TWELVE VOICES FROM ONE: Karen Turckes

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Karen Turckes

KAREN TURCKES

Karen Turckes has worked with textiles all of her life. She dyes her own cloth and adds interest to the fabric using various surface design techniques. Turckes is the owner of Windberry Studio, a private studio in Michigan where she makes and sells hand-dyed fabrics and art cloth. Turckes teaches dyeing and free-motion stitching classes and designed and published "Design your own Fat Quarter Landscape" pattern. She is currently working on an "Earth Elements" series with a focus on water.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Water, the giver of life, is powerful, peaceful, magical and mystical. There is another world under the sea. My art is about water because I have always been drawn to it. I love its many moods and colors. I love the way it feels and sounds. Light is knowledge. Everything is made of light. It is the messenger of life. I am fascinated by the interaction of light and water. The light passes through the water in a brilliant display of rays. In shallow water it forms patterns on the sandy floor. Imagine yourself under water and see the light reflect on the floor below and on the surface above. Light reflects off the splash of a wave or the gentle ripple of a quiet pond.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

This exhibition represents nearly three years of intense and dedicated study on the part of the participants. The Art Cloth Mastery Program 2010, 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 Art Cloth Mastery Program was designed to address this reality. The selected participants study surface design processes on cloth, and also color, design and the articulation of a personal visual language. Each artist is required to complete a research project related to the dyes, chemicals or paints used as part of the patterning palette. When assembled, these projects will become a catalogue of research worthy of contributing 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. 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.

Jane Dunnewold