Sampling Showcase: Beads in the Mix
Our Summer 2009 Sampling section features artists that use “Beads in
the Mix” of their art work. Here we share additional images by our included
artists.
Ann Baddeley Keister
Susan Aaron-Taylor
Amy Gross
Lisa Binkley
Ann
Baddeley Keister, who received both her MFA and BFA from the University
of Kansas, Lawrence, strives for her images to feel contemporary while referencing
decorative art of the past. Inspired by traveling and museum visits, she often
merges visual ideas from more than one style, period, or culture. Keister came
to art quilting by taking a class during a sabbatical from her position as an
associate professor of design at Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids,
Michigan. After nearly twenty years as a tapestry artist working from decisions
made ahead of time, she felt freed by the ability to improvise and change her
design as each quilt developed. She has been exploring the medium ever since.
Do No Harm (with detail), 2007; cotton, silk, glass beads;
hand-quilted, hand-embroidered, beaded; 62" x 78". Photos: David Keister.
Wings and Arrows (with detail), 2008; silk, cotton, glass
beads; hand-quilted, hand-embroidered, beaded; 53" x 42". Photos: David
Keister.
Susan
Aaron-Taylor received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield
Hills, Michigan. She is currently Section Chair of Fibers at the College for Creative
Studies in Detroit. A student of Jungian psychology, she mines dreams and the
collective unconscious to invent mythologies entwined in personal history to create
stories through her work. Aaron-Taylor’s dreamlike narratives explore ancient
cultures, archetypes, and, ultimately, the self. Her Soul Shards series
represents a gathering of spiritual energies lost throughout one’s lifetime
and chronicles the retrieval of these broken pieces of the soul.
Soul Shard #24, 2005; bark, felt, coral, beads; hand-felted,
beaded; 12" x 6" x 3". Photo: Tim Thayer.
Soul Shard #25 (with detail), 2006; bark, felt, beads, coral,
kozo fiber, raw flax; hand-felted, beaded; 5" x 12" x 4". Photo:
Tim Thayer.
Amy
Gross earned her BFA in fine art and design from the Cooper Union for
the Advancement of Science and Art, New York. Trained as a painter, she turned
to stitching attracted to its intimacy. Playing with scale she re-creates nature
in her own image, merging what she can see with what she can’t. She considers
sewing and embellishing as acts of transformation, a merging or taking over of
one material by another. She re-imagines landscape and nature, altered through
her life and the experiences of the human body.
Optimist’s Biotope (with detail), 2007; thread, ribbon,
yarn, seed beads, digitally printed fabric, polymer clay, paper; embroidered,
sewn, trapunto quilted, appliquéd; 7 1/2" x 14" diameter. Photo
by the artist.
Preoccupation, 2006; thread, seed beads, digitally printed fabric, oil pastel,
felt, velvet, suede, paper; embroidered, trapunto quilted, appliquéd, sewn
to canvas; 9" x 10" x 7". Photo by the artist.
Lisa Binkley
holds a BS in textiles and design from the University of Wisconsin—Madison
and a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee.
A stitcher since early childhood, she feels connected to the tradition of the
technique and others who have “sought to contemplate and celebrate the beautiful,
the ineffable, and the sacred through the slow process of hand stitching beads
and threads.” She sees her work as visual poems that speak of the splendor
and vitality of the world.
Between the Woods and Frozen Lake, 2007; commercial and hand-dyed cotton fabric,
synthetic fabric, cotton batting, interfacing, glass beads, pearls, ceramic beads,
cotton thread, nylon thread; hand-beaded, hand-embroidered; 12" x 18".
Photo: Jim Couee.
Going In, 2005; commercial cotton print and batik fabric, wool batting,
hand-dyed silk, perle cotton embroidery thread, cotton thread, nylon threads,
glass beads, pearls, stone beads; hand-beaded, hand-embroidered; 15" x 15".
Photo: Jim Couee.
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