organic inks. Although Leslie taught art classes for years this winning piece is the first art she’s done in 35 years.

“Tonanntzin: Fifth in the Goddess Series” was Zet Baer’s piece in the exhibit.  Zet placed a turquoise lithograph of the Aztec Earth and fertility goddess, associated with the Virgin Mary, inside a peaked niche, as befits a saint.  On the top of the piece, she placed a vibrant pink god’s eye.  Beneath the goddess she added feathers and mountain laurel seeds she had been gifted.

Linda Rall’s standing figure, “Texas Roots: Ancient Memories,” features a standing figure whose body is wrapped in indigo-dyed tea towels topped with a collaged deer skull.  Linda, who has an art degree, says, “I work intuitively. I don’t know how something will turn out.” In part, she was inspired in part by the spirituality found in Indian and Hispanic art found in New Mexico. Like many of the artists featured in the exhibit, she also drew from items she has collected over the years.  Here she accented her piece with antique ivory from a necklace found in a thrift store, African seashell beads, and fossils, some purchased, some found near her Hill Country home.

Sherry Christiansen had three pieces included in the show, including “Springtime in Texas” and “Fantasy Forest. An art teacher for 35 years, Sheery incorporates techniques she taught her students.  “I wanted visitors’ eyes to jump into these works, and viewers to embrace the up and down rhythm in “Forest’,” she adds.  Because she taught for so many years, Sherry has many odds and ends and wonderful papers she uses in her art.  For her works in this exhibit, she attached handmade papers to foam cores, hand sewed beads and yarn to enhance certain areas, and added acrylic paint.  Because Sherry’s abstract stye is unique, her work has found its way into homes across the United Sates.

The Rooted in Fiber exhibit is open on weekdays from 10:00 Am- 5:00 PM and free to the public.  Many of pieces are for same.  Prices range from $120- $2500.

Guests visiting during business hours need to register their cars in Cardinal Cars and obtain a permit to park anywhere on campus.  To register your vehicle, enter the T2 Cardinal Cars URL on your internet browser  http://uiw.t2.com

By Jean Hacket