ARTIST STATEMENT
My work currently centers around personal considerations of comfort as an abatement to anxiety, which I process through making: hands-on, playing, experimenting, failing, puzzling, and problem-solving. Working with a range of materials, processes and techniques, including basketry, knotting, weaving, and sewing, I reckon with the tension between perceived dualities of comfort – a desire for softness and a need for structure. Can a person with a predilection for control, order, and correctness find ease, acceptance, and beauty in letting go? Comfort objects can encompass much more than the obvious. They are defined by their ability to soothe and reassure us, so they are crucial during a time of stress. I find comfort in organization, grids, familiarity, and rules. Through an ongoing process of tying knots from Clifford Ashley’s 1944 encyclopedia Book of Knots, I recognized their appeal: there is a correct way to tie each knot – a defined form, a workable puzzle. Knowing that I have tied a knot correctly in an otherwise subjective world provides a unique comfort: I am right. Other craft-based processes, from sculptural basketry to weaving, offer similar guidelines and confidence-building parallels. Familiar shapes like woven grids and repetitive techniques evoke a sense of calm and order. Through my art practice, I investigate these ideas of comfort and further grapple with concepts of right and wrong (paired with the subjective ‘good’ and ‘bad’), and work to reconcile a need for both control and comfort.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Meg Morley is a craft-based artist in the Detroit metro area. She has worked professionally as an executive producer and project manager. While mostly self-taught, Meg learned basketry techniques through workshops with renowned instructors at Praxis Fiber Workshop and Penland School of Craft. Most recently, her work has been shown at Matéria Edition Gallery and in the Scarab Club 111th Annual Gold Members’ Exhibit in Detroit. She has also exhibited work in a number of group shows in Detroit, MI, Springfield, IL, Milwaukee, WI, and Norfolk, VA. She was invited to participate in the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Pentaculum Residency program in 2024 and will return to teach sculptural basketry in 2025. Meg currently volunteers as the Managing Director of Detroit-based Fiber Club*, for which she oversees group exhibits, programming, partnerships and operational functions.
© Meg Morley