Bio:
A first generation American, daughter of a European immigrant mom, I was born and raised on Staten Island; ultra-urban, multi-cultural NYC meets Atlantic Ocean vistas & beaches. Fundamental to my work is an upbringing in a community of immigrants on an urban island, and a rural Western US adulthood. In my work I combine layers of imagery and multiple, often repetitive craft skills. With this craft- based process I seek to manipulate appropriate materials and skills, often cross purposing them. Often, I’m drawn into a visual exploration, gain a point of entry, and only in hindsight do I more fully understand what the work is about, and where to go with it. This leads to work in series, which is very satisfying.
Artist Statement:
Faith is an artist/farmer with linked practices and entwined conceptual references, shepherd of wool sheep & grower of dye plants. She began as a printmaker, then became a felt maker. She has expanded to other textile practices and incorporated additional materials as concepts & imaginings have demanded; most recently she’s a dye plant gardener and plant- dyer. In her craft- based practice she seeks to combine layers of imagery & multiples, manipulate appropriate materials, often repetitively. About this she says “Using this kind of visual exploration, only in hindsight do I more fully understand what the work is about, & where to go with it. This leads to work in series, which is very satisfying”. A rural setting is central & generative to her work. Using imagery of water, water crossings & entries, water’s edges to explore the time we’re in – a time of impasse and change, thirst, floating, immersion, cleansing, quenching, flowing along with questionable agency. Of this long work with a theme Faith says: “Water exposes us to media shifts at its edges, which makes it unlike other edges in the world that we may not register until we hear their howls—city/country, urban/rural. Much comes down to borders & bordering. I experience and explore these concepts as a rural dwelling farmer. Knowing that I’m stewarding traditional tribal lands affords me a long-time view. Finding myself in “place” I’ve gained a basis for looking at the possible common grounds of those who are in-between - those in diaspora, unhoused, or in migration – but also tourists, who self-displace temporarily by choice.”
JUMP:
From an exuberant urban upbringing I made a life in rural Washington many years ago. This image is one in a series that emerged during Covid- pandemic, 2021. My need to explode into water, my favorite environment, shows up here. I was focusing on what the cannonball into relationship with the natural world would be like. The fabrics are all plant dyed from grown or gathered materials from my home, as well as shell buttons and various threads.