ARTIST STATEMENT
Pamela Penney has a three-fold mission. She utilizes her fiber and mixed media art and her process to raise the visibility and value of traditional feminine craft, from spinning yarn to crochet, knit, embroidery and more. Secondly, the focus of much of her work is with the creative reuse and salvaging of materials, spinning paper advertisements and plastic bags into the “fiber” of her creations. And lastly, she utilizes her art and teaching process to heal others and the planet with art as therapy and a contemplative meditation practice.
Pam’s recent artwork incorporates her handspun yarn and her “spells” for the peaceful world and healthy environment she envisions spinning into a reality. Pam loves to share her knowledge of traditional textile art techniques and utilizes her teaching opportunities with both children and adults as another means to send the “ripples” of this vision out into the world.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Pamela Penney left a career in interior design and architecture behind in the 90s and began utilizing her creative talents as an artist and arts educator, allowing herself a more flexible schedule and the ability to work with and inspire children and adults. The awareness that art and movement can support wholeness and greater health and well-being has led Pam to obtain her certification in MindBody Therapy. She continues to work toward integrating inner focusing and somatic creativity practices for her students with the same desire to increase peace and ease productivity that motivated her at the start of her career.
When Stitch Witch Pam is in her art studio she “spins straw into gold”, making art yarns often from salvaged and upcycled materials with her many spinning wheels. These art yarns are used to create mixed media artwork, weaving together a wide variety of ancient textile art techniques. Her passion is drawing from the wisdom of the ancestors into contemporary creations with a focus on revisioning the value and visibility of what has been viewed traditionally as “women’s work” and giving new life to what was formerly looked at as junk. As for the time Pam is not in the classroom or her studio, she can be found tossing balls to her two adopted terriers, Fiona and Stormy, or golfing with her husband.
© Pamela Penney