Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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16 UCW JULY 6 - 12, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Intersection: Textiles and Printmaking by SONI MARTIN COVER STORY Limitless is the only way to de- scribe the exhibitions at Gallery 208 in Fayetteville. Each exhibition is an opportunity to share experimental contemporary artists, how curiosity has shaped an artist's style and how material, sometimes the immate- rial, can communicate an idea or feeling in a work of art. Intersection: Textiles and Print- making by Martha Sisk is the newest exhibition, opening July 12, and ex- emplifies an artist who has merged the boundaries of fiber arts and the art of print. e public is invited to meet the artist during the reception of Intersection at Gallery 208 on July 12, between 5:30 to 7 p.m., to view an exhibition of wall hangings and fine art prints. Visitors to the reception will see how effortlessly Sisk moves between fabrics and printmaking — each medium influ- encing the other, and the ordinary becomes extraordinary! Whether it is fabric or printmak- ing, the core of this artist's success is being inspired by nature and how fragments, or parts, can result in balanced completeness. Working methodically and intuitively, Sisk responds to pattern, color, shapes and texture to create cohesive de- signs and compositions. Working with fabric since she was a child, as an adult Sisk continues to work with fabrics to create dolls, children's clothing, quilts and wall hangings. Her turning point towards creat- ing nonfunctional fine art with fabrics took place in 2005 when Sisk attended a workshop on a "confetti" embroidery technique. Her piece, "ank you, Monet," is the result of the workshop and is being exhibited in Intersection. "ank You, Monet" is an 18" x 24" inch framed work created from an assortment of many, many small pieces of fabric arranged to create an image. Created by the "confetti" technique, Sisk and the other par- ticipants were inspired by pictures they took to the workshop. Many small scraps of fabric were arranged to resemble their images, the sur- face of loose scraps held in place with "tull," an undetectable netted fabric, then machine sewn on top to keep all the small pieces of fabric in place. (On the label, next to the work, is a small picture by Claude Monet, which inspired her interpre- tation of his landscape using fabric.) In comparison, fast forward to 2014, an 18" x 24" woven silkscreen in the exhibit titled "Borne Along by Dreams" is an example of how Sisk was influenced by her experiences in fiber arts to create an original type of fine art print. Rhythmic patterns of shapes of color and the surprising ways of creating a recog- nizable image by the unexpected placement of various textures are the results of her fiber arts experi- ences. Since the 1970s, due to the Women's Movement, there has been a growing interest in fiber arts as fine art. During the last thirty years, a true renaissance in fiber arts has taken place by contemporary artists — nationally and globally. Gallery 208 is exhibiting Sisk to share a regional artist's response to fabrics by displaying her wall hangings and original prints as a way for visitors can compare the ways two differ- ent mediums have influenced each other. Intersection is also an exhibition