Tara Carpenter Estrada, an Assistant Professor of Art Education at Brigham Young University who received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Utah, is known mostly for her ceramics and mixed-media art, but she says in 2019 she’ll be diving deeper into textiles.
“In the summer of 2017 I went on a field study with Dan Barney and Mark Graham (my colleagues in Art Education at BYU). We traveled with students to Ecuador where we spent a week learning how to weave with back-strap looms from a four-generation family of weavers,” she says. “I loved the repetitive process.” Back home, she had other projects to finish before she could begin incorporating into her work what she learned in Ecuador, but at the end of 2018 she took classes in weaving and how to use a punch needle. “I practiced and learned embroidery stitches. I bought and built looms. I prowled the JoAnn aisles, petting the yarn to see which felt the best.”
“I’m in love with the processes and textures of fiber art. I’m not sure where all of it is headed, but I’m excited to keep going. Fiber art is similar in many ways to ceramics (my main art-making process). It’s time intensive, process driven, and highly textural.”
Find more of her work at taracarpenterart.com.
What’s New (2019) curated by Emily Larsen.
Every January we check in with Utah artists to see what the new year holds in store for them.
Categories: Visual Arts | What's New