'Fiber, Nuts and More' Gallery Reception

Fiber, Nuts and More, an exhibition of three artists’ work that features felting, hand weaving and quilt making, features a gallery reception from 7-9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 6 and includes light refreshments.

The exhibit runs through Saturday, Jan. 28.

The collaboration between Marilyn M. Prucka, Loretta Oliver and Sue Walton started out when the three artists inherited three boxes of black walnuts left behind from another artist. Black walnuts historically have been used for dark brown natural dyes. Their exhibit is designed to inform people of that history and to utilize black walnuts in unique artwork.

Prucka said of the show: “Loretta Oliver proposed that the three fiber artist friends use locally harvested natural black walnut hull dye as a unifying step in a collaborative exhibition. Each artist will, in their medium, interpret what that means to them and in response create new works.”

She “connects with nature, especially the flow of a river and the ever-changing environment. She uses layers of fabrics, adds and subtracts color from walnuts and other natural dyestuffs, such as indigo…cuts, stitches and produces organic- feeling works of art on cloth.

In general, her quilts are “abstract impressions of the landscape around her riverside studio in Monroe. She sees her fiber work as graphic, painterly, sculptural and, at the same time, a source of comfort. They are the comfort of place.

“For years I’ve been fascinated by the rhythmic course of seasons on the River Raisin in Monroe,” Prucka added. “My abstract quilt work has reflected my interest in the unique colors and textures of that landscape. In 2009 I first used walnut hulls harvested from riverbank trees as a dye and subject adjunct in the creation of my three “River Mudflats Series” quilts. Those quilts were dyed, heavily abraded, bleached, overdyed and stitched; interpreting low water bars, abrasive ice floe tracts and spring eddies. Low Waters from that series will be in the exhibit.”

Prucka’s credentials include a MFA in Textiles from Eastern Michigan University in 2005. She has a BA in printmaking from the University of Toledo and an AS with a studio fine art focus from Monroe County Community College. She has been working in fibers since 2001 and collagraph printmaking since 1988. Starting in 2005, Marilyn’s quilts have been exhibited in group and solo shows and they have been juried into and won various awards in local, regional and national venues. She gives artist talks, teaches fiber and printmaking workshops and has been a guest lecturer at Wayne State University and Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. Marilyn is active in several area fiber art groups and is a volunteer docent at Riverside Arts Center Gallery in Ypsilanti.

Walton, in contrast, “uses natural dye colors on yarns.” She utilizes computer design to manipulate and arrange yarn so that it has a complex weave to it. “The yarns are then hand woven on loom to create fabrics that are suitable for fiber art, wearable art and home fashions.”

She explores how garments are used as shelter in her portion of the exhibit. According to information from the Bloomfield Hills artist, “Garments can be shelter of the body, protection of the soul, masks of people facing the world, and as the myriad personas a person projects into the world. Sometimes these garments are as literal as a coat that can be worn on a body or as figurative as one’s imagination can project.”

The fabrics she creates demonstrate their purpose. “They are soft and sensuous to remind people of their basic nature, or hard and rigid as befits a guardian against a hostile world.”

Walton’s academic credentials include BS in Art Education from Miami University, a MBA from Baldwin Wallace College and a MLIS from Wayne State University. Her work experience includes serving as a weaving instructor at Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center since 1998; in addition, since 1986, she has given various workshops in weaving and surface design and exhibited in galleries and art fairs/festivals both near and far. She’s a member of the Michigan League of Handweavers, Michigan Weavers Guild, Creative Arts Council and Michigan Surface Design.

Oliver uses the walnuts to make what she calls “nut cases.” “The vessels are seamless, and created with felted wool fibers, a variety of mixed media materials and walnut dyes, the color altered with metals and other natural elements.” 

Her interest in textiles began when she made doll clothes with her mom’s direction. She started weaving to complete an undergraduate degree requirement (she has a bachelor’s degree in apparel design and a Master’s degree in fiber arts from Wayne State University). She moved on to take part in seminars at the local and national level. In 1998, she succumbed to her current passion of felting when she took a workshop. She uses her felting skill to hand weave fabric.

Oliver explained her artistic process. “…Felting is all about change — a process of transforming dry wool fibers into fabric by adding soapy water, physical pressure and agitation … The tactile warmth and quality of felt is soothing, particularly in the aftermath of change. Building the felt into sculpted forms provides me with a respite from the flat and narrow. My felt sculptures begin with a flat pattern. Incorporating organic shapes from nature appeal to me, along with hand stitching into felt.

“…My purpose for this exhibit is to explore color extracted from black walnuts. This will provide the viewer with a light-hearted display of creatures that are inspired by the physical characteristics of nut casings, while emulating general human idiosyncrasies. The creatures will come in all sizes, standalone or in groupings.”

Gallery hours for Fiber, Nuts and More are from 1-5 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays.