Featured Artist Ariane Mariane

From the imagination of French fiber artist Ariane Mariane come these playful sculptural and wearable creations. Discover more by visiting her website.

 

handmade felt hat

 

Addicted to creativity and crafts since her early childhood, Ariane Mariane searched to find a way to combine her love of arts and textiles. Trained as an architect, she worked several years as a graphic designer for textile industries.  Designing textile prints is really fun, but working a whole day on a computer and without any touchable creation at the end of the day is somehow frustrating. Her hands needed to think on their own again.

 

fiber art by Ariane Mariane

 

In 2005, Ariane Mariane discovered felt making and was immediately seduced. This technique allows her to combine her love for drawing, crafting and textiles.

With her graphic design background Ariane Mariane developed her very own pictorial style and now makes “paintings for body & soul as well as art & home decor. “ She creates high colored, joyful designs inspired by collage style, abstract or naive painting.

 

handmade dress

 

Her “art to wear” garments are exploring the limit of arts. Her art vests are paintings with two holes which allow these “paintings” to drape in several ways on a human body. Is this still art or is it fashion?

 

Handmade felt vests by Ariane Mariane

 

Same for her hats: the approach is sculptural. After designing the surface, Ariane Mariane  molds the felted wool like a ceramist  forms clay and gives birth to fun, modular forms of headwear. She also does “real sculptures” very similar to the hats, except the opening is turned around and they have another scale…

 

Fiber Art House by Ariane Mariane

 

In 2011, Ariane Mariane exhibited her first big art installation called “In- Between.”  It is also expresses the idea of blurring  boundaries between different art forms.  This installation is unclassifiable: in-between housing, sculpture, clothing, painting, totem, poetry…  On first sight it seems to be a hut, but this hut is shaped like a dress with a tree sprouting inside. The walls are fiber paintings, illustrating a story about human evolution and destroying the environment.

 

Fiber Art by Ariane Mariane

 

There are often deeper thoughts in her work but first of all Ariane Mariane creates because she wants to astonish herself and others:

“There are so many ideas and images in my head I absolutely have to express myself. My hands love to touch and craft. They refine the former mental image, transform it and make it ‘real.’  It’s a big satisfaction when my work surprises me and my fellows. I love people discovering and exploring my art and am excited when their eyes start sparkling.”

 

felt vessel

 

To feed her imagination Ariane Mariane is hooked on books, illustration and art.  This makes her imagine and see things everywhere.  Sometimes it’s just a word or a color combination which set off a gush of associations and ideas.

With all these ideas,  it’s hard to focus in only one direction. So she happily switches in between garments, accessories, home décor, installations and sculptures.

 

fiber art

 

“Currently I have several ideas for installations and sculptures, but first have to finish a funky colorful collection of sculptural jewelry in which I combine felt with free stitching embroidery.”

Free stitching machine embroidery is Ariane Mariane’s newest passion. It highlights the graphical design, adds more details and strength the creation. More to come!

 

Comments

  1. Fantastic to see Ariane featured here! She has been an active member of TAFA: The Textile and Fiber Art List for a long time now and is pure joy to work with! She is always upbeat, stretching her boundaries into new frontiers and is also actively involved with the felting community in Paris. We had an auction a year ago to benefit TAFA and Ariane sent several pieces for the fundraiser so I had the opportunity to see some of her work at first hand and it really is great!

  2. I am also a felter.and always enjoy seeing the playfulness and sculptural quality of her very fine work! A good choice for a featured artist on your site, Artsy Shark!

    • Thank you, Ginny – I love fiber art as well, and truly enjoy having Ariane as a featured artist. It was a real treat to review her work when she submitted to be juried.

  3. Such a great pleasure to hear your feedback, ladies!
    Rachel is doing so much for textile arts and artistes connecting us on a worldwide level. Be sure to check out the Texil and Fiber Arts List (TAFA) that she founded and which is an amazing community : http://www.tafalist.com/

    I also love our felters community – thank you Ginny Huber for your kind comment.

    1000 thanks to you Carolyn for letting me being part of this amazing, instructive and arty site!

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