As it snowed outside, I felt so warm and cozy inside. I love being in my studio, marinating in creative juices.
Standing at my window for a moment to watch the snowfall, I noticed blossoms on the tree under the snow. Then…my reflection and that of the warm room glowed trancelike to my attention. I captured this image.
My studio’s warmth on a dark and stormy night…
Creativity inside and out...nature: the ultimate inspiration...
Not sure where this one came from. It just emerged…and it was a lot of fun to create! I loved spirograph as a child. This piece called for lots of different shapes and motion, a relationship of movement and strong color between the piecing and the thread painting. Spirograph used such neon colors. I always felt such joy as the colors created amazing shapes that interwove before my eyes, surprising me.
$280
This small commission (approx. 14″ x 20″) was made as a wedding gift for people who love hiking and nature. Reports are it was received with delight.
This slide show offers some of the creation process, as well as the completed piece.
With Creation’s Sistine touch
Deep communion
Arcs Self to Self
One Self
Stephanie K. Nead, 2010
“Canyons”
In dark clefts
Between towering walls of darkness
All seems lost
I wander
Vanquished from hope
Absorbed by black
Yet time passes
Earth turns
In my wilderness of night
Appears a shaft of light
Looking up
My towering dungeon glows
Deeply burnt
Oranges, purples, reds
Warmth radiates
Nourishment as honey to my lips
Above me
Through water-worn canyon walls
Appears high heating sun
There all along
I had but to wait
For light to rise
And come ‘round again
I had but to wait
For the blessing of light
To know my Valley is not a trapped dungeon of despair
But a carefully carved path of earth
Blessing my night with color in forms of grace
A marvel of elemental communion
Small me
Blessed to know the dark
The light
The color
The grace…
I breathe.
Stephanie K. Nead, 2010
These two are accompanied by photos and poems.
(Click image to see in larger window.)
Come and see the whole show!
They are more striking in person, when you can absorb the kinesthetic quality of fiber. This Friday, February 4th, from 5 -8 p.m. at Illahe Gallery at 4th and “B” St., Ashland, OR. www.illahegallery.com I’ll be there and offering a demostration of one of my techniques. I’d love to see you.
Artist Statement
All creative expression comes from the same source. The blessed gift of being creative is my experience of “flow,” when time stops and joy is like a stream burbling within me. One of the places in life where I experience this is in my studio.
I had the fortunate misfortune to be felled by serious illness at 28 years old. Homebound and needing something to do as I moved from bed to couch, I reached for long-forgotten skills taught by my grandmother, mother, and aunt. This began a journey into my own artistic soul. I am blessed to come from a lineage of female artists. Through the grace of the calling inherent in my illness, to reform my life in better synergy with my soul, I began creating according to my inclinations as a kinesthetic human being. I operate by touch, smell, visceral sensation. Thoughts, ideas and emotions have “feeling,” color, image, & sensation for me…a kind of visceral experience. Fiber allows me to integrate my emotional and spiritual “felt” sense with my physical love for touch and texture.
My art is inspired by my sense of the spiritual, my love for the creation that is this earth, and my desire to express healing visually. My creative process is one way I commune with myself and with the larger Creation that Is. As a friend once said, “My way of talking to G-d is to go to my studio and make art.” My designs come to me from dreams and dream-like visions, from nature, from the souls I meet, and from my own healing and evolving journey as a human being.
A Gallery of Work Available For Sale this Holiday season.
To purchase, either email me at sknp4710@aol.com or give me a call at 541-292-9390. I’m happy to ship.
I accept Pay Pal or personal checks.
10% of all purchases will be donated to our local food bank, or as requested, to Havurah Shir Hadash, Ashland, OR.
As always, I am available for commissioned work.
This is a slide show of “Antelope Canyon‘s” “birth” process. I hope you enjoy this glimpse of the stages and layers to creating a piece such as this. Believe me, this is the short form! Stephanie
"Bridges To Nowhere"
“Bridges To Nowhere” has been a long time in process.
As densely layered with memory, emotion and meaning as any of our lives, I hope it touches that deep and almost wordless place inside.
This is the poem that — in some dialetical process I do not entirely remember — both gave birth to, and was given birth to by, this piece’s creation.
“Bridges To Nowhere”
this quilt lacks a center
a central form to draw the eye
this is deliberate
this quilt is metaphorical
it depicts a very unhappy time in my life…
a time of grays and blacks and browns…
little color…
no life..
when I felt like a stick figure…
wandering, searching…
alone…
down streets that led nowhere…
turning corners to other nowhere streets…
searching for bridges to something good…
finding they only reached another side of pain…
only another dead end empty space…
all that seemed constant was the ticking of clocks…
relentlessly…
far too slowly…
marking the time until I could leave…
run away…
escape…
hoping endlessly this might mean new life…
New life…
is like lightening…
bright, stark, brilliant, blinding…
deafening, terrifying…
coming with storm…
rending the new from the old…
lightening breaks apart the clouds…
bringing new birth…
color…
light…
after the storm…
Kali’s destruction…
necessary…
though terrifying…
for new birth…
Music was my one light…
it softened the pain and gave me strength…
gave structure to my desolation…
as I poured my emotions over the keys…
Music was the new life I hoped for…
the only place where color still lived…
along with hope…
and the possibility of love.
Stephanie K. Nead
What is the difference between art and craft? As I am about to create a “Holiday Sales Gallery” that will be almost entirely craft, this seemed a good time to write my thoughts on the subject.
This can be a volatile topic in the art and craft world (or worlds, as the case may be.) There is much dissension.
I do think that art and craft are different. I also think there is crossover. There are art pieces that contain an equal, or almost equal portion, of craft (see the quilts of Gees Bend.) There are craft peices, many, that contain an artisitic esthetic and/or originality to them. Reducing anything to a label seems to me a mistake, especially as there is much beauty in both.
In general, we have an understanding that craft applies to those objects that also serve a useful purpose, generally in the home.
For me the distinction between art and craft has more to do with the originality brought to the creation, the idea/vision, the techniques and how they are applied, whether the final piece makes you, on some level, gasp. If it does, it is art, whether it is an earthenware bowl, a quilt, or an oil painting.
Artists and craftspeople often see the art of craft and craft of art somewhat differently than nonparticipants. Because we are “in the conversation,” we are generally more aware of what is being produced, and so of what is original, unique…what we consider art.
A bystander might experience art in a piece that is little more than a semi-original copy of another’s style. To another artist or craftperson, this would not signify as art. But if it is the first time you have seen it, then to you it might be. I think both perceptions are valid.
To take away someone’s awe at what is new to her, is mean, and it certainly doesn’t encourage her to trust her response to beauty as she perceives it. Such response is essential to art making and art loving. At the same time, it is possible to share someone’s enthusiasm while sharing knowledge of the broader context for this art.
As easy examples of art and craft from my perspective, below is a slide show of three pieces I have created: art and craft. Creating something from one’s own vision in a unique and original way, this to me makes art. “Antelope Canyon” and “Bridges to Nowhere” are art. “Batik Queen” shares an artisitic sense of color, but is essentially craft.
"Redwood Forest Walk" Batik Queen Bed Quilt
One of the main joys of working in fiber is the kinesthesia of color it offers. I actually hold color in my hand and feel the weight of it within the fabric. It’s the difference between seeing a photo of your beloved or actually touching his/her hand.
When you buy a piece of fiber art, or a quilt, you enjoy an added dimension in the kinesthetic presence fabric brings into your home. Our bodies sense touch even when we are not touching. We are wired for tactile perception. Whether you are hanging a piece on your wall or laying it upon your bed, your eyes, body and soul feel the touch of it and warm to it.
This is a queen-size bed quilt I recently finished for a client. It reminds me of a deep forest walk…sun in the sky high above a thick forest canopy, the smell of damp, loamy earth under redwoods, the taste of rich, fertile soil that hangs in the air, the feel of fog on my face as I move, and the deep quiet of nature I feel in my bones, that blesses and nourishes my soul
In the next week I will be setting up my “Holiday Sales Gallery” on this site. By next Friday several new items will be posted for purchase. This season I will be donating 10% of all holiday sales to the Food Bank.
As always, I am available for commissioned work. Please contact me at sknead7@aol.com to begin that process.
Please pass this site on to your friends.
Stephanie's Creations 