Innovation Nation! Mixed Media in the Fiber Arts

Hi, Everyone. Linda here. I recently sat down with Valley fiber artist, Sharon McCartney to talk about her work, its inception and the works of other artists she appreciates.

I learned so much from our talk that I was compelled to share it with the rest of the Valley Fiber Life Tribe! Her artist statement gives a great introduction to the driving forces behind her work:

My focus on natural details reflects the thrill of unexpected discovery, encounters with wildlife, observations of growth, movement, and found pattern. Fragments are taken out of their original context to provide new meanings and metaphors. Invented script and other marks are used to communicate the mystery and spiritualism I find in this immeasurable world.

Thank you for talking with Valley Fiber Life. I am pretending I am Lois Lane. Ruby (the dog) is Jimmy.

I know that you started out as a traditional watercolor painter, traveling throughout the British Isles painting landscapes and gardens. What was the impetus to move away from that broad, painterly expression to the fiber work you do now?

It was a combination of things. I got tired of doing just watercolors I wanted to start incorporating pattern into the work. A lot had to do with rediscovering my art history roots and with influences discovered on my travels. In Japan, I looked at folding screens and scroll paintings, and in the American Southwest, I was fascinated by shrines and retablos.

I found I wanted to combine pattern and representational imagery. I had also studied different forms of medieval reliquaries and Japanese screens and really appreciated those formats. All of this inspiration led me to mixed media constructions.  

I began to combine watercolor imagery with collage, incorporating different papers. At the same time I got involved with book arts and started thinking in terms of smaller formats and combined image panels. Shortly after this I took a class at Bennington with Bob Ebendorf and Keith Lobue, called Shrines and Icons, where I learned a lot about combining materials, vintage materials, and found objects. It allowed me to combine my love of nature collections and painting with in a new format; creating a small number of wooden shrines, small box pieces. This opened up a lot of new thinking for me. I started enshrining natural objects.

So now you have moved from painting the big picture to focusing on the details of that big picture. Now you are truly focusing on the nature within.
Exactly, and that in turn made me realize it was something I did as a child, constantly collecting natural objects, picking wildflowers, and generally being in tune with nature. It was a more intimate relationship with nature that I wanted to get back to. This process brought me back to focusing in on details.

Did you set up little shrines around your room?
I had collections everywhere, but nothing was really organized. I just collected. Ten years or so of collecting led to incorporating those collections in my work.

I have to say this really goes hand in hand with the books I was also making at that time. In them I combined fragments of old writing, bits of shorthand and an emphasis on mark making in general. I started playing with the idea of juxtaposing black and white drawings from old botany and zoology books with my own observed forms.

At that time I took Bob’s class again and became his class assistant. My relationship with Bob and the conversations we have had over the years have instilled in me an appreciation for a well-crafted object, and for fully integrating all the surfaces of a piece. The choice of materials and following though with excellent craftsmanship is vital to my work.

I see that constantly in your work in the layering of textures, the introduction of paint, stitching over paint, the rocks with the lace. There are a series of questions and answers within pieces and the series as a whole.
Sometimes a piece or even a whole series will start with a collection of objects then the pieces start to feed off of each other. Inevitably I have found the collections and raw materials are not enough. I need to make the materials I use for collage.

I use Seta color, and gelatin printing, and have recently printed on organza to transform vintage fabrics into something new. Cutting up illustrations from old books and coloring over them. I tend to build a stash, a vocabulary that I draw from, by cutting up bits of lace and fragments from old books and linens and then painting over them When I start I like to a whole lot of stuff around me from which to choose.

A self made paint box so to speak.
Yes, a lot of what I do is layering and creating a history with in the piece. Paintings start with a collage base, and then I add layers, which could include stenciling, painted objects, embroidery, and/or additional collage.

I had never thought about it but each piece in and of itself is history. That’s great.
History has always been interesting to me. I love the manifestation of time onto something.



I am intrigued by vintage objects; and the times when they were created. Those were times when people practiced handwriting, and a well-crafted letter was amazing, Everyday objects like doilies and handkerchiefs were embellished with beautiful stitching and lace details.

I always collected things like this and didn’t know what to do with them, until started playing around with them one summer when my studio access was limited. At the same time I was doing books, and found that one idea from a book would be realized in a painting somewhere down the line. I value the ability to work on different things at once. Each piece feeds another in some way.


Here is what strikes me about your work: your ability to perfectly marry traditional drawings, elements and craftsmanship in such a contemporary way.

You have jumped out of the traditional boat that others would want to put you in. Taking this imagery out context and putting it onto patterned backgrounds, then juxtaposing it with unusual objects creates surfaces that constantly change. It all ceases to be so literal.

I find that traditional wildlife painting to be really static. It just doesn’t have the sense of life that I am looking for. I really want to communicate the sense of wonder, the whole act discovering the bits of nature in the woods when your whole focus is tuned to that one thing and everything else becomes background. It goes back to the idea of enshrining things that really impress you.



Do you have favorite fabrics or some that you want hang onto?

There are some intricate laces I will probably never use. I love finding stained fabrics, linens with the patina of age. These are things that people really used, The whole aging effect is a really natural process and gets me interested.

The challenge for me is not being too precious about a piece. I am aware that somebody spent a lot of time making these things and I want to make sure I respect that artistry. And of course my found objects feel precious just because they are limited resource.

Whose work is influencing you at this particular time?

I have an ongoing interest in Japanese artists like Hon’ami Kōetsu, and in the collage work of Lenore Tawney and Betye Saar. I have recently been looking at contemporary Scottish painters for color.



Thanks so much for talking with Valley Fiber Life. It’s always great fun hanging out with you.

You are welcome, Lois.



Throughout this interview, Sharon sewed, creating the palette that she needs, the stuff that is the stash to create her histories. Please visit Sharon McCartney Art to see more of Sharon’s work.

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