Amy Clarke Moore Tell Tale Apple Seed beads

Iowa Artisans Gallery presents Small Wonders, narrative fiber works by Beth Nobles, Renee Harris and Amy Clarke Moore, October 6 – November 18, 2005. The public is invited to an opening reception during the October 7th Gallery Walk, 5-8pm, at seventeen locations in downtown Iowa City. These exceptional smaller-scale fiber works incorporate beading, embroidery and hand felting and represent work by some nationally known fiber artists, two of whom have Iowa connections. Fiber art has enjoyed a resurgence nationally among collectors and museum goers.

Born in 1969 in Boulder, Colorado, Amy Clarke Moore grew up in a nurturing environment of literature and visual arts. Her work reflects a passionate interest in fairytales, myths, and art. She is currently the Editor of Spin-Off magazine, published by Interweave Press. Amy started beading in 1998 to complete a staff project for Beadwork magazine—she was hooked from that moment on. She enjoys the process of stitching the beads to the canvas. She views each bead as a thought and the spiral path of her beadwork is like the passage of time—each moment building on the next until an image emerges. jClarke Moore earned her B.A. from Cornell College in Iowa in 1990—majoring in Art, Latin American Studies, and Spanish and her M.F.A. in Fibers from Colorado State University in 1997.  She has participated in numerous exhibitions across the country and is currently represented by Thirteen Moons Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.

Beth Nobles sees herself as a storyteller. Her small sculptural embroideries generally referred to social history and the civil rights movement in particular. Recently, she has chosen more personal narratives based on her own reflections about the experience of moving through one’s middle years. “I see the work approaching the question from many angles—serious and funny, searching and observing, cutting and reassuring, from memory and conjecture.  The lessons are coming from women—elders, family, and friends, real role models and fictional ones—and sometimes from a melding of several sources.  Needlework seems to tell the story well, as it is the expression handed down through our family, from great-grandmother to grandmother, to mother to me.”

“I have difficulty writing and I sure can’t tell a joke, but through these pieces, I become an author and storyteller.  I create characters and a setting, and devise a narrative, which may or may not be discernable in the final piece. Lately, I’ve been thinking more deeply about narrative structure.  This has lead to greater attention paid to the development of characters in my pieces.  With my three-dimensional pieces, I’m trying to make the actual structure of the piece further the story.”

Shown: Trouble, Beth Nobles

A longtime Iowa City resident, Nobles has recently moved to Texas. She has exhibited nationally and internationally for many years, most recently at Hibberd McGrath Gallery (Breckenridge, CO); Mobilia (Cambridge, MA); Thirteen Moons (Santa Fe, NM) and the SOFA in Chicago. She has been awarded artist residencies at Ragdale Foundation and the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. Cincinnati resident Renee Harris combines hand-felted wool, embroidery and drawing in narrative works that reflect her training in painting, printmaking and illustration. “My feeling about the embroidery I use in my work, is that it is a true drawing tool which utilizes a needle and thread instead of a pencil.  For me, embroidery is a way of expression which uses time to achieve balance.” As the oldest non-woven form of fabric-making, felting’s contemporary revival has encouraged innovative exploration.  Harris describes her process. “After cleaning and dyeing the raw wool, the fibers are carded.  This process stretches and loosens the wool, enabling it to felt evenly.   The layered rolls of carded wool (batts) are placed onto a sheer material.  With the addition of water, soap and continuous agitation, the wool hardens and fulls into felt.  After the rinsing the wool felt fabric, embellishments may be added.” Harris chooses to embellish with both cotton embroidery thread and drawing.  She exhibits nationally and has participated in prominent art fairs such as the Smithsonian Craft Show and the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.

  

Renee Harris, (above):   My Sugar's At Home, handfelted, embroidered

(below, left):Leaf Dance,  and (below, right) Balancing Act, both handfelted, embroidered

    

Amy Clarke Moore (above): This Little Light of Mine, seed bead embroidery

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