Week 12 — Artist OTW — Heather Anacker & Krista Feld
Artist: Heather Anacker & Krista Feld
Media: Textiles and Fibers
Website: N/A
Instagram: N/A
Heather Anacker and Krista Felt are alumni of the California State University of Long Beach and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, specializing in Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts. A lot of their work comes from materials that aren’t typically used in traditional art. They like to use materials and create art pieces from ideas that create a spark in their minds and get right to it. Their interests and work explore the idea of creating pieces that aren’t conformed to mass production. They want to make unique pieces of work and have their audience really be vulnerable and enjoy their art.
One type of art that Anacker and Felt focus on is fiber art. They used techniques such as Soumak to create a flat weave. The lines, or threads, in the piece were meant to look jagged in the sense that they overlap each other and aren’t meant to be stick-straight going across the piece. A few of their pieces were pastel colors and others were mixed with brightly-colored fibers. The textures in her weaves are bumpy so there is a very 3D effect to them. It becomes extremely detailed upon looking closer to them. For the details that were put into one of their weaves, there were circles in the design. Those had less weaves put in and was much gentler and had a dotted stitching design. A lot of the designs that both Anacker and Felt did were personal to them, so you can see a lot of the differences between the two’s different approach t their art, but overall complement each other well.
Overall, the Dwelling really displayed Anacker and Felt’s advocacy to support art in the sense that it shouldn’t be about mass production, but more about the things around you. Whether that be repurposing wood chips or even boiling down the ink used in your artwork, you can create your own art with what is around you, as long as you really put the work and effort towards making it how you envision it to be. Their exhibition also touched on how others should perceive artwork in general. It created the opportunity to step out of their comfort zones, take off their shoes, and experience their work barefoot so that they wouldn’t just walk in and out and glance at their work for a few seconds. Taking off their shoes and coming in bare feet allowed them to be vulnerable and commit to really looking at their art.
I think that ultimately, Anacker and Felt really taught me that art is something that can definitely be created simply with things around you. As long as you have a vision in mind, you can repurpose things or even make your own ink. It takes effort and determination to see your visions through and if you stick to it you can definitely create with you want. I also realized how much vulnerability can do for you. If you take the opportunity to be a little more vulnerable with yourself, you can enjoy things around you just a bit more.
