.: Sharon Richardson

Friday, June 21, 2013

Sharon Richardson

Artist Statement

My pursuit of arts and crafts began early, learning sewing in grade school with mother's teaching and assistance. Over the years I learned a variety of skills such as embroidery, needlepoint, crochet, knitting, quilting, and finally fabric paint and dye for surface design. The way various art forms are pursued, the more interest there is for any other possibly related art connection, not to mention better available skills. For example, quilting began in the tradition mode and grew to be very modernistic and pushed me over the edge to use surface design to create my fabric for stitching and/or quilting or piece of fabric art.

I used random and personal designs for my early artwork, creating fabric designs with stitching and attachments. For inspiration I surveyed a huge variety of books and authors, like Linda and Laura Kemshall, Jane Dunnewold, and many others. For my earliest formal training I attended a summer school art session just before the 9th grade. I attended ComplexCloth by Jane Dunnewold in 2005, and again in 2008. I was subsequently selected to attend 2-1/2 years of training by Jane Dunnewold in Art Cloth Mastery starting in 2011.

Memberships

Surface Design Association

Education

Art Cloth Mastery, 2011-2013, Instructor: Jane Dunnewold, San Antonio, TX
BS Accounting, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead, MN
AA Architectural Drafting & Construction Technology, North Dakota State College of Science, Wahpeton, MN

Blue and Orange I, II ,III

Detail

Detail

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This exhibition represents three years of intense and dedicated study on the part of the participants. The Art Cloth Mastery Program 2011, in which they were enrolled, required five week long sessions in the San Antonio studio, in addition to demanding assignments which were addressed during the interim periods.

Artists interested in surface design processes are at a disadvantage in this country. Most opportunities for study require either enrollment on site at a university or college, or are offered as week-long workshops through adult education summer programming. The inability to relocate to a program venue inhibits artistic mastery, as does the limited experience of a week’s class without a systematic follow-up.

The Mastery Program was developed to address this reality. The selected participants study surface design techniques on cloth, and also color, design and the articulation of a personal visual language. Each artist is required to develop a research project related to the dyes, chemicals or paints used as part of the patterning palette. Assembled together, these projects will eventually become a catalogue of research to contribute to the surface design field at large.

Professional behavior is also a topic of discourse. Artists prepared a resume, visual documentation, an artist’s statement and a biography as part of the requirement for completion of the program.

This exhibition is a sampling of the finest work being presented by serious students of surface design today. I expect each of these artists will continue to generate studio work for exhibition after the program is completed. A few may choose to extend their circle of influence by teaching. Others may decide to write a book or produce some other lasting contribution to the field. The future is rich with possibility. It has been my great pleasure to accompany them on this exciting path. I congratulate each on the efforts of the past two and a half years.