Familiarity

Now this is what I meant to say when someone asked me why I do what I do:

"The medium of fiber appeals to a broader audience because it uses familiar materials and techniques and thus provides a more accessible and understandable art form. How many people sleep between paintings or put on metal pants in the morning?"

Susan Taber Avila is one of a number of San Francisco Bay fiber artists  whose work appears in the on-line gallery www.fiberscene.com. (She's also a co-founder of the website.) This excerpt from her artist statement took me from surfing  dead stop. Sometimes I wonder why I don't paint or sculpt or do something else -- and I'm not even sure about whether I think the familiar materials do make fiber arts more accessible and understandable to the general public -- but I know I connect in a way that I don't to painting and more traditional art disciplines or media.

I sometimes feel really stupid about my work, with its narrative and folkloric content, with its purposeful naivete. I mean, I did go to art school. Shouldn't I do something more sophisticated or important or serious.  Do I sound whiny again? Perhaps its about the familiarity of storytelling. Or maybe I need to let myself try something serious.

Thanks, Susan, for putting it so well.  And letting me mutter about this.

Comments

[rayna]

Ah, Susie, I have so often asked myself why I continue to work in textiles despite the fact that they are less accepted as serious"art" than the same work done on canvas. I know exactly what you mean -- although I did not go to art school.