(Above: Southwest Skies placemats by Kathleen O’Hern)

Edited by Randi Bjornstad

The Maude Kerns Art Center has a rich collection of fiber art pieces on display through Aug. 25, including everything from woven wall hangings to clothing (shawls, wraps, scarves, even a coat) to table linens (runners and placements), and even bedding (pillows, blankets).

The organizer of the show is the Weaving Guilds of Oregon, known familiarly as WeGO, a nonprofit organization formed by a collection of fiber arts guilds in 1982 and dedicated to supporting the work of fiber arts and their artisans.

Lucy DeFranco’s Wild Colors Coat

Hence the exhibit’s title, Filaments: Weaving Guilds of Oregon. Fiber artists applied for inclusion in the show, and works by more than 30 artists were selected by juror Barbara Setsu Pickett, a retired associate professor from the University of Oregon and herself an internationally recognized fiber artist.

Pickett chose a wide array of articles for inclusion, with “self-care” as one of the considered motifs, in terms of artworks that represent “tactile shelter and comfort,” created with natural dyes and materials from local surroundings of the artists. She described her choices by saying they are “reminders that our beautiful planet is under great stress and needs our immediate care,” identifying in many of the pieces “a sense of impermanence, of transformation, and emergence.”

A third of the selected artists come from members of the Eugene Weavers guild, and half of the awards were bestowed on local artists, including Best Use of Color & Design to Diane Pigg for her Shades of Oregon; Best Technical Excellence to John Morse for Winter Diamonds; and and the Complex Weavers Award to Susannah Day for Tyger.

Pickett will give a public talk about the work and the show from 2-3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19.

Filaments: Weaving Guilds of Oregon at the Maude Kerns Art Center

When: Through Aug. 25, 2023; special presentation by the juror of the exhibit, Barbara Setsu Pickett at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19

Where: Maude Kerns Art Center, 1910 E. 15th Ave., Eugene (corner of 15th and Villard streets)

Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday during displays

Information: 541-345-1571 or online at mkartcenter.org

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