Thanks to Currents Exhibition Coordinator Carolyn Halliday for assembling & preparing the brief makers’ statements and images for posting on the NewsBlog. Take a virtual tour of this Confluence: 2011 International Surface Design Association Conference Student Members’ Exhibition below.

Currents First Place Award Winner Ann Morton

Both of Morton’s pieces involve clothing from the the Collective Cover project, which focuses on lost or abandoned textiles. “Losing Our Shirt” is from a found, hand-cut  food service worker’s shirt. 

“My Maiden” was stitched from the jeans of a migrant woman attempting to cross the border.  The pattern is a QR code which when scanned with a QR phone app, will link to an image for the text.  Ann states that she seeks to “ think about themes of consumption, homogenization, marginalization, obsolescence  cultural, social and political concerns through the ?lter of my own experience as a female born in 1950’s America.”  She hopes to use her art to communicate about these social issues. Morton studies in the MFA Fiber program at Arizona State University, Tempe campus, with Clare Verstegen.

Currents Second Place Award Winner
Naomi Adams

Adams constructed “Envy” with machine quilting and adhesive out of hand dyed cotton batting, and cotton fabric.  She is in the Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts at the University of North Texas, Denton.  Amie Adelman is her professor.

Currents Third Place Award Winner Julie Otto

Otto used a helix structure woven basketry technique to create “Silver Sea Anemone”.  It is woven from fine and sterling silver.  She studied Applied Design with an emphasis in Fibers at San Diego State University.  Kathryn Harris is her professor.

Currents SDA Award of Excellence Winner Elise Porcher

Porcher says of her work, “The piece “Great Grandmother’s Letters” was inspired by my family’s love of documenting and keeping records of history and lineage.”  She attends  University of Minnesota, Morris where she has a double major in Studio Art and Biology. She studied art with Jess Larson.

Other SDA Student Members On View in Currents:

Suzanne Boissy is a MFA candidate in Fibers at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, where she studies with Brooks Harris Stevens.  About her work she says, “I work from the inside out. My process is a means of internal investigation, a way I examine and explore my inner world and interact with the world around me.”

“My work with traditional and non-traditional fibers, using processes that are often labor intensive, are important aspects of my creative process. My work develops and transforms organically as I become immersed in this way of making.”

Madeleine Boldt
cut through 5 layers of stitched
cotton to create “And Still Not Be Sure.” (left)

“I Built You a City with My Foot” (right) was machine stitched with a free motion foot, unto muslin, after transferring her image of a city.  She studies Studio Art Fabric Design with Dr Ruth Smith in the BFA program at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Claudia Dominguez describes “Malinche” as a collage.  She is a mosaic artist working in Fibers at the North Carolina State University, Raleigh.  She studies with Jan-Ru Wan and Dana Raymond. (right, in gold frame)

Yvonne Engler is from the Professional Crafts-Fiber program at Haywood Community College , Clyde, North Carolina, where she studied with Amy Putansu.  “New Moon” is handwoven from cotton and acrylic yarns, indigo dyed, and screen printed.  She believes that it takes “a certain kind of devotion for one person to run through all the steps involved in turning raw materials into a finished product.” (left)

Katie Frisch is from the  University of  Nebraska –Lincoln Master of Arts program in Textiles, Clothing, & Design, where she studied with Wendy Weiss.  Her piece “Adaptations II” is  made from silk organza nuno felt incorporating merino, shetland, alpaca, and Tencel fibers.

She states that “much of my imagery derives from trees, which offer abundant metaphors for the individual while serving as a monument to memories and important people.” (right)

Of “Lovers 2”,  which is made entirely of Hanji paper,  Ja Young Hwang states “The aim of this project was to create a modern eco-friendly art-wear dress inspired by… the Korean  traditional women’s dress, hanbok.” She is a candidate in the Phd in Apparel Merchandising and Design program at Iowa State University  program, Ames, where she studies with Jean Parsons. (right)

Mary Kircher is a grad student at the North Carolina State University College of Design, located in Raleigh.  She studies Fibers with Susan Brandeis in the Master of  Art + Design Program.

The “Sunset Series” is an ikat double weave of hand woven cotton.  About her work she states, “This series of work is an exploration of how to capture the wilderness through light, transparency and integration of figure and ground.”

Skye Livingston is a junior at the Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri, majoring in Fine Arts Fiber.  She studies with Pauline Verbeek-Cowart.

Her piece “Twisted Knit” was created of industrial felt without the use of knitting needles, and was manipulated to create the twisted structure. “This work reflects experimentation in both materials and process. A common theme found in all of my work is that of time. My pieces have a sense of time, either showing the implied effects of time, alluding to a possible movement or function or displaying one’s nostalgia for time lost.”

Emily Parkinson is a full time apparel design student at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY in the Fiber of Science & Apparel Design program but is currently studying abroad at the London College of Fashion.

She states she is “inspired by unique surface designs and embellishments, innovative materials, and exquisite detailing and trying to incorporate such elements in all of my work, be it sculpture, textile designs, costumes, or fashion pieces.”

“Feng Shui” was created using  a Sonobond machine, which she describes as fusing fabric with heat, pressure, and sound waves.

Kristy Sullins studies with Jeanne Brady in the BFA Fibers program at the Appalachian Center for Craft,  located near Smithville, Tennessee and is affliated with the Tennessee Technological University.

She says that “Biology and anatomy are the driving forces behind my work. Taking something microscopic and making it macroscopic brings an importance and presence to something that usually goes unnoticed and unseen. I work with various media, mostly synthetics such as acetate and polyester. Through binding, melting, work I create the forms I have detained as specimens.”

Jacob Wilkinson is in the BFA program at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, with a concentration in Fibers. He studies with Brooks Harris Stevens.

His work “Tree” (right) is made of vellum, chiffon stained with red cedar and rivets.  “Bettering Your Sunday Best” incorporates silk, cotton, pins, sutures, mirrors and ribbons with his hand dyed and  embroidered piece. (left)

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Confluence Keynote Pat Hickman and Nancy Mckenzie were the award judges for Currents, the exhibition of work in textile media by student members of SDA. The judges felt that overall it was a good student show that demonstrated mastery of technique and a wide range of exploration.