Artist Spotlight: Nancy Abney, Fiber
Artist Spotlight
Nancy Abney
During Moss Rock Festival, you can find Nancy at Booth 231
Check out Lynn’s artist page on our website
http://mossrockfestival.com/2011/09/09/nancy-abney-4/
What influenced your career path as a visual artist?
I have to say that my primary influence has been Junking! I work with “found” materials, salvaged textiles and thrifted garments that I deconstruct & re-imagine into fun fashion accessories.
Salvaging has been a kind of lifetime adventure for me–to find the treasure in things that others cast off, overlook, ignore. I rescued my 1960s green metal sewing table when a local office remodeled. My 1930s Formica kitchen table was on someone’s trash heap. My favorite vintage cocktail dress I found on the side of the road. So, my artistic expression is a natural extension of my basic life aesthetic of rescuing useable materials.
What kind of work will you be exhibiting for sale at Moss Rock Festival?
One of a kind pieces of wearable art: kitchen and garden aprons sewn from salvaged and vintage textiles; vintage buttons and beads turned into funky fashion rings and earrings, and –my favorite new creation–amulet cuffs: bracelets fashioned from salvaged textiles and vintage buttons, with messages inside to inspire and empower!
Tell us a little bit about your creative process.
By reclaiming materials and recycling them, sewing with care & creativity, I preserve the “vintage” aesthetic of hand crafting beautiful goods of lasting quality. My process evolves from synchronicity, thrift, and playfulness. I work with whatever I find, often acquiring raw materials with little idea of what they will become. The textiles literally speak for themselves (and to each other), and I approach the process in a very contemplative fashion, the primary element of which is observation. I literally try to get out of the way so the creative expression can flow through me.
How is your work inspired by nature?
My first upcycled designs were aprons for gardeners built from scraps of vintage botanical prints, so their very function was inspired by nature. Nature also inspires my use of textures, patterns & colors. But the deeper connection with nature is the goal of saving useable materials from the landfill and promoting sustainability by modeling for others the craft of repurposing.
How can people find out more about you?
My New Vintage garden aprons, vintage button jewelry, and upcycled accessories can be found exclusively at Naked Art Gallery in Forest Park. You can read more about my story and see photos of past creations at www.NewVintageShop.com
My latest designs are in public albums on FaceBook, so go “like” ’em!
Photos courtesy of Obie Travels Facebook Page
