Fuzzy Artists
To follow the artists as ordered in this document , move around the room in a counter-clockwise path.
Karen Boyhen
Karen Boyhen believes in drawing as an essential daily practice. She documents observed interactions with pen on paper, and likes to explore relationships, stories, and memories. A look into her sketchbook reveals her imagination and sense of humor. Interests include collaborating, experimenting with mixed media, drawing “likes and dislikes portraits”, and seeking inspiration from “wild” life. Her enthusiasm for creative projects is unbounded and helps to spur excitement within the community.
Wigland, Karen Boyhen, Wool / Punch Needle, 18” x 24”, 2020, $275
When riding on 2-wheels instead of 4, we tend to see more of the community while passing by. One memorable storefront sign read “Wigland”. Naturally I spent the rest of the ride daydreaming about this faraway place and made a drawing of it upon returning to my desk.
Floating Island, Karen Boyhen, Wool / Punch Needle, 19” x 13”, 2023, $250
Sadawga Lake in Southern Vermont has an island that floats around from time to time, usually after a big storm. The lake was named after Chief Sadawga and this is a picture of him swimming underneath this unique island.
Charlotte Reed
Felt Sense, Charlotte Reed, 18” x 29”, Hand- felted and spun wool, found objects
Felt Sense allows the viewer to become a participant in the discovery of multiple objects enveloped in handmade wool felt. Shapes of the forms are just visible from the surface, but the visual clues do not always allow the viewer to recognize the objects. It is only by engaging with the felt and utilizing the sense of touch that participants can gain the full picture of what lies beneath the work.
As a blind artist, the artist uses what vision they have, but relies on other senses to inform their work. Often, people assume they have a “super powered” sense of hearing or touch, but the reality is their senses are no more heightened than others.
The artist extends an invitation to embrace a different mode of perception. Close your eyes or soften your gaze, allowing "Felt Sense" to connect with the often-overlooked information from other senses.
$250.00 - All proceeds go to Art Equals
Charlotte Davis
I’ve been playing with fiber for about 75 years. My mother was my 4-H leader, and I learned to sew (most of my own clothes), knit, crochet - left handed!
At this point, I’ve collected a lot of stuff. I have fun putting my stuff together. I hope you like the “fuzzy” things here.
“You Make the Braids, I’ll Make a Rug”
This is very touchable art - please help me out by making a braid. I’ll sew them together and make a braided wool rug.
“Sock Monkey Just Hanging Around”
Tucked into all these fuzzy knit and crochet pieces is a sock monkey with magnetic hands. He can be moved around - feel free to move him to where you think he’ll be most comfortable.
Charlotte Davis (made most pieces) and Mark Klish-Walker (wove them together, fastened them to hoops).
“Very Touchable Flowers”
The result of a quilt show full of “Do Not Touch” signs - I thought it would be fun to be told to touch. Please rearrange the flowers - the magnet will hold each one where you think it looks best.
Carol Freid
An installation and conceptual artist, my practice utilizes found materials, objects and spaces, incorporating a variety of processes to suggest temporality, memory and process over product, concept blended with execution. Works I have created can be found in regional museums here and in other countries and in university and corporate collections. I have participated in over 150 exhibits, several one woman shows and installations and have been fortunate to have been able to curate a number of art and cultural exhibits. Currently I reside in Kentucky and continue a practice that speaks to prescient social, political and environmental issues where added words and images become part of the underpinnings of the work.
Labyrinth Of The Soul Redux 2011-2024, Plexiglass, fragmented pearl, glue 15"x18"
The first labyrinth was an image in a book. The first walk was in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan. The first practice of walking a labyrinth began and has never ended.
The labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral was a gift, the first of many. A labyrinth in Seattle, a labyrinth in Lexington, a labyrinth in Georgetown. Once begun never ending once begun I walk for ever, in circles, in squares, in rectangles, in triangles, in grass, in fields, on water, in snow, creating patterns weaving in and out, following patterns in stone, in sand, on canvas, on paper in clouds. Once we begin we never end.
Look at the piece in front of you, find the opening in the labyrinth, now place your finger at the opening, close your eyes and use your finger to move in and through and around the labyrinth and return to where you began. Open your eyes and walk the labyrinth just with your eyes and then open your mind and walk the labyrinth again.
Labyrinth of the Soul
The second piece is by Carol Freid. It is composed of plexiglass and remnants of the pearls that were once glued to the plexiglass and then removed. The pattern is that of the labyrinth similar to the labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral. The viewer is meant to engage the work by using a finger to "walk" the labyrinth by tracing what remains on the surface of the plexiglass.
Look - Touch - Select - Cut -Take - Alter An Interactive Work - Mixed Media, Metal, paper, prints, photos, scraps, graphite, ink, watercolor, fiber, thread, scraps, etc.
You will arrive at this piece when you reach Ann Leader’s space
Margaret Rhein
Biography- Margaret Rhein / Terrapin Paper Mill
For the past 48 years, I have been involved full time in the art & craft of making paper by hand at my studio, Terrapin Paper Mill in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the years, I have made thousands of sheets of handmade paper, experimenting with a variety of fibers, shapes, colors and textures in 2D & 3D approaches.
After graduating from Edgecliff College in Cincinnati, OH in 1975, I have devoted my life to exploring the possibilities of fibers in textile arts and papermaking. My paper collages have been exhibited in galleries and craft shows throughout the country. In addition, I have taught many workshops in papermaking and related book arts to adults and children. I have been a founding member in the Cincinnati Book Arts Society which began in 1998- 26 years ago.
As an expressionist artist, I work spontaneously using primarily colored cotton & linen pulps made at my studio. To create my images on the paper surface, I often combine patterned fabrics of various textures with other collage elements. I like to challenge myself and others to experiment in making art.
Inspirations come from many sources and often involve plant forms, landscapes and figurative themes. Papermaking lends itself to the collage process through connecting the base fibers in the sheet with many components embedded on its surface. Through the use of artifacts and autobiographical treasures in the process, I find it excels in being a platform for telling stories, capturing memories and bringing deeper meaning to the finished art. Collage has always intrigued me. Combining different but related elements, the process nourishes my sense of discovery and enjoyment of the visual results and tactile nature inherent in papermaking. Recently I have also been exploring monotype printing on my handmade papers.
The papers in this exhibit focus on the possibilities of texture in the hand papermaking process. Once the sheets are formed and pressed, to get the undulating patterns, I roll up the wet pressed sheet and then squeeze the tube in various ways to create line patterns or curved shapes. Once the paper is almost dry I carefully unroll it and let it sit until completely dry.
Some of the patterns are embossed in the pressing using various textured elements between felts that force the textures into the surface of the paper. The elements are left in until the paper is dried to give the most detail then removed.
Feel free to gently look through the layers of the hanging papers. I often use these papers mounted on binders board for book covers or as mountains or rock formations in my handmade paper collages.
Judy Dominic
I sort of fell into fiber art.
My childhood had the typical mud pies and seed pictures – nothing remarkable. My parents did offer a good amount of craft play as they were heavily involved with scouting for many years and were great collectors of all sorts of stuff with ‘potential’.
When looking for adult stimulation while caring for my first child, loom weaving just happened to come across my field of vision and offered a night out with the possibility of being a bit creative.
Weaving led to spinning, which led to dyeing, which led to felting, which led to marbling, which led to papermaking, which led to bookbinding, which led to …
Basketry, a 3-D form of weaving, started as a way to get to know some local guild members without having to know much about weaving. It was also a means to weave during the day while my young brood was active since the loom was in the basement and the boys never seemed to be there.
Basketry took precedence over most of my fiber work for the majority of the past forty years. Related to, but not actual fiber (unless you count all the paper I have printed!), is the conference work I have engaged in since 1993.
Volunteering has also played a large part in my life, as I stay involved with local/regional/national weaving and basketry guilds as well as community activities.
Hand-in-hand with an extremely supportive husband, my earlier experience in being a track mom came in handy as my husband and I watched our three adult sons race out into the world on their own – bringing back lovely women to join the family. Lively and curious grandchildren are now adding a wonderful new element to family life.
Currently, surface design work via mud cloth, contact/compost/rust dyeing and stitching, plus bookmaking, papermaking and sewing/clothing design have overtaken basketry’s prime spot. Who knows what will end up being the focus for the next forty years?!?
Square Pegs In A Round Hole, 60” diameter x 1”, Quilt: machine and hand stitched, miscellaneous fibers, thread, batting, Mali mudcloth backing, PVC pipe,
$500.00
Fragments, 42” x 41” x 1/4” (size can change with variable placement of the pieces), Freeform quilt: machine and hand stitched, miscellaneous fibers, threads, batting, Velcro
NFS (commissions accepted)
Layers of Time, 32” x 17” x 3”, Found branches, birch bark, hog casing, walnut dyed silk cordage
$200.00
Women Warriors - Feminine Fetishes for Turbulent Times, Sizes vary. Display boards are 8” x 8” x 1/2” and 12” x 17” x 1/2”, Hand stitched miscellaneous fabrics, stuffings, threads, yarns, trims, doodads all kept from the landfill.
$15.00 each Warrior
Codes, Roughly each grid is 3’ x 2’ x 1” in any direction; hanging direction is variable, Willow rods, hog casing
$75.00 each grid
“Prayer Flag Series #7: Broadcasting”, 28” x 35.5” X 10”, Stretched, splattered, drilled, knotted; willow rod, hog casing, wooden skewers, watercolors, synthetic sinew.
$150.00
Anne Leader
Over the last two decades, for many reasons, I have had to reexamine how and with what I make things. Reinventing ways to continue to engage has been an ongoing process of adaptation. A large part of that has involved moving from the simplicity of functional objects to the metaphoric world of image making and storytelling, using whatever media enables that - clay paper, paper, fiber, words, scraps, bits of rusty metal, photographic images, words. The world of artists’ books, with its multiplicity of expression, offers such a place.
Look - Touch - Select - Cut -Take - Alter An Interactive Work - Mixed Media, Metal, paper, prints, photos, scraps, graphite, ink, watercolor, fiber, thread, scraps, etc.
A collaborative work by Freid & Leader 2024
Books are touch stones, a stream of consciousness where we experience the thoughts of others and encounter the edges of insight.
What is a book without the benefit of touch? We are at times profoundly aware of that in a digital age. So we offer you a chance to touch and feel the books hanging on the chain on the wall. If a book calls out to you then use the provided blunt edge scissors to cut the white cord and take your book home. You can then decide if you would like to alter it, put it in a book, put it in a drawer or give it away.
The Look Touch Select Cut Take Alter has multiple elements approximately 100+ hanging from a chain - hung vertically. There is also a pair of blunt end scissors and a sign. Visitors are asked to look, touch, select an element, cut it and take it and do whatever they wish once it is removed from the display.
Mark Klish-Walker
I'm an avid weaver and dabble in crochet. I love the creativity. And I need to use up my stash!