Featured Artist Ellen Dickinson

Fiber artist Ellen Dickinson presents a fascinating portfolio of sculptures created using traditional basketry coiling technique and wrapping. See more by visiting her website.

 

 

I was very sick as a child, and spent many days indoors coloring and making craft kits, while my Mom knitted beside me. It was a time when creativity took me away from the pain. As my health improved, I returned to school and took advantage of the various art programs offered. They gave me joy, and I was cited for my talent.

 

 

In my early teens, my Mom taught me how to knit. I liked the process and the yarns, but I didn’t want to make clothes. At the same time, my school offered a class in embroidery that opened my eyes to a world of possibilities.

 

 

I visited the American Craft Museum frequently. I was amazed at the work displayed, especially the fiber coiling techniques of Ferne Jacobs.

 

 

Sadly, my Mom got sick and died of cancer. I went to college and immersed myself in studio art, with the memories of my Mom sitting beside me. After finishing my first year, I took an opportunity to be an apprentice to Les Bohenkamp, a fiber sculptor, on a grant at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

 

 

It was there that all the various threads of my artistic experience began to converge. I learned knotting, weaving, and coiling techniques to create untraditional fiber sculptures. I honed my skills and experimented until I discovered my passion for the coiled basketry technique and natural linen warp I still use today. My mind and heart united as I worked, threads binding me to the past with my Mom and the future of my creative spirit.

 

 

I married, had two children, and finished college with an arts degree. Then I spent twenty-five years teaching children with special needs. Busy as I was with life, I always had studio space. I remember as my kids grew older, they would notice I was snappish and would say “ Mom, you need studio time.”

 

 

They were so right. I carved out more time to work in my studio. It made it better for everyone. I began to connect the coiled basketry technique spiral to spirals found in the natural world. Fascinated by the inherent spiral in coiling and in shells, corals, flowers, and the movement of water, I create unique fiber sculptures using this connection.

 

 

The sculptures appear malleable, but are rigid and only soft to the touch. Many of the pieces have an interplay of open and closed sections combined with rhythmic movements. Every day in my studio, I challenge the boundaries between an ancient, coiled basketry technique and the complex intertwining of form and texture inspired by nature and my imagination.

 

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