Paintless paintings, created with fiber and a felting needle.
Think sugar coated bundles of detail and slight oddness combined to make unpainted paintings that are arresting and uncanny.
In 2014, a friend taught me the basics of wet felting and I began making wearables. Soon after, I was introduced to the felting needle. I wondered if I could make a fiber portrait with one of these barbed needles. I had never seen a fiber painting, and had not created a portrait in any medium. Needle felting is like tattooing, but with wool. I kept at it, and finally the likenesses were recognizable and the intended emotions emerged.
I came to this art relatively late in life, after leaving my "real job" as a communications and advertising person, often promoting the work of artists and never imagined I would one day make art of my own. There are no art classes in my past although I’ve dabbled in various craft mediums.
Since I began making fiber paintings in 2017, I have been honored to receive the first place award in Florida CraftArt’s 2021 Members’ Show and in Fearless Fiber at Carrollwood Cultural Center, Tampa FL, as well as four awards of distinction: New River Art Juried Biennial, Moss Art Center, Blacksburg, VA; Fiber Art Now magazine; and Contemporary Fiber in Florida and the 2022 Art Festival, Florida CraftArt, St. Petersburg, FL. I served as juror for Felt: Fiber Transformed 2020, Fiber Art Network, and has had work featured in Outsider Art Magazine and on the Summer 2019 cover of Fiber Art Now.
My felted creations have been shown in Red Truck Gallery, New Orleans; MIZE Gallery St. Petersburg, FL; Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton NJ; Brenda McMahon Gallery, Gulfport, FL; Florida CraftArt, St. Petersburg, FL; Art Center Sarasota and juried fine art shows including the American Craft Council show in Atlanta.
