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Ruth Gowell

Studio  
6
Ruth Gowell
Sample Work

I live in Falls Church VA and have a studio at the Torpedo Factory Art Center (#6) I work in both woven fiber and kiln formed glass.

The first art show I remember was a Pop/Op Art Show at the Walters in Baltimore way back. It made quite an impression – I loved art that moved – where you could see a piece in such different ways. I remember seeing and loving the Washington Color School painters as well – especially Leon Berkowitz. I grew up surrounded by Scandinavian design, and in fact, learned to weave in Denmark. Certainly modern art and design are a strong influence in my work. I work in both woven fiber art and kiln formed glass. My weavings developed into an exploration of the technique of warp face weave. This is often done in the larger weavings with a weft of twisted and flat electrical cord. I now stuff, quilt and bead these weavings to create addition texture and dimension. In 1999 I took a workshop in kiln formed glass and was immediately fascinated by the process. It was for me yet another way to work with color, shine, pattern and texture. The designs developed in the weaving have greatly influenced my glass, and I now find that the glass in turn is influencing my weaving. During the past couple of years I have been exploring a technique of capturing bubbles between layers of glass using a grid of glass stringers – a “weaving” that produces texture in the glass. I am interested in the distortion of pattern using these bubbles. By placing the patterned glass (or fiber) behind the bubble glass, and by layering pattern pieces, I am able to create distortions of the underlying pattern. In this complex world we see through many “distortions”, many layers, many lenses. My work is an attempt to convey this confusion in a visual context.

I live in Falls Church VA and have a studio at the Torpedo Factory Art Center (#6) I work in both woven fiber and kiln formed glass.

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