Fiber Art

Joan Dulla, who crochets precious metals into sculptures and wearable art for sale and display, created this piece, entitled “Healing my Heart.” Like all of her work, this piece is a one-of-a kind creation, mixing fiber arts with jewelry making for a blend of mediums that has just started to emerge in the last few decades. Though she lives in Arizona, this artist has had her work shown in the Philadelphia Museum of Art Show, Washington Craft Show, One of a Kind Show in Chicago, and Craft Park Ave. in NYC. She has her own website (www.joandulla.com), although I found her on a blog about fiber arts called Wool and Tea (http://www.woolandtea.com/2008/02/joan-dulla.html).

As a knitter and a spinner, I was naturally drawn to the fiber side of art when I learned of this assignment. There are so many things happening these days in the fiber arts, from tapestries to jewelry to sculptures using all sorts of different methods like felting, knitting, and weaving. And that is barely scratching the surface. I really wanted to find something that demonstrates how and why this medium should be considered art. I selected this particular piece because I thought the image was really evocative – two hands sewing their own body’s heart back together – and I liked the fact that it was crocheted wire. This is a technique I have dabbled in a few times and the results are always great, so it was cool to see someone else who has become a successful artist using this method.

The scene expressed in this sculpture is clearly a person whose heart has been broken who is slowly going about the task of repairing the damage, but the journey has been transformed into a literal interpretation. I love that image – a person patiently getting out the sewing kit, threading the needle, and beginning to fix up the ragged edges of a broken heart. The artist has used thin wire and a large needle to create an open mesh affect that shows the delicacy and fragility of both the piece itself and the feelings it conveys.

This sculpture is art for several reasons. First, it tells a story, which I think all great art should do (formalist stuff aside, of course). It gives the audience a glimpse into this person’s life and emotion and, because this particular scene is something most people can relate to, into the human condition as well. Second, it has feeling. There is emotion and pain and resignation wrapped up in this sculpture, and the audience can feel those things as well. And third, it’s beautiful. Sometimes all art needs to do is add beauty to the world, and this piece, with it’s delicate open weave and poignant message, definitely achieves that. It is difficult to make connect this art to what we are doing in class because it is so early in the semester, but Anderson’s “Quartet of Traditions” would be one way to classify this piece. Of the four traditions, this piece fits best in the emotionalist tradition because it is all about feeling and making a human connection.

Looking at this work, connections can definitely be made to the past, when women had to make practical and necessary things such as clothes, curtains, quilts and rugs (Although, just as a side note, men were the first knitters and it was actually considered men’s work until the creation of factories when men went away to work and it fell to the women instead. In case anyone was wondering.). Over time, however, as we have made machines to do all of the necessary work for us, we have been able to put more and more time aside to create things that are pretty and decorative rather than useful and practical. The result is artwork like this piece.

"Joan Dulla." Wool & Tea: The Love of Fiber Art. Ed. Whitney A. Krueger. 13 Feb. 2008. Web. 10 Sept. 2009. http://www.woolandtea.com/2008/02/joan-dulla.html