Greene County News Report
YELLOW SPRINGS — The Yellow Springs Arts Council will present “I Make Things Because I Must”, which features fiber art, including quilts, stuffed magical creatures, textile portrait dolls, embroidery art and hand-crafted rugs by Kathy Verner Moulton, Mary Noren, Phyllis Schmidt and Holly Underwood May 20 through June 12.
The reception will take place 6-9 p.m. Friday, May 20; the artists will speak 7 p.m.
“All through my life my need to create has driven me,” said Verner Moulton. “No matter what else I was doing, I had to have some piece of artwork in progress.”
For Verner Moulton, the needle and thread became familiar tools during her high school days and the skill proved to be useful after throughout her early years of marriage as she free-lanced sewed for a living. Later, her sewing abilities were channeled into creating quilts and wall hangings. Her series, “Yellow Springers” dolls, began as a gag gift for a Christmas Party, each has his/her own pair of handmade “Ghirkenstomp”sandals. Visit http://www.kavooom.com/ for more information about her.
“In my teens, I started sewing with my grandmother,” Noren said.
Noren is inspired by vintage fabrics, robust colors and quirky motifs. She designs and creates clothing, costumes, quilts, creatures, wall hangings and toys. Her pieces are described as playfully whimsical. Noren is responsible for a sewing school in Yellow Springs called the Mad Hatter Sewing Studio. Visit https://www.facebook.com/The-Mad-Hatter-Sewing-Studio-1412754539015022/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel for more information.
“Making things truly helps me stay sane,” Underwood said. “Bringing to life the creative ideas in my head brings me simple happiness like nothing else can.”
Underwood learned to embroider and sew from her mother and grandmother, still holding onto the cross-stitch she did at 10 years old. More than three decades since, she has branched out to quilting by machine and by hand, embroidery of various kinds including hardanger and sashiko, making curtains and clothes, and toys and masks for her son. Her current favorite upcycled materials are felted wool sweaters and t-shirt yarn. Though she has dabbled in other types of crafting such as paper making, mosaics and candle making, for her it always comes back to needles, thread and fabric. Visit https://www.facebook.com/TinkermansDaughter2/ for more information.
“For me it’s fun, a way to play.” said Schmidt
Schmidt’s background is in design, but her work now focuses on the decorative arts, creating colorful whimsical art out of bits and pieces from different media.
These ladies create art to give to friends and family as gifts, to decorates their homes, to remake something old into something new, according to the YSAC. The organizaiton said they are driven to make things, to surround themselves and their loved ones with handmade items that fill a need in a personal way, to repurpose something broken into something useful, to shun mass produced products in favor of one-of-a-kind gems.
The YSAC Community Gallery is located at 111 Corry St.
