The New York Guild of Handweavers welcomes Juliet Martin for the February 25, 2017 meeting.
Artist Statement: You can’t take this seriously.
Juliet Martin makes her viewers see the message beyond the joke. She illustrates personal stories with satirical forms, painful punchlines, and caustic visual one-liners. She is not always funny, but she is always sincere. She courts the viewer with humor, laughing till it hurts. By creating perilously funny images, she shows you emotive depth. She wants you to laugh at what you see and then cry a little.
Why fiber? Weaving fabric physically and mentally attaches her to her canvas. her process is surprisingly improvised. Decisions are made as the shuttle moves across the threads. When stuck between projects -- fiber purgatory -- she weaves bolts and bolts of fabric, a form of calisthenics getting ready for the big game. Making her own materials strengthens and personalizes her relationship to her projects.
In her work, she applies the Japanese philosophy of SAORI. With its Zen mindset, SAORI encourages freeform work—no patterns, no rules, no mistakes. Every sculpture is an improvisation in awkward beauty: clumpy fabric, fighting colors, rough and smooth textures, ragged edges. By approaching weaving as both craft and fine art, she shows that questioning the intention can bring you solutions that are unique to the medium.
Juliet has a BA in Visual Arts from Brown University, a MFA in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts, and is a member of the Saori Leadership Committee based in Osaka, Japan. Juliet has been a part of the fiber community for 6 years having solo shows including the Sumei Multidisciplinary Arts Center, NJ; Creative Arts Workshop, CT; Garrison Art Center, NY; Artworks Gallery, NJ; and Saori Kaisak Gallery, Osaka, Japan.