Artist Talk: Variations On A Theme
Artist Talks at Detroit Fiber Works are always interesting and engaging. It's an opportunity to hear the artist's perspective on their work - their intentions, aspirations, techniques, and more. Please join us!
MARJORIE BROWN:
"Exploring color, line, texture and composition, especially in how it relates to nature, has been a joyous focus since childhood."
Marjorie Brown earned a B.F.A. (emphasis on drawing and printmaking) from Michigan State University along with a teaching certificate in art education. She has also completed coursework in drawing and fiber at the College of Creative Studies, painting at Mass College of Art and she has participated in numerous art workshops and seminars.
Her artwork has been shown and sold at various venues in Michigan, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. One of her large fiber works was exhibited and sold at the ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, MI.
This is Marjorie's first gallery show in many years, and includes watercolor, felting, stitching, printmaking, and drawing.
KAREN SANDERS:
Karen F. Sanders is a documentary photographer, educator and lens-based digital media artist working in the realm of cultural landscapes and the relevance of race, ethnicity and gender in visual protocols of representation mediated by photography-based digital geographies. The primary interests of Karen's work is with photography as it is experienced in its broadest and most common sense and how photography functions empirically as object and knowledge. The pursuit of her creative work along these lines has prompted investigations of the persistence of difference in the embodiment of normative conventions of seeing and visual representations in digital thresholds of public space. Karen's current work is situated from a position centered in the self-narrated socio-cultural identity unique to Detroit and woven beyond some of the erroneous, line drawn notions of the city, digitally interfaced and globally networked.
MANDISA SMITH:
"I am endlessly fascinated by the art of felting, and delighted by the transformation of wool fibers into abstract art."
Mandisa Smith is a lifelong Detroiter whose work is constantly evolving. She explores color, form, and texture as a means of expression, finding inspiration in nature, African art forms, and past and current events. Questions, answers, and more questions.
NAJMA WILSON:
Najma Ma’at Wilson has been a fiber artist for over 30 years. Initially her interest in traditional African textiles impelled her to study fiber design at the College for Creative Studies (CCS). There she studied weaving, dye techniques, silk screen and jewelry and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. Upon graduation, Najma established her own design business, Hand and Spirit, creating fabrics for body adornment and interiors. She also has a Master’s Degree in Education from Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Many corporations feature her wall hangings: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Sinai Hospital, Crittenden Hospital, Henry Ford Hospital, Compuware of New Jersey as well as private galleries. Her fiber work has been exhibited in Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Washington D.C.
