Joan is a sculptor working in fibers. Each piece of her dimensional fiber art begins as a cast-off wool sweater. She disassembles, dyes and cuts the sweaters before layering and sewing them into something new. The results are then transformed through felting from soft, flat fabric into sturdy three-dimensional shapes. After felting, Joan adds more texture and meaning with hand stitching using hand dyed wool yarn or other threads. While developing her unique techniques through exploration and experimentation, Joan learned what her materials want to do, and now uses those tendencies to express her intentions.
Her art aims to illuminate connections within the natural world, and between it and the man-made world. Joan’s hope is that people connect with her art through their own experiences, gaining insights that inform their future experiences in the natural world.
“Contemplating beauty gives pleasure to our senses, which can bring peace and calm in stressful and difficult times.
My art lets people bring the beauty of the natural world into their homes, giving them a space to contemplate and wonder about the world while revisiting their own experiences in nature.”