Deborah Weir's Solo Exhibition
Fierce Winds
May 15-June 2, 2012
Frostburg Museum
Hill and Oak Streets Frostburg, MD 21532
(301) 689-1195
This is an exhibit of 20 of Deborah Weir's colorful Fierce Winds series fine art quilts. They feature an array of surface design techniques including dyeing, painting, printing, laminating, soy wax resist and hand stitching, and they evoke both the destruction and the beauty of nature's force.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Though
I started out as a costume designer, I had a career as a linguist for
34 years, but never stopped making art. Since I retired in 2006, I’ve
gotten a boost of creative energy inspired in part by professional
workshops with Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn and Jane Dunnewold which
have helped me hone my skills and further develop my voice as a mixed
media textile artist. Though contemporary in every sense, the work I do
references traditional “women’s work,” slowly built up, mostly by hand,
with a needle, using traditional materials – thread, floss, beads – in
addition to more modern ones such as Tyvek, metals and textured paints.
My work is detailed, often with reflective surfaces and tiny, rich
elements, and does not always neatly fit typical categories but extends
the definition of the “quilt” to include dyeing, painting, printing,
collage and heavily worked or embroidered surfaces. I love the
process of making, but my work is always idea driven. I work in series
so that I can pursue themes of importance to me. The 40,000-15,000
year-old cave paintings of northern Spain and southern France, and
Australia, are the subject of one such series. Pomegranates, which
represent fecundity and come in the most amazing colors, are another.
Detritus: rusty metal, bits of plastics and random “junk” sparkle and
seduce when repurposed into art and comprise yet another. Language, of
course, including early human mark-making, is an ever-present theme.
Recently I have been considering the planet's lack of usable water which
impacts the lives of countless members of the human family, and also
the detritus we leave behind us. This exhibit focuses on Fierce
Winds, natural phenomena which tear through the lives of people around
the globe often leaving a trail of terrible destruction in their wake.
As with much in nature, excitement and beauty accompany the devastation.
The work is best viewed both from afar and up close so the overall
image is seen in relation to the detailed surface. The objective of my
artwork is to awaken the mind of the viewer by means of visual
seduction.
Harmattan II
Oroshi
Santa Anas
BACKGROUND:
1968 B.A. Costume Design, University of Hawaii
1973 M.A. Deaf Education, California State University, Northridge
1989 M.A. Linguistics, California State University, Long Beach
1972-1976 Taught the Deaf for Los Angeles County Special Education
1977-2006 Taught the Deaf and ESL at El Camino College, Torrance, CA
2006-present Full time studio textile artist
EXHIBITIONS:
Solo Shows:
Deborah Weir at the Hangar Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2010
Deborah Weir: Textiles, C1D Gallery, Long Beach, CA, 2008
Deborah Weir: A Career, STRS Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 2007.
Deborah's
work has been seen in numerous exhibitions in galleries, museums and
festivals in the US, Australia, Korea and Europe, and in
catalogs, art magazine and, most recently, in Best of
Artists Worldwide Abstract and Mixed Media volume II, 2012.
Curated:
Quilts on the Wall at the Hangar. Santa Monica, CA, 2012 Three Perspectives, Performing Arts Center, Redondo Beach, CA, 2010
For more information, please contact:
Deborah Weir
FiberFly@cox.net
www.DeborahWeir.net
FiberFly.blogspot.com
21 Encanto Dr. Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274
310 325-1895
