Cindy Steiler is always working, in her studio, “drawing with thread.”, during a European artist residency, teaching students how to push the boundaries of fiber. She works in an antique mall, browsing eerie photos of women she doesn’t know. She works in a grocery store aisle, scribbling an idea into her pocket sketchbook.
For Steiler, making personal, emotional art is a creative process with mobility and flexibility, embracing conceptual malleability, explaining that, “Ideas morph and change… but the more you work the more often the ideas come.”
The Florida-based contemporary fiber artist’s process will be the focus of fiber577’s workshop weekend, with an artist talk and a two-day workshop on the cyanotype process of printing on fiber.
.jpg)
Inside the artist's sketchbook: compostion drafts, taped in cyanotype prints, and notes.
Common thread
Steiler considers herself an “accidental artist,” despite a lifelong love of art. Following her career as a costume designer— where she honed the skills she now employs— Steiler began making her own work in 2008. “I was tired of making someone else’s vision. Now, I want my own vision to come through,” she explains.
Stieler’s art making process seems more like an intellectual exercise than the practice of a craft. She develops her concepts by navigating through the intersection of her thoughts on feminism, Victorian history, death and the act of disappearing.
“For me, ideas don’t come quickly. I stew on them,” she explains.“ My ideas feel abstract, and above my head… and then one day they will suddenly be clear and I’m ready to start… but once I get started, the idea could change drastically, or get put in a drawer.”
.jpg)
Steiler works through her ideas in her sketchbook— which is never goes without. This page shows preliminary drafts of how she plans to embroider her found photographs.
Steiler can cite only one exception to her process’s thematic flexibility— her Forgotten series, which took home top honors in 2014 during fiber577’s juried exhibition.
String theory
In contrast to fiber art’s aesthetic tradition of large, bright, heavily-decorated and functional pieces, Stieler’s small, muted, and minimalist works make quite an impact, juxtaposing exceptions of women in much of her work. Forgotten, a series of subtly embellished vintage cabinet card photographs of women, contextualizes the women disambiguated from their families with anxious themes of longing and abandonment.
“These women are forgotten, and now they just exist in these cards,” says Steiler. “They’re gone. There aren’t names attached to the cards.”
Using fiber art to create serious, conceptual work also taps into a murky art history. Quilting, sewing, knitting, and other fiber arts have, historically, had little value. Not only has fiber art been considered “women’s work,” but the genre has only recently been accepted as a fine art— “crafts” are often seen as frivolous in comparison to “fine arts,” like painting and sculpture. Subverting this distinction helps legitimize fiber as serious and demonstrates that women’s work is hard work.
“My work has a lot to do with the path and my connections through textile. My great grandmother taught me. Women have passed these skills from one to the next,” says Steiler. “Using traditional ‘women’s work’ to make a .jpg)
contemporary statements about familial connections, death and memory feels right.”
Forgotten’s content also subverts. With delicate threads and demure portraits, Stieler explores topics that she considers too moody for most conversations. This juxtaposition not only adds conceptual value to her body of work, but provides the artist with a much-needed catharsis.
“Art gives me a chance to try to express what goes on inside,” Steiler explains. “You can’t go and sit at a cafe with your friend and assume they want to hear about your views on dying and disappearing… so, this is an outlet. It’s why I create.”
During a full weekend of fiber577 workshops, Steiler will give an Artist Talk from 6-8pm on Friday, June 10. $5. She will also instruct a two day workshop on Cyanotypes, a process of printing photos on fabrics. 9am-4pm on Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 23. $200.
For more information, visit fiber577.com or cindysteiler.com
The artist’s work is also available at
Angelwood Gallery | 24195 Front St. | Grand Rapids
419-832-0625 | angelwoodgallery.com
