Yvonne Wakabayashi

This work amazes me! The simplistic emptiness of the forms is breath taking. They ingulf the mind and wisp you away into an alternative state. The symmetry within the structure allows the viewer to grasp the beauty of the texture and of each individual component. Each piece communicates with the next further inviting the viewer to appreciate the artist's projections. There is a transfer of sea like creatures into a reality void of water, air and even gravity. I am particularly inspired by the shadows created within and around the forms. This adds dimensions and creates variations. The lack of color fascinated me, it becomes about the texture and the form which seems to be speaking more vividly through the restrained color pallet.

Katy Stone

Katy Stone's work is made of metal, paper, plastic, paint and a variety of different mediums. Her work is both crisp and gestural. It invades the wall like an unstoppable weed. The complexity in the small patterns creates fragile fluidity. The transparent quality contrasted with a variety of textures intrudes the viewers space allowing for the inability to bring clarification to the specific objects. I interpret the space as liquid dripping, somehow yielding to time and transforming in to a collective movement of gracefully liquified entities. Much like the beauty found in icicles and the unimaginable anger when one is aware of its inability to remain in tact. Katy Stone captures this beauty and in way is commenting on the decay and progression of things that surround us. Reminding us that we are observers and our inability to see such beauty will only narrow our creative integrity.

Inspiring Fiber Artist

Jessica Pezalla
http://fakenature.com
Jessica Pezalla Takes a variety of different materials wood, feathers, rocks and combines them to create a new imaginary world. Pezalla says that she is inspired by her dreams. By creating new landscapes as a result of taking things apart and collecting naturally existing things Pezalla is able to parallel the manmade and natural world. I am inspired by the way in which she uses this collection of materials and some how creates such clean sculptural pieces. The completion is not a question. Her work is roughly elegant it has a calming sense as you can find the connection she is making weather it is bubbles or Lilly pads. Yet there is something mysteriously off very much like a dream, sometimes it is the color or the texture she has created. I think that it is this factor that makes her work so strongly successful.

Lisa Kellner
http://lisakellner.com
Lisa Kellner creates these decaying environments constructed of light transparent fabric. Creating movement and tension within the arrangement of the layers. The flesh like color pallet is identifiable uncomfortable but brilliantly matched with yellow, melon, and dark purples. Many of Kellner’s instillations are very large and appear to be engulfing the environment they inhabit. Kellner describers her work as a way to “uncover the basic elements of identifying the world characterized by façade” I became very interested in Kellner’s work due to my fascination of the material she uses. It really engulfs me and causes a very strong emotional response that I must slowly decipher. The best way I can describe my response is to say that it’s as if I am sedated and dreaming. Consciously aware of realness, but almost wish it wasn’t since I cant give meaning to its purpose.

Emily Barletta
emilybarletta.com
Emily Barletta’s crochet resembles sea like creatures; very bright in color, organized organism in specified living arrangements. Immediately I identified with the life like quality of her creatures they seem protected within their quadrants .The harmony of the pieces forces me to feel at ease and invited into the world she has created. As I start to do more repetitive forms I hope to not over whelm the viewer or cause confusion. Barletts’s work is a great reference since there is a significant importance on the individual form as there is on the overall collective composition. I enjoy Barletta’s embroidery work on paper it is also repetitive and often simple. The use of red thread is apparent these pieces are a simpler abstraction of the crochet pieces. The compositions never seem limited by the size of the paper itself.

Laura Thomas
laurathomas.co.uk
Laura Thomas takes threads and preserves them in acrylic resin. Then creates freestanding sculptural pieces geometric in shape. These pieces are intended to emphasis the unwoven warp and the linear quality as well as the purity in the colors. When I first came upon Thomas’s work thought that it was to simple in color and was limiting since her pieces are so similar always showing single strains of thread. As a continued to contemplate her conceptual theory I began to embrace it by self. It is the fundamental appreciation of the material. Within the capsulation of the threads she shows movement but preserves this no longer allowing the threads to have continued interaction with one another, like other woven textiles that have movement and flexibly.

Sarah Barness
http://sarahbarsness.com/index.html
Sarah Barness’s work consist of all forms of media personally I am interested in her sculptural fabric work as well as her watercolor paintings and the use of embroidery throughout. I find a direct connection between Lisa Kellner and that of Barness’s. When reading Barness’s statement I became very fond of her description of self awareness she says” we are not exclusive products of our own will, but a complex amalgam of our bodies, relationships and environments. The self is not solid, fixed, and discrete, but fluid, mercurial, and without distinct edges.” As a result this confuses our sense of memories. This theory is very fascinating as artists are always drawing from memories. As much as we similarly refer to these same memories when interpreting art. This parallels a lot of Barness’s work the spatial relationship with the organic life forms she paints seem to be trying to answer some of these questions of solidity and always transforming progressions.

Rowan Mersh
http://www.rowanmersh.com
Rowan Mersh has been an inspiration for sometime. The Designs are captivating and resemble a futuristic dependence on technological advances and the resulted smothering invasion of self. The pieces have an overwhelming force-drawing question to the importance of life. They seem to create their own atmosphere impervious to ours. I am very interested in the three-dimensionality of the forms. As I try to make my own sculptural fabric pieces I am coming across problems with weight, form and material.

Claire Taylor
http://www.clairectaylor.com
Claire Tyler’s work is a response to the increase in dominant corporate capitalism. Through the use of certain materials like coffee beans and fabric Tyler is able to emphasis the impact star bucks corporation has had. Through vivid uses of a various different materials she is able to develop a dialoged expressing her concern. I was drawn to her work because while her massage is very clear within her compositions, she still allows you to create your own opinion.

Shannon Rankin
http://artistshannonrankin.com
Shannon Rankin’s installations explore the relationship between physical place and intangible experience. She uses maps consistently throughout her work and draws connection to the way in which we live our lives. Interestingly many of her maps are in mint condition and do not appear to have ever been used. As a result her instillations are very organized and almost appear sterile. They way in, which she organizes them, are geometric isolating each location a certain distance from one another but ending the shape in a perfect circle. It’s fascinating in the conceptual sense of self-awareness and spatial awareness. It also alludes to time its self and technological advances. We still must travel for hours before we can reach the other side of the ocean. As we all become more reliable on technology we no longer need maps we have GPS and cell phones that will tell us how to reach our destinations. It is interesting to think about the things we may leave behind maps and newspapers. They are tangible objects that we must search through. Will we loose our sense of adventure within our everyday arrangements? Will Adventure and creativity be scheduled into our busy lives.

Katie Niewodowski
http://www.katieniewo.com
Katie Niewodowski’s creation’s are so distinctively mind blowing the material appears wet and transformable. Her cell-like pieces mimic the interaction of cancer and how it terminates the healthy growing host. These very large creatures of cells appear beautifully harmonious but slightly eerie, as they seem to engulf the viewer’s thoughts. Niewodowski’s other work she calls “Excavating Atlantis” explores an undiscovered world. It goes back to our own creation traced back to the depths of the oceans and further explores this unknown and ever changing science. This work inspires me to think beyond the traditional materials the traditional methods. Their appear to be no restrictions on her work they are the ultimate adult science experiment from which there appears to be no one particular answer for. This continued contemplation is what draws my to her work.

Claire Morgan
http://www.claire-morgan.co.uk
Claire Morgan’s pieces defy gravity they wisp you away as if you’re in a dark fairytale. She uses similar objects like strawberries and hangs multiples until she has created a sculptural form. There are dead animals present in her pieces and they often come through or out of her work. The creative process of her work is fascinating as it is very time consuming and could seem very daunting. Again I am drawn to this particular work because it is limitless. As an artist Morgan continues to create magnificent reenactments of relationships. The descending plunge within space and the forever casted affect these creatures have on the relations around them. When I was reading an interview with Morgan she was describing that people don’t have a problem with her use of dead animals since they see an ecological undertone in her work.

Clare Twomey

http://www.claretwomey.com/index.html

Clare Twomey, predominately a ceramic artist dose rather large installations as well as site specific installations. Twomey's pieces are small and reparative. They take the form of flowers, birds and home wear objects. The material is often porcelain and in some cases remain white and immerse from random placement on the wall, or commonly on the floor where the view is intended to interact with the pieces. A particularly interesting installation titled Consciousness/Conscience is destroyed. Made from one of the most precious and revered materials, Bone China. 7000 hollow cast bone china tiles were left to be destroyed by walking on them.

This challenges the viewers mental understanding of the material and the distress that comes from destroying it. As well as the very importance of its worth, considering we as humans established its worth and significance. I cant imagine having to make all of the tiles but it shows "balls" to be able to witness the destruction. This destruction is common in Twomey's work similarly she laid small fragile porcelain flowers outside and allowed them to be weathered and slowly decomposed. Twomey's ability to remove her self form the individuality of her work allows her conceptual meaning to immerse. More importantly making her work a more successful social commentary.

While I'm not interested in having my work destroyed by viewers I am interested in the way in which she set up her installations and the way she uses clay, which is very contemporary it takes you a second look at some of her work to understand the exact material. I am also excited by the way she questions the viewer inviting them first into her space and then almost not allowing the to escape from the meaning, and in some cases from the large encompassing space her work inhabits. The feminine fragile softness of her craft is something I hope to work on in my own work.