Fiber Sculpture Sebastopol Center for the Arts

On our way back from Benbow in Southern Humboldt, we ducked in to see the fiber show at the Center for the Arts in Sebastopol. It’s an international juried show and a lot of my friends were showing in it. I don’t always make museum shows, so was happy when circumstances and husband aligned to make it possible.

It was a high quality show, the cream of the local fiber talent as well as from around the country. What I particularly enjoy is seeing a tweak that sets a piece off, something that would otherwise look traditional; the weaving that gets spun off the warp, a work shown backwards so you can see the haphazard stitching.

Case in point: Arlene Wohl. Arlene is a weaver at the back end of her career. Meaning she is so done with making clothing. Wanting something else out of life, she heard many of us talk about the Fiber Sculpture class at College of Marin with the magnificent teacher Carole Beadle. After a number of semesters, she works using scraps from her clothing cuttings (sound familiar?), constructing beautiful assemblages with stitching and negative spaces, making good use of her raw materials. I say Bravo Arlene!

More shout outs to local artists Roz Ritter and Susan Doyle. Roz mines herself. She tells stories of her wrinkles and her history with stitching and filmy fabrics. She is constantly
embroidering. Her work is bold and poetic.

 Susan uses clothing as a medium to tell her stories. The piece in this show uses images of clouds taken from her pilgrimage on the Camino that are transferred onto organza and patched into a beautiful kimono that is as light and airy as the images used.

I was glad we were able to stop and see the exquisite work made by these talented artists that elevate the use of cloth, fiber and unusual mediums to such a high level.