Press Room

South Dakota Fiber Artists Find Fantasy, Imagination, Visual Dance of Color in "Uncommon Threads" Exhibition

By: Nikki Vroman, Brookings Arts Council Staff

The love of fibers has brought two South Dakota artists together for a unique exhibit.

The Brookings Arts Council will host an exhibition by Ann Taecker of Watertown and Gloria Aspinall of Hot Springs. "Uncommon Threads," will be featured at the Community Cultural Center from Oct. 2 – Nov. 3. There will be an artist reception for both on Oct. 12, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Taecker paints on silk with dyes. "I’m not sure what I do is always a cognitive process but often intuitive and emotional." She creates all her colors from red, yellow and blue dyes. Using only the best quality products, she imports her silk from China and her dyes from France.

"Silks With Attitude!" is her line of "wearable art," and ranges from sarongs to kimonos. She also designs art for interior spaces. She says her work is about beauty, luxury and individuality.

Not only does she sell her art, she also teaches her techniques. She combines traditional fiber arts with a contemporary twist to bring the art of painting on silk to her students, supplying them with a wealth of possibilities as a means of expressing their individuality.

Taecker enforces three goals when in the classroom: She wants her students to create something that is personal to them, to mix colors and to have fun. She teaches students how colors interact with each other, how colors change when placed next to each other and how to make colors, as she puts it, "dance."

She said working with silks lets students gain an appreciation for natural fibers. Taecker’s residencies include individual student projects or group projects in the classroom, community adult workshops and teacher-in-service training. Taecker emphasizes experiencing joy in the art of creativity and the sensory experience of working with silk.

Her most recent work is a series called "Bodacious Blooms." This series works to draw the viewer into an intimate, larger than life interaction with common flowers we see in the Upper Midwest. She prefers the Midwestern flowers to the exotic, tropical flowers usually associated with silk painting.

While these works are pictorial and representational, her wearable art is abstract. "It is about how colors interact with each other, how they can change and move just by their juxtaposition," she said. She has been called "the master of the visual dance of color."

Taecker boasts that her work is in collections on five continents, and says that one of her proudest accomplishments was being named Best of Show during her first year at the Brookings Summer Arts Festival.

Another major achievement came a year ago when she and another artist from Minnesota were awarded a grant from the State Arts Council in the collaborative artist category, receiving the highest score in their category. The grant was for a program they are implementing which will teach people how to make clothing out of everyday household fibers.

Taecker says, "Through my work, I hope to affect an understanding of and an appreciation for non-traditional art forms; specifically fiber arts." She says that she is glad that her “Silks With Attitude!" allow her to share an "ultimately luxurious sensory experience" with her customers.

Aspinall’s love for diverse colors, shapes and textures found in the changing landscapes throughout western South Dakota provides the inspiration for her art. Color and design are instrumental in her use of light and juxtaposed shapes to create illusion and depth. She says that the interpretations are not necessarily meant to be realistic but that it is a starting point for fantasy and imagination. "I don’t do real," she says, "I’ve been called an abstract expressionist."

Her artistic concern is to "maintain balance within a unique composition while producing a visually pleasurable work," she said. She tries to offer her viewers the opportunity to look and enter into the composition. She wants them to feel surrounded by the movement of line and color and still be able to feel a sense of stillness. "I want the viewer to be able to both dance and meditate."

After receiving an Artist Project Grant from the South Dakota Arts Council, Aspinall challenged her artistic vision. She decided to incorporate digital technology into her work for a combination of literal thinking and creative spirit.

The result was something she calls “Naturescapes. This concept involves innovative pieces, which can be displayed either on or off the wall as three dimensional fiber pieces.

"I try not only to represent how I see images in their environment but how they see themselves in their environment," Aspinall said.

Each sculpture invites the viewers to become physically involved in the creative process by offering gloves so viewers can play and create different compositions. "I want my viewers to be able to find something in my work that means something to them personally."

As Aspinall changed from fiber artist, to sculptor, to printmaker, the question she is most often asked is, "Because of the incorporation of digital technology, do you consider your new work art?" She replies, "I no longer worry about justifying or classifying, I leave it up to the viewer."

She said her artistic life is growing and developing in new directions since incorporating the "computer" into her creative process. Aspinall accepts that she is trying something new that is rooted in fiber arts, quilting, photography and set design and also understands that this new "art form" may not be acceptable because it has neither a history nor the critical language to describe it.

"Things aren’t always as they appear. I’m creating an alternate reality."

The exhibit can be viewed Tuesday – Saturday, Noon to 5 p.m. For more information, call the Brookings Arts Council at 605-692-4177.

Pathways leading to unknown destinations were a common theme in both artists’ paintings and so a title for their show somewhat created itself. Their exhibition entitled "Following Passages" will be on display at 524 4th St., through June 22 A reception and gallery talk for them will be on June 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.