Description
ARTIST STATEMENT
As an artist, I am always looking at bodies, and reading relationships. I tune in to my senses, trying to really see and understand the world around me. I anthropomorphise and empathize with life I find in nature. I love to tend a garden, and watch life’s cycles. For my fiber art, I collect hair and fur of various Earthlings. When I needle felt, I combine my painting skills with domestic methods and materials. Braiding, stitching, painting and felting are all meditative actions. They’re the warp that runs through the weft of generations and cultures. I emotionally absorb everything I read and hear, and need to process my reactions through my art practice.
I am deeply troubled by the MAGA movement’s attempts to dictate beliefs, discount scientific evidence, ban books, remove contextual language from curriculum, call art “pornography”, and damn “wokeness”! I think the key to healthy life on Earth is not denial but awareness. I make art to stay aware and be present (also to find refuge).
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Abigail paints, draws and needle felts as an expression of empathy and a celebration of life on Earth. She loves being with people, traveling and returning to her garden studio in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Her art has been featured in juried and solo exhibits, with A.R.C. Gallery in Chicago, Wisconsin Visual Artists, Walker’s Point Center of the Arts, and Jewish Museum Milwaukee. Abigail engages people with her live portraits and personalized commissions, murals and room color transformations. As a descendant of European immigrants, living in America, she is interested in different perspectives and histories. She believes that diversity, equity and inclusion make a stronger, more beautiful society.
© Abigail Engstrand