50 Years of California Fibers: Marilyn McKenzie Chaffee

A member of California Fibers for 38 years, Marilyn McKenzie Chaffee discovered the group in 1981 at a Gallery Eight exhibit in La Jolla, California. She was impressed with the group’s professionalism and diversity of styles and fiber materials. When she was juried in, Chaffee was the first in the group to exhibit a pieced and stitched art quilt.

Through the years, California Fibers has remained a welcoming community, encouraging and supporting both young and experienced artists. As new, talented artists have joined the group, Chaffee has marveled at their diversity of styles and innovative approaches to fiber. She writes that it is always a proud moment when her work appears in a new California Fibers exhibit alongside the work of the many talented members.

An early example of Chaffee’s work is Crystal Medallion (1984), a large,  pieced, and hand-stitched wall quilt.

More recent work by Chaffee includes her “Venture Series”, which incorporates hand-dyed fabric with  intricate layers of pigmented gauze. This is Venture Series #7 - Summer Memory.

Here’s a detail of the piece.

Her new work is smaller, as Chaffee continues to explore the use of hand-stitching in her original textiles. This is Moon Shadow.

50 Years of California Fibers: Peggy Wiedemann

Peggy Wiedemann had seen shows by California Fibers and was really impressed with the scope and quality of the art. So when she was asked to fill out an application to join, she was really excited.  

Transitions, 2012, pine needles, Irish waxed linen

She was voted in about 12 years ago and is so glad that she became part of this group. Wiedemann says the group has surrounded her with really talented people. She likes the way they share their work and looks forward to seeing what they do next. She is learning so much about all kinds of fiber art. 

Let Your Imagination Soar, 2017, pine needles, Irish waxed linen, rag cordage, metal toy wheels, found objects

Wiedemann writes that California Fibers has really influenced her work in a very positive way. Even though they are using different fiber techniques than she uses, their work really inspires her. Plus, their positive support allows her to try new things that lead her work in new directions.  

Extensions, 2020, rag cordage, Irish waxed linen, wire, wood, fishing reel, fishing objects

50 Years of California Fibers: Rebecca Smith

Rebecca Smith has been a weaver for 35 years, and a member of California Fibers for the past three years. Because weaving is a solitary, time-intensive activity, it has been important to her to have a community of other fiber artists to interact with. What she loves about California Fibers is that each member has taken their medium in their own unique direction. This creative innovation resonates deeply with Smith, as she is always exploring and devising new approaches to working with her materials and her tools. In 2007, she began experimenting with incorporating wire and beads into tapestry weaving. By 2017, when she joined California Fibers, she had a body of work that includes free-standing and sculptural tapestries, such as those pictured here.

This is Surfacing.

This is Farewell to Summer.

Smith’s current work is driven by an impulse to create lighter work, perhaps due to the heaviness of the times we are living through. She is exploring a technique called “transparency”, which involves weaving an open linen ground cloth while simultaneously weaving inlay to create a design. Her unique take on the technique is to create two or more overlapping images that advance and recede. The pieces turn gently in the air, allowing the images to play hide-and-seek with each other.

Below is Flight.

This is Entwined.

A video of Entwined moving in the breeze.

50 Years of California Fibers: Serge Nepomnin

Serge Nepomnin joined California Fibers after one of our exhibitions. That exhibit impressed him with the freedom of expressions, diversity of artistic styles, and approaches to the chosen media. As a silk painter and fashion designer, Nepomnin frequently used fabrics as a canvas for his ideas. However, often he wanted to experiment and use textiles in other creative ways. At that show, he saw artists using textiles freely and joyfully, producing stunning pieces of art, unlike anything he had tried before. He found this unbounded artistry to be very contagious, and got a strong desire to join California Fibers, to explore new ways to create, incorporate variety of fibers in my art, implement new ideas, try new approaches and techniques, and experiment and share his art in a company of like-minded, talented people.

Nepomnin is still a relatively new member of California Fibers. He will continue to be a silk painter, but he already feels a certain rebellious free spirit brewing inside of him, and it shows in his more recent paintings. He is overwhelmed with the amount of new ideas he has, which are fighting for the first moment to come to life. It is an honor to be a part of the California Fibers and celebrate their fiftieth anniversary together.

Here is Laughing Sisters.

Here is Present.

Here is Oak and Apple Art Nouveau with a close up view.

50 Years of California Fibers: Ellen Phillips

Ellen Phillips is a founding member of California Fibers, having been juried into the group in 1970. An artist and educator, Phillips is known for her leadership and strong compassion for the environment and its issues and concerns. Phillips’ work demonstrates superior quality and set the bar for other members who were juried into California Fibers. A nationally and internationally known artist, Ellen received her MFA degree in sculpture from San Diego State University.

Phillips writes that her work is an extension of her experience, particularly of her inner experience of self search, change, and growth. Segments of that experience relate to current themes of thresholds, walls, barriers, boundaries, and passages that investigate physical spaces that impinge on inner psychological space and allow an openness to the irrational. Squeezing this physical/psychological space forces confrontation with inner barriers built for self protection, as well as with the boundary between the conscious and the unconscious. These ephemeral barriers leave traces in memory and dream, and pull from the collective unconscious. The process of tapping the energy sources of the unconscious evolves through manipulation of material. Processes of stacking, interweaving, and meshing, and their effects on dematerialized inner space give information on decision making and reveal thought patterns. The immaterial funds the material.

Below is Passage #18 (1990, rebuilt 2002), 28” x 18” 15”; hardware cloth, wire, tin, screening, transparencies, steel, paint, etc.

Below is Passage #21 (1993), 74” x 48” x 40”; hardware cloth, steel, wire, S-hooks, vinyl, writings, stones, paint, etc.

Below is Bridging #2 (1990), 52” x 30”x 78”; hardware cloth, steel, wood tar, resin, paper, wire, nails, etc.

50 Years of California Fibers: Kathy Nida

Kathy Nida has been a quilt artist for many years, mostly working on her own without the benefit of the connections that art groups bring. She finds that the images in her work sometimes make it difficult to fit into the quilt world, and because she works with fabric and uses quilting techniques, the art world often also dismisses her work.

Frustrated with a lack of artistic connections, in 2012, she went looking for art groups that would accept and help her exhibit her work. California Fibers was one such professional group that took her in. The first piece she exhibited with the group was Ball.

Over the last 8 years, Nida has appreciated the camaraderie and discussions that come from being with a group of fiber artists who value the ART part of the fiber-art designation, as well as the craft and process of making work that has connections to both functional and historical work. Although she sometimes still has to decide about what work will be appropriate for specific shows, the support and opportunities the group provide is well worth it.

Nida’s artmaking techniques have not changed much in the last 8 years, but some of her quilts have become more political and resonant with current events. Womanscape, below, deals with many issues women might face in our current world, from sexual harassment to immigration, discrimination, and issues of reproduction and abortion, as well as worldwide issues of pollution and climate change.

Although Nida still largely works alone in her space (both mentally and physically), the continuous conversations and connections with like minds have been a positive force in her artmaking.

50 Years of California Fibers: Polly Jacobs Giacchina

Polly Jacobs Giacchina joined California Fibers in 1986. She had written an article back then that was published in Fiber Art Magazine, and a current California Fibers’ member, Genie Shenk, contacted her to talk. She was a paper maker and a member of the group. They talked about all sorts of fiber, travel, working, and art in different countries. This led to a friendship and an invitation to submit to the next California Fiber jury. Jacobs Giacchina was accepted into California Fibers and says she has benefited so much through the years.

Her work has always used handweaving and basketry techniques. An example of her early work below is Tri-Form, made from date palm and steel cable…

Also from that time period is Always Together, made from date palm and willow.

Jacobs Giacchina writes that she felt it was a time when she started doing separate units and uniting them to relate to each other.

Jacobs Giacchina states that California Fibers has provided her with valuable friendships and encouragement for her fiber art work. She has grown with her designs and materials but has continued to use those basketry and handweaving techniques throughout the years. She also very much appreciates the exhibition opportunities with the group and its expanding presence in the art world.

One of her more recent pieces is Fabricated, made from Palembang reed and copper (9” x 20” x 12”).

Another recent piece is Snare, an installation of wire and stone (two units, each approximately 70” h x 35” w x 5” deep).

50 Years of California Fibers: Gail Fraser

Gail Fraser’s passion for creating art began later in life. She was accepted into a graduate program in the mid-1990s. Curious about the many processes, she found hand twining, making handmade paper, and studying containers and the many complex environmental layers her inspiration and joy.

Fraser became a member of California Fibers the same year she graduated with an MFA degree, in 2001. She felt very connected and proud to belong to such a well-organized, professional, and strongly committed group of members who have a similar passion for creating and showing how cohesion works together.

Below is Finding The River (1997), an exploration and expression of Fraser’s intuition and conception about her personal philosophy relating to one’s life journey. She believes a spiritual interconnection within oneself is learning to listen to one’s own inner voice and trusting that voice as a guide to becoming more true to oneself.

Dauntless (1998), below, represents the courageous people who put fear, uncertainty, and self pity behind them and boldy continue to travel through life with resolution.

Field Desk, below, is a continuously changing and growing installation filled with Fraser’s treasures, consisting of gifts from friends, found searching in nature, or from shopping at antique stores. It is a deliberate invitation to guest viewers to encourage them to interact by touching, smelling, observing, scrutinizing, and examining the details and mysteries that surround the desk and its environment. Fraser feels that Field Desk captures a new meaning and relevance in the connection of nature and cultural issues in a more balanced and harmonious relationship between nature and culture.

50 Years of California Fibers: Brecia Kralovic-Logan

Brecia Kralovic-Logan originally joined California Fibers in 2012 and was a member for 2 years, until she moved out of state.

At the time, she was just beginning to explore collaging silk onto canvas. She had spent years creating wabi sabi, wearable art with weaving, knitting, crochet, dyeing and felting. An example of her older work is below.

After living in Washington for 3 years, Kralovic-Logan moved to San Diego and rejoined the group in 2017. This time, her collaged silk wall pieces featured her hand-dyed silks, metal, natural elements, and photos printed on silk. An example of her newer work is below.

Being a part of a group of professional artists working in fiber inspires and motivates her to stretch herself and her artwork in new ways. 

50 Years of California Fibers: Michael F. Rohde

Michael F. Rohde joined California Fibers in early 1998, looking for an organization with a focus on professionalism, and has never been disappointed. At the time, he was weaving nominally functional rugs, such as Shadow Grid (below), which were however most often placed on the wall rather than the floor.

Over the years, both the organization and its members have matured and grown professionally. Rohde’s work is now tapestry that originates in concepts first, with designs following the idea. His most recent body of work began with thoughts about textiles that might embody a language. This is Illuminative below.

Here is Redacted…

In this time of self isolation, Rohde found the time and energies to work on a series of tapestries that started with ideas testing the abstraction of imagery to minimal bits of visual information. This series has required much careful hand dyeing of the yarns to emulate some of his photos from Oaxaca. They are on the loom now and will take much of the rest of this year before they can be finished and readied for professional photography and exhibition. The best place to see those is on his Instagram (@michaelfrohde) or Facebook account.

Rohde recently had work in Fiber 2020 at the Silvermine Gallery in Connecticut. The online catalog is here. His piece Enough was exhibited through early July.

50 Years of California Fibers: Liz Oliver

Liz Oliver is a relatively new member of California Fibers. We’re looking forward to seeing her work evolve.

Liz writes, “As an artist, I am constantly looking for new ways in which I can grow. I take great joy in learning new techniques and exploring everything associated with textiles. Most of all, I am always excited to discuss the art of dyeing.

What I enjoy about being a part of California Fibers is having a sense of community: being surrounded and supported by a group of artists that can relate to my passion for fibers. From these relationships, I feel I will gain knowledge from those who have had more experience within the world of art. I am also seeking the practice of speaking about, as well as exhibiting my work so that I can thrive in my artistic career.

Another element of membership that I appreciate is hearing about the other techniques that people use, as well as other perspectives. It is always fascinating hearing about someone else’s process, anthropologically speaking.

In terms of the influence that California Fibers has had in the development of fiber as an art form, I feel that we have kept it at that: as a form of art as opposed to a hobby. The fiber world often gets overlooked as a “crafter’s hobby", but California Fibers has elevated it to an art form through regular gallery exhibitions throughout the years. At a recent meeting, the notion was brought up that we refer to ourselves as “fiber artists”, instead of “artists”, which I found interesting and something worth exploring.”

50 Years of California Fibers: Charlotte Bird

Charlotte Bird joined California Fibers somewhere around 1989 or 1990. When I juried in, I was making one-of-a-kind women’s clothing and selling on the craft show circuit around the country. When I made Tightrope (below), I had finished writing the manuscript for a how-to book and was waiting for the editor's comments. I felt as if I was standing balanced on a tightrope waiting for the show to begin. This piece represents the transition from clothing to art work. The pieces are quilted, lined with hardware cloth to make them stiff, and mounted on curved plexiglass hangers that I bent in my oven. Air moving around the pieces causes them to bob and quiver like standing on a tightrope.

Tightrope: 1996, 6 fiber tile pieces, each mounted on curved plexiglass hangers. It was in the 1997 California Fibers "Boundaries" exhibit at Riverside Museum of Art.

California Fibers gave me the platform to change my work and get shown. It also gave me a circle of friends and colleagues for support and critique.

Microbes 19 Shelter In Place, 14" x 14", hand-dyed and commercial cotton, polyester thread, hand-dyed perle cotton thread; hand-cut and fused applique, machine stitched, machine quilted, hand embroidered with lots of french knots.

Bird has been working on a microbes series since 2017. Often the images in the "microscope's" eye are actual microbes. Several of the early pieces were inhabited by the plants and animals found in lake water from Toolik Lake, Alaska. After that, she started making up microbes, often using Ernst Haeckel's drawings as starting points. And then came Covid 19. Unfortunately, it is pretty. Since it has directed my life for over 6 weeks now, I thought it should be memorialized in the series.

50 Years of California Fibers: Linda Anderson

Linda Anderson has been a member of California Fibers for four years. To be part of a group of artists who explore specific expressions of working with the variety of fibers available is stimulating. These are all professionals in their media, and it’s an honor to have my work included with this caliber of art.

California Fibers has broadened the public experience of what fiber is and can become as an art form. This group of artists has lifted fiber into the world of fine art.

Linda started making art quilts in 2009. This is one of her early pieces, Bamboo Cathedral.

Over the years, her process and the complexity of her work has changed. This are both recent finishes, Consuelo…

and Remembering.

50 Years of California Fibers: Cameron Taylor-Brown

Cameron Taylor-Brown has been in the group for 25 years now. As a newcomer to Southern California, California Fibers provided her with access to other area professionals who were passionate about fiber as an art form. The group was a lifeline at a time in her life when she was juggling work, family, and art making. Over the years, colleagues have evolved into friends. It remains a joy to welcome new members into the group and see what happens next.

What was she making in 1994 when she joined? This is On the Fringe/Diagonal Path #2, fiber and mixed media, 64” h x 48” w, and was published in Fiberarts Design Book 5.

What is Taylor-Brown making now? Her most recent work is Reflections/Manhattan Bridge, weaving, photographic transfer, embroidery (33” h x 25” w).

Manhattan Bridge is one work in a series that explores the interplay of real and reflected, positive and negative, warp and weft.

50 Years of California Fibers: Fiber Art Now Article

We recently had an article published in Fiber Art Now, telling the story of California Fibers, with plenty of photos and quotes from current members. Read it below.