Karen Simmons, ADAGIO, handmade paper/mixed media, 24x24
Item Number: 41
Time Left: CLOSED
Description
Karen Simmons, Adagio, handmade paper/mixed media, 24x24
My vessels are designed to draw the eye to both the exterior form and to the implied mystery of the interior space. Key influences in my work are creature habitats, and the growth patterns found repetitively in the natural world. Bird nests, cocoons, and insect carapaces are my current focus. A few years ago I found a quote from the writings of Gretel Ehrlich that seemed to resonate my work: "A nest is a cup of space, a swinging cradle, an anchored platform, a pocket in bark or dirt, a scrape on a rock, a dent in the sand. It represents the still point... the place where past and future meet." I try to create work that invites the viewer into that "still point": to offer a refuge for contemplatio
Special Instructions
A hand weaver from the early 1970's to the early 1990's I have always ben drawn to vessels. I began experimenting with papermaking in 1995 and found it to be an exciting and responsive medium. My fiber background has allowed me to incorporate weaving and basketry techniques into the embellishment of my paper forms. Always a collector of found objects, I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to use bones, feathers, vines, and other materials to amplify the connection between my organic shapes and their inspiration- nests, cocoons, pods, and seeds.
Photo courtesy of Little Shot Photography