Textile group exposition at Gallery One in Ellensburg, WA. 

A National Fiber Show
juried by Mandy Greer

Featuring works by:
Ivonne Acero, Andrea Alonge, Mayumi Amada, Sally Anaya, Maggie Avolio, Diana Baumbach, Andrea Beck, Diane Bronstein, Daphne Cuadrado, Deb Curtis, Sara Drower, Connor Dyer, Kelly Fleek, Jacquelyn Galbraith, Anne Greenwood Rioseco, Sarah Haven, Kiana Honarmand, Lexie Johnson, Katt Kelly, Philippe Kim, Annie Klaas, Kandy Lopez, Heather Macali, Elysia Mann, Jennifer Mcnelly, Amy Meissner, Chris Motley, Miriam Omura, Ajean Ryan, Heather Scholl, Rowen Schussheim-Anderson, Julia Tatiyatrairong, Kim Tepe, Donimique Vitali, Ani Volkan, Ny Wetmore, Emily White

Juror’s Statement:   

I am a working artist, so I know all too well the vulnerability of submitting work to be judged.  I know the disappointment of not getting in, and how it wounds. But also how it can make us reconsider our perspective, and also become even stronger advocates for our own vision of our work. So I juried this show with the tender hearts of hard-working artists in mind. I literally could have kept twice as many works in, I loved so many and felt pleasure in getting to see what people are making. But the parameters of the show made me edit, and with all editing, a more concise story begins to emerge. I didn’t select work in an academic way, but as a pleasure-seeker, as someone who loves what the human hand can make and say, and express that words can’t.  There is beauty, yes, but also anger, a will to be heard, a will to be seen even at our lowest.

As a conceptual artist whose own beginnings are grounded in traditional craft pottery, particularly Japanese folk pottery and the philosophy of Wabi-sabi, I gravitate to works that are not necessarily about a perfection in craft technique, but what the essence of craft means; a deeply passionate engagement with materials that transcends what is proper and correct. The story, the will of the individual voice is what pulls me in. I gravitate to the underdog, the freaks and geeks, the weirdos, those who know the shadow and make their own light, despite all odds. I chose many works that act as a mirror for us all, or that might be speaking to just a few, offering comfort as if to say “I see you, I am like you too.”

Fiber and cloth are some of the human animal’s oldest technologies, technologies that are built to last and are still important, thousands of years after they were invented. Cloth and the things we make with it shows our will to survive, to stay warm, to comfort with a blanket, to sail into the unknown with full sails, to adorn ourselves with intricate beauty showing off the infinite in the human imagination. Cloth is about softness, and the domestic, and also about resiliency and invention. Thank you for allowing me to see the threads in everyone’s work, and pull together a picture of this moment in time.