Fiber Artist Mandy Greer

I was just over in the campus bookstore getting my $10 copy of Microsoft 2007, one of the perks of working on a college campus, when I saw the latest edition of Fiber Arts Magazine with the breathtaking cover seen above. I literally stopped in my tracks and picked it up immediately. I have never really ventured to call my self an artist, I'm a crafter making utilitarian creations with whatever flair I can come up with. Mandy Greer is a true fiber artist in the fullest sense of the word. She uses crochet, knitting, and sewing to create sculptures and create epic visions. Her current installation is called Dare alla Luce and can currently be seen at The Museum of Contemporary Craft.

She collaborated with dancer and choreographer Haruko Nishimura to create a multimedia performance and film that has been shown in Seattle. The Silvering Past focuses on the Slug Princess seen above. She takes myths or stories and artistically interprets them with her work. The blue is a poster for her latest installation and is without a doubt one of my favorite shots of fiber art I've ever seen.



Here is how Suzanne Beal, the magazine writer, summed up her work, "This kind of transformative touch marks Greer as a rare artist who aims for material immortality through the recycling of myth and meaning. A prolific alchemist, she fervently strives to make the worthless, worthy, and the old, new." What a beautiful sentiment to try to live.