‘Fiber Matters’: Arts council’s April exhibit brings together silk, wool, public events

Silk and wool may seem like an unusual pairing, but art centered on these two fibers will be displayed in the Doña Ana Arts Council (DAAC) gallery in April. Fiber artists in silk and wool and Navajo-churro wool production and uses will be available at several points in the month to discuss their work and processes. The artists displaying work in weaving include Patricia Dunn, Ric Rao and Svea Peterson. Judy Licht will exhibit works with dyes on silk.

The exhibit is open April 1-28 at the DAAC Arts and Cultural Center, 205 W. Amador Ave.

Dunn shared that weaving tapestries, dyeing yarns and creating other fiber art expressions are essential to her well-being. She is self-taught and the beneficiary of workshops offered by the Handweavers Guild of Boulder, Colorado and its fiber community. She graduated from the State University of New York in Plattsburgh with a degree in Spanish language and literature and attended graduate school at the University of Colorado.

Her process includes editing the images, blind contour drawings, designing the tapestry and drawing on a grid that becomes her weaving guide. Dunn has artwork in private, public and corporate collections.

Licht has a bachelor’s degree in art education and a master’s in painting from NMSU and a master’s in art therapy from the University of New Mexico. She taught art in public schools and practiced art therapy in clinical and community settings. Licht’s lifelong passion for color and feelings for the natural world inform her work and enable her to explore various silk painting techniques. Her work can be seen at the Agave Artists Cooperative Gallery in Mesilla.

Rao has been involved in fiber arts for more than 40 years. He started hand spinning in 1975, then experimented with natural dyes and weaving. Rao started a dye garden in Las Cruces, showcased on the PBS Series “Southwest Yard & Garden” in 2002. He has conducted natural-dye workshops throughout the Southwest for more than 15 years and he is a certified yarn and fleece judge. His master spinner program at Olds College in Olds, Alberta, Canada, included an in-depth study on spinning and dyeing for colcha embroidery.

A life-long fiber artist, Peterson was taught to knit as a young child by her mother in Stockholm, Sweden. She has mastered most aspects of fiber arts: teaching, designing, sewing, dyeing, knitting, and felting. Peterson spent 20 years as part of the arts community in Fort Collins, Colorado. She teaches workshops in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

DAAC is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 5 to 8 p.m.  the first Friday of each month (First Friday Art Ramble) and noon-5 p.m. the second Saturday of each month (Second Saturday art event).

Call 575-523-6403. Visit www.daarts.org.

Exhibit events

Public events will be held as part of the Fiber Matters exhibition. All events are at the DAAC Arts and Cultural Center except the churro farm visit.

• Saturday, April 9, noon-5 p.m.: The Diné Bé' liná from Shiprock, New Mexico, will have an information table during DAAC’s Second Saturday reception. They will talk about churro sheep and life on the reservation and will have samples of their work, show how to card wool and have some items for sale.

Svea Peterson will set up small looms for people to try and will demonstrate felting with a small project called felted soap. Judy Licht will discuss Nuno felting.

• Saturday, April 16, Janna Miller’s churro farm, 12625 Doña Ana Road in Radium Springs, will be open to the public. Visitors can meet the sheep and their lambs. Miller will talk about raising churro and their gentle temperaments.
• Saturday April 23, noon-3 p.m.: Ric Rao, Mary Pierce, and Julia Gomez will demonstrate dying churro wool with natural plants and bugs that grow in the New Mexico desert. Peterson will set up a table for children to try simple weaving and felting.