Felt and Sculpture at Ann Arbor - Miriam Carter and Kimberly Willcox

One of the best aspects of doing art shows is connecting
with artist friends and checking in re life and art.
Many of us have grown up together as a craft community,
participating in the same shows for 20-30+ years. I
love seeing the artists I know come up with new ideas,
push creativity a bit further. In turn I return from
shows more committed than ever to strive forward myself,
stepping even deeper into the sea of creative energy out
there and seeing where it might take me. We also check in
with each other personally. Since we live scattered around
the U.S. and beyond, shows are the one place we can touch
base in a non virtual way. Facebook, blogs, emails and
phone calls are great, but for me, none can replace the
importance of being in a person's physical presence.

Two of the artists I was able to talk to a bit at Ann Arbor
and whose work I admire fantastically are Miriam Carter
and Kimberly Willcox.

Miriam and I have known each other for many years, but over
the past couple years have connected on a deeper level of
spirit and art. Here she is at Ann Arbor:


I've had the opportunity to spend some time with Miriam in
her amazing woodland home in New Hampshire, appreciating
the care she has put into the home and landscaping and
just sharing time. She comes from a long family tradition
of felting. Her scarves, hats, and garments are a gorgeous
fun sensuous treat!



Also, Miriam has been my felting mentor. Her teaching and
encouragement to "play" helped me learn all sorts of
hand felting techniques some of which have been incorporated
into my work. An example - the nuno felted silk wings and
"flames"of this phoenix I created, titled "The Rising":



Kimberly Wilcox: www.kimberlywillcox.com
was also in Ann Arbor. The imagery, tactile perfection,
and imagination of kimberly's sculpture amaze me
more every time I see her work. Kimberly describes
her work as a "contemporary spin on primitive form".



Kimberly writes: "My ideas stem from the world around
me, a blend of conscious and sub-conscious imagery."
She works in many media, but at Ann Arbor she exhibited
her three dimensional figures from transformed materials.




Hopefully the snapshots above will encourage you to check
out her website. The stories and explanation of her
sculpture are definitely worth savoring as well as the
excellent photos. Unfortunately, while at Ann Arbor
Kimberly and Kevin received a call informing them that
their Florida workshop had a bad fire. A lot of us have
experienced fires over the years, so we know the
challenges this presents. We artists are a resilient
lot, and know they will get through this as they have
other disasters, but our sympathy goes out to them.
They have posted a way to help on their website.

Next post - two new-to-me artists I met at Ann Arbor

Journey on! Wendy