Featured Artist: Doerte Weber

During the six weeks of 'Black White Red' we'll focus on individual artists here on our blog. Every week, several artists will be featured. Today, we're pleased to introduce to you:  Doerte Weber

WSJ: Sweet & Sticky
Structural weaving with
various fibers &
Wall Street Journal's
plastic liners
31" x 36"

 WSJ: Sweet & Sticky
The red plastic wrappers which protect the Wall Street Journal during delivery were well suited to weave this piece. Using those bags as the dominant material over mostly black & white plain weave gives an interesting texture and adds a playfulness to the piece. Reminiscent of candy being unwrapped, the red criss-cross pattern is tightly held together over the woven center; its top and bottom part hang freely.

WSJ: Sweet & Sticky, detail
Structural weaving with
various fibers &
Wall Street Journal's
plastic liners
31" x 36"

Artist Statement

Having returned to weaving after a long absence, I find myself inspired by Bauhaus Weavers. They were self taught - creating beautiful and unique works of art.

I am trying to translate that into the 21century. Currently I live in the USA which is going through a recession.
This motivates me to look at my expenses more closely, be frugal and work with materials at hand.

Every morning I get my local newspaper delivered in a thin plastic wrapper. These plastic wrappers have almost no color, only logo and address of the paper printed in small black letters. But when I started weaving with them, colors became visible and it was like I was weaving a story of my diverse community.

This is the concept I am expanding on: to take something which most people throw away or recycle and reuse it in art, either by itself but mostly with various yarns to accentuate texture.

In weaving with plastic wrappers, I use mostly traditional weaving patterns. They give an assurance of  familiarity, balancing the texture and sometimes distorted structure created through the medium of the plastic wrappers.