Featured Artist K. Velis Turan

Enjoy the New York themes presented in fiber artist K. Velis Turan’s portfolio, and visit her website to see more of her work.

 

 

I have been an “art worker” for much of my life, doing publication layout and design for others.

 

 

About 15 years ago, I found my “voice” for my own art in the medium of graphic fibers. Often the work of fiber artists is considered “craft” and not “art.”

 

 

While I use quilting techniques in my work, these are not pieces to be pulled out on a cold night for extra warmth. They are instead, created to add extra dimension to the scenes and themes with which we surround ourselves to add meaning to our lives.

 

 

I am motivated by the architecture, bridges, roads and the energy of cities in general, New York City in particular.

 

 

My art represents the vibrancy of shape, line and color that makes up a city. Steel, stone, concrete and glass designed and engineered at its most functional, abstract and forceful.

 

 

My intention is not to idealize the city, nor to replicate it exactly, but to leave viewers with a feeling of it. My mixed-media fiber pieces are works in dyes, threads and a variety of other media on whole cloth that give the impressions of the textures of the city but in the malleable surface of textiles.

 

 

I start by seeing something that inspires me, a view I can’t get out of my mind or a feeling for a place. I study my subject, thinking about it in shapes and colors, sometimes taking photographs, sometimes making sketches. My mental image guides me.

 

 

I consider the materials I have gathered, I then do a final line drawing. With a mixture of dye and sodium alginate, I reproduce my final line drawing onto a silk screen.

 

 

After that has dried, I print through the screen with fiber reactive dyes onto fabric. I work shadows and reflections into translucent veils of color with textile paints, inks, pencils and crayons.

 

 

Sometimes, layers of tulle, cloth or netting are added. My pieces are quilted with “thread strokes” to add subtle color variation, texture and depth. Other techniques are employed to add definition or punctuation such as beading, embroidery, shrink plastic or photo-transfers until I have realized the piece I have had in my mind’s eye.