A Quiet Year in the Forest. Kathie Biggs, artist
The Weaverville Art Safari returns Saturday, November 7, and Sunday, November 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, inviting visitors into studios throughout the greater Weaverville area. The free, self-guided tour includes 85 artists at 36 studios, with work spanning ceramics, glass, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, metalwork, fiber art, mixed media and woodwork.
Held each spring and fall since 2001, the juried tour gives visitors an opportunity not only to see finished artwork but also to explore the spaces and processes behind it. This fall, those stops include the studios of sculptor Keith Bryant and textile artist Kathie Briggs.
Briggs uses fiber to explore the natural world through original textile wall art, botanical monoprints and botanically printed scarves. Her nature-inspired wall pieces begin with observations and photographs before moving through sketching, fabric selection and layers of stitching and appliqué.
“I work much like a painter by first creating the background then moving toward the foreground, working in layers to add elements,” she says. “Each layer is stitched—quilted and/or embellished—before the next layer is appliquéd.”
Anytime Now. Keith Bryant, artist
Alongside her more representational work, Briggs has increasingly explored abstraction, using color and leftover pieces of fabric as starting points. Her process includes improvisational piecing, which allows a composition to develop without a predetermined pattern.
“The process is like play since when I begin I only have a very general idea of where the piece is headed,” Briggs says. “As each small section evolves, I arrange and rearrange them on my design wall to create the composition.”
In her botanical monoprints, she arranges foliage on fabric and uses chemical processes to produce prints, but a number of variables can change the chemical composition of plants and therefore the results.
“Even the amount of rain can affect the plant’s chemical composition which can vary from one tree to another of the same species,” she says.
During the Art Safari, visitors will enter Briggs’ home through a living room displaying her artwork before continuing downstairs to her working studio. There, works in progress will be visible on her design wall, and she plans to demonstrate free-motion quilting and eco printing.
Bryant is a sculptor working in wood, clay and metal.
“I end up choosing different materials for a few different reasons,” he says. “Most often, I work with a material that has the ability to carry my ideas through its materiality or abilities.”
This Art Safari will mark the first at Bryant’s new home on Ox Creek, where the studio has abundant natural light and maintains a visual connection to the outdoors. Visitors will see several bodies of work, including his painted-metal Kite series, ceramic spheres related to his 365 series, and smaller ceramic sculptures.
“I find people like the colors and textures that I work with, and with the Kites, they respond to the tension of the balance,” he says. “As a maker, you always hope people will connect with your work on whatever level they can.”
Learn more and download a tour map at WeavervilleArtSafari.com.
