Shirley Metcalf

SHIRLEY METCALF


Shirley Metcalf, mixed-media artist, exhibits her work nationally.  Metcalf holds a BFA in Painting from the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford in Connecticut and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University in New York.  She is a graduate of the Art Cloth Mastery Program in San Antonio, Texas.  Metcalf works out of a private studio in Norfolk, Connecticut and teaches workshops in art and surface design.  Metcalf creates mixed-media works, paintings and installations using both traditional and non-traditional materials, including fiber, cloth and thread.  Integral to her works is art cloth, created by dyeing, printing, wax resist and discharge on a variety of natural and synthetic fibers.


ARTIST STATEMENT


From Mechanical to Innate explores the concepts of the masculine versus the feminine.  My process of layering cloth using surface design techniques in this series is symbolic of my own life.  A painting is created using a variety of mechanical component shapes (lock signs, snap rings, lock washers, hooks, pins or shackles).  The cloth is printed with these positive images, creating the ground for subsequent layering.  The process reveals negative images that emerge as organic, natural, and anti-mechanical.  The resulting shapes are enhanced, adorned, or embellished to create a meaningful composition.


It is my belief that as humans, we exude traits that can be classified as both masculine and feminine.  The balance of these traits within us defines our personalities, our way of thinking and how we live in the world.  It is this necessary balance of the masculine and feminine that makes our world vital and whole.