{"id":89345,"date":"2025-01-06T10:30:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T17:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=89345"},"modified":"2025-01-08T10:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T17:43:06","slug":"carol-biddles-sculptural-leap-exploring-new-dimensions-in-fiber-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/carol-biddles-sculptural-leap-exploring-new-dimensions-in-fiber-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Carol Biddle’s Sculptural Leap: Exploring New Dimensions in Fiber Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Carol Biddle is entering the new year with a 3-D step forward in her artistic journey: a deeper exploration of sculptural forms. Known for her intricate felted artworks that meld traditional techniques with abstract painterly perspectives, Biddle is now venturing beyond two-dimensional surfaces to create vessels and multi-sided objects. “Sculptural work allows me to explore felt-making in a new way,” she says. “By wrapping wool fibers around complex resists, I\u2019m discovering exciting possibilities for shape and texture.”<\/h4>\n

Biddle first began working with fiber arts at the age of ten, when she learned to knit and sew from her mother, a home economics teacher in Southern Indiana. She studied textile\/clothing and painting at Indiana State University, and then came to the University of Utah for graduate degree in arts administration. After retiring from a 30-year career in nonprofit administration and fundraising in 2016, she discovered felt-making through a workshop in California. She says she was “immediately drawn to its tactility, history, biodegradable nature, complex techniques, and endless potential to manipulate texture, pattern, color, and shape. Felt-making seemed to meld all of my interests in sewing, knitting, painting, drawing and design.”<\/h4>\n

The process of layering loose wool fibers, adding exotic embellishments such as silk, bamboo, and flax, and using warm water, soap, and physical manipulation to create cohesive surfaces has become the cornerstone of her work. She often incorporates embroidery, knitted or fabric swatches, semi-precious stones, glass beads, and found objects into her finished pieces, adding depth and complexity.<\/h4>\n

Biddle\u2019s work is deeply inspired by nature, with visual references ranging from the Great Salt Lake to thermal geysers and lichen patterns on rocks. “Each piece begins with a specific visual reference, even though it will never result in a literal representation,” she explains. However, her influences are not limited to the natural world. Urban textures such as faded graffiti and streaks of slurry seal on streets also play a role in her creative process, hinting at asemic writing and abstract narratives.<\/h4>\n