please click on Sculptures and Wall pieces to see more pieces

Sculptures

Wall pieces

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

My creative journey with fiber began over 35 years ago with weaving and basketry (though I had been stitching, knitting and sewing since I was a child). This exhibition features work of the last few years, including hanging sculptures of minute marine life, embroidered images of the inner workings of the human body, and new crocheted wire sculptures.

The title of the exhibit, Fantastic Voyage, is a reference to the 1960s movie in which a team of shrunken scientists maneuver their way through the inside of a human body. My "voyage" has been through the new images produced by electron microscopes. "Under My Skin" is made up of hand-embroidered circles and squares on a vintage linen tablecloth. It depicts selected sections of intestines, nerve fibers and lymph nodes, to name a few. With "Sub/Structures", I am dealing with larger patterns, from both human and animal sources. The "Biospheres" series is another interpretation. It comes from such amazing natural designs as angelfish ovaries and corn tissue.

In creating the hanging sculptures, I had endless choices for color and texture. The pieces represent minute, single cell organisms like "Ciliata", or marine vegetation such as "Chlorobionta" (sea lettuce) and "Rhodobionta" (red algae). I challenged myself to use needlepoint 3-dimensionally, something that is not normally done. I found I really enjoyed making sculpture. This past fall, I began work on the wire pieces. "Swimmers" were the first, again based on marine life. Then, I started using objects found on the land outside my studio and began to explore the relationship between these and the crocheted surface. Adding freshwater pearls was a third disparate element. One piece of barbed wire presented itself as a mast. Thus, "Vessel I" – a ship for a Fantastic Voyage.

Lucia LaVilla-Havelin
March 2012