CART (0) ITEMS
Designer Profile
About Me
Amber and I met by pure chance, in art classes at the University of Minnesota that I didn’t sign up for. Initially, I barely noticed her as she quietly worked on projects in class; then I couldn’t help but notice what she spent her days making. Her paintings became collections of paper scraps layered with impulsive color strokes and artful scribbles. In another class she presented a girl’s dress made of paper, carefully sewn and covered with gesso, Romanian stamps, and poems that she had written. At the time art was a flowering interest of mine, and I was taking these classes to find a personal voice or passion: something that I saw in Amber’s creations.
After a couple weeks and a few words in passing she began to show me the sketchbook she was working on, sharing her ideas and her inspirations with me. As I thumbed through the sketchbook’s pages of random drawings, notes, and photographs I began to see a unified story emerge that simply couldn’t have been told any other way; and it was through her sketchbooks that her stories, her voice, had meaning.
That was her last semester at the U of M. She transferred to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she’d eventually graduate with a degree in drawing. At MCAD she continued to experiment with different materials and themes, and it was through these projects she became fascinated with natural materials, especially wool.
It started with a friend’s dance performance when she was invited to create a backdrop for the stage that sheep first became a major theme, both literally and symbolically, in her work. Then she created a memorial for hundreds of sheep lost in a barn fire in southern Minnesota; a fire in which the only survivor was a newly born lamb. At her graduation reception in MCAD’s main gallery her final student piece was hung: three massive charcoal drawings of sheep out at pasture. On the floor below were about a hundred small clay sheep, each covered with a small wisp of unspun wool wrapped around it. Anyone who asked was allowed to take one home.
After her graduation she continued to create new charcoal drawings, mostly to show in galleries and coffee shops. However, she became increasingly frustrated with art due to the relative exclusivity of the art scene in Minneapolis to the well off. She became disheartened to think that those who liked her work the best couldn’t possibly afford to buy drawings so she began to knit and crochet as a way to express and create. In the meantime like many art-school graduates, she worked as a barista.
Last year she traveled to New Zealand, where she learned about sheep first-hand by living with a family that raised them to sell their wool. It was through this experience on a bucolic farm that she decided to change the focus of her work to something more practical. Upon returning home that winter she took to the basement, borrowed books from the library, and became proficiently knowledgeable in the art and craft of the seamstress. It’s been through these efforts that her latest endeavor, Sketchbook Crafts, has been possible.
After a couple weeks and a few words in passing she began to show me the sketchbook she was working on, sharing her ideas and her inspirations with me. As I thumbed through the sketchbook’s pages of random drawings, notes, and photographs I began to see a unified story emerge that simply couldn’t have been told any other way; and it was through her sketchbooks that her stories, her voice, had meaning.
That was her last semester at the U of M. She transferred to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she’d eventually graduate with a degree in drawing. At MCAD she continued to experiment with different materials and themes, and it was through these projects she became fascinated with natural materials, especially wool.
It started with a friend’s dance performance when she was invited to create a backdrop for the stage that sheep first became a major theme, both literally and symbolically, in her work. Then she created a memorial for hundreds of sheep lost in a barn fire in southern Minnesota; a fire in which the only survivor was a newly born lamb. At her graduation reception in MCAD’s main gallery her final student piece was hung: three massive charcoal drawings of sheep out at pasture. On the floor below were about a hundred small clay sheep, each covered with a small wisp of unspun wool wrapped around it. Anyone who asked was allowed to take one home.
After her graduation she continued to create new charcoal drawings, mostly to show in galleries and coffee shops. However, she became increasingly frustrated with art due to the relative exclusivity of the art scene in Minneapolis to the well off. She became disheartened to think that those who liked her work the best couldn’t possibly afford to buy drawings so she began to knit and crochet as a way to express and create. In the meantime like many art-school graduates, she worked as a barista.
Last year she traveled to New Zealand, where she learned about sheep first-hand by living with a family that raised them to sell their wool. It was through this experience on a bucolic farm that she decided to change the focus of her work to something more practical. Upon returning home that winter she took to the basement, borrowed books from the library, and became proficiently knowledgeable in the art and craft of the seamstress. It’s been through these efforts that her latest endeavor, Sketchbook Crafts, has been possible.
