Artist Statement
My work is considered innovative. I combine felt, paint and wood. I have developed this process through years of experimentation and exploration.
I love the intense color and texture achieved by wet-felting raw wool. My wall pieces are at once art, craft and design. My background lies in fiber, but I started my artistic life as a 2D artist, drawing and painting. It was during a painting class at MassArt that a professor noted my love of texture and suggested I check out the Fiber dept. I never looked back! This was my calling. The ability to express myself through both color and texture was perfect in the form of weaving, dyeing and felt making. I still use acrylic paint as it changes the soft nature of the edges of the felt and enhances the color, taking fiber to a more sculptural place. I use a palette knife to scrape a layer of paint onto the surface of the finished felt, I then cut it into strips and use it as a cross section. The compositions are created right into the frame in a slow, painstaking process. The final step is to spray the artwork with a UV protective varnish which seeps in and protects out from fading. My pieces are screaming to be touched with their color and texture.
AWARDS
2025, Fiber Award, Philadelphia Museum Craft Show
2019, 2nd place Fiber, Coconut Grove
2019, Invitational award, Old Town
2018, Directors Best Artist of Show, Krasl
2017, Artists' Choice Award, Art Providence
2017, Best in Craft, Belleville
2017, Purchase Award, Gasparilla
2016, Juror Award, ArtCity Austin
2016, Juror Award, Main St Fort Worth
2015, Best Fiber, Craft+Design Show, Richmond
2015, Award of Excellence, Plaza Art Fair
2015, Crested Butte Art Fair, 3rd Place overall
2015, Madison, Invitational award
2015, Coconut Grove Art Festival, Fiber award
2015, Artfest Ft Myers, Merit award
2014, St. Louis Art Fair, Best mixed media
2014, Madison Art Fair on Sq. invitational award
2013, FOFC Highland Park, Best mixed media
2012, St. Louis Art Fair, 2nd place, mixed media
2011, St. Louis Art Fair, 1st Place, mixed media
2009, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Fair on the Square, Best 2D mixed media
2009, Wells St. Art Show, Best 2D mixed media
2008, Kansas City Plaza Show: Best in Show
2008, Mt. Gretna, Pennsylvania: Top 10 in Show
GALLERY SHOWS
"150x150", group show Laconia Gallery, Boston, MA. 2012,2011,2009
"Three Muses", group show Ellen Miller Gallery, Boston, Ma. Feb. 2012
© 2021 by Amy Gillespie