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Claire Louise Mather: Springtime , detail Textile artists and nature so often seem to go hand in hand. It is not always the case that textile artists have nature as their primary inspiration, but more often than not you will find the connection there, it is a connection of intent.  There is something about the physicality of textile work that seems to draw artists time and again to the natural world as canvas. Sky, earth, ocean, and all the permutations between, have fascinated and continue to fascinate textile artists.  There are so many interpretations and projections of the natural world, all of which are valid, intriguing, adding always to the burgeoning vocabulary that is contemporary textile art. Claire Louise Mather Claire Louise Mather: Memories of March One of those contemporary textile artists who have the natural world as a central pillar to their creativity, is Claire Louise Mather. Claire uses a combination of photography, collage, and textiles in her work in orde...

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. Textile art There is a space in textiles, as in other disciplines, where art and design can play an interactive game. The singular subjectivity of fine art and the general practical requirements of design may seem to be poles apart, but anyone who has worked in both fields will know how the two share more than they sometimes wish to admit.  Creative individuals who straddle art and design are actually relatively large in number, I myself have a design degree, as well as fine art training and sensibilities, and find it relatively easy to move between the two, understanding and empathising with the two different outlooks on creativity. The artist and designer Tamar Branitzky is just that, an artist and a designer. Her work straddles the two worlds, with some of her output being aimed specifically at the fine art world, and some specifically at the design world.  Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. BO1 fabric Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. BO1 fabric Int...

Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Ocean Current Series 1 Textiles as a medium, is broad and complex. It has a history that is domestic, as well as aesthetic, practical, as well as decorative, singularly one dimensional, as well as infinitely multi-dimensional. It is this dichotomy between textile as functional fabric, and textile as expressive artform, that helps to give broad expression to the textile world, but it can also, at the same time, make it difficult to understand what textile as art really is, and where it fits into the great complexity that is the creative arts. Where textiles as art finds its eventual place, is still an ongoing one. That more and more artists and designers are turning towards the broadening of the scope of textile art as an expression of themselves and the world they both see and interact with, has changed the surface of textiles as art, literally. Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Ocean Hollow Series 1 Illustration: Jennifer Gaye. Ocean Hollow Series 2 The textile...

Illustration: Flower Boy , 2015 (fabric, thread, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive) China Marks is an artist that was originally a sculptor, but over the years the artist has moved into textiles, and now produces a range of individualistic fabric-based compositions. China is best known for her large format drawings, which take the form of fabric collages. Source materials for these collages often include an eclectic range, such as old commercial tapestry reproductions of historical paintings, pieces of found fabrics, various embroidery pieces, and general ephemera.  Over long periods these eclectic raw materials are cut up by China, then formed, added to, removed from, and reformed, the process being repeated over and over, until both materials and process produce the desired effect that she wants to see within a composition.  Illustration: All Kinds of Lost , 2015 (fabric, thread, fusible adhesive) Illustration: Better Living Through Chemistry , 2013 (fabric, tea-dyed la...

Looking anew at the simple and seemingly obvious parts of our lives, is and should always be a fascinating one. Some may scoff at the seemingly pointless nature of introspection, of re-examining what we all take for granted, but if you are not willing to look at aspects of your life, to re-examine what you have been told, and what you have taken for granted, what is the point of you living your life from your own unique perspective? If you are to live life through another, then that is a judgement to be made by that individual, personally it is not mine, nor ever will be. So I am more than happy to feature the work of the artist Giulia Gazza. Giulia has taken the motion and the notion of the single point, as a fascinating project of intent. What is a point? Is it a physical mark of intent by one entity upon the state of another, is it a symbolic projection of existence, a transitory moment in space and time, or is it something in between these thoughts, or even something entirely outsi...

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Migration. Hireath So many creative individuals come to work with textiles, some briefly integrating the discipline within their larger mixed media work, others looking for some significance that they feel that textiles can bring them. Artists can drift into textiles through seeming coincidence, others with a more defined purpose.  Fine artists in particular often seem drawn to textiles as a medium in which they feel comfortable. It seems to give them a means in which to express themselves more clearly, more empathically, it gives them a subtlety of colour and texture, and perhaps more importantly, it gives them a means to express themselves emotionally. Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 1 Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 1  (detail) The artist Roxanne Lasky came to textile art through fine art painting, she originally expressed herself through watercolour and oils. It is not hard to see elements of that fine art discipline in Roxanne's work, sh...