In 2023, I attended the Mudhouse Artist Residency in Crete, Greece. There I explored changing my artistic approach. Always drawing from the patterns of plants as inspiration, but I experimented with loosening up and playing with the point at which an art piece can be considered “finished.” For this piece, I was inspired by the plants growing in the cracks of the Gournia ruins. Here the unfinished edges evoke the same sense of rawness and ruggedness of the plants breaking through crumbling ruins.

Gournia

In 2023, I attended the Mudhouse Artist Residency in Crete, Greece. There I explored changing my artistic approach. Always drawing from the patterns of plants as inspiration, but I experimented with loosening up and playing with the point at which an art piece can be considered “finished.” For this piece, I was inspired by the concept of “resist refinement.” I challenged myself to reevaluate what is considered beautiful in my fiber art. This is an extremely minimal interpretation of the Greecian landscape, and while not as full of fibers as previous pieces, I still consider it a fully finished piece as I “resist refinement.”

Resist Refinement

This is a continuation of the ideas I explored in my 2022 piece, Lichen Zero Five. The earlier piece was inspired by the sense of movement of lichen growing on volcanic rock during a trip to Iceland. This newer piece, Licken Zero Seven, explores what a warmer interpretation might look like of the harsher Icelandic climate. This piece uses warm colors (browns and off-whites) and breaks past the boundary of a frame or a traditional tapestry rectangular shape, and it still recreates the patterns of lichen climbing across a natural landscape.

Lichen Zero Seven

While out on the trail, I constantly stumble upon mushrooms growing on trees and fallen logs. The repeating form of all these different varieties makes their own unique ruffle visual language. I used crochet and weaving to recreate the patterns made by the mushrooms. By using a neutral palette, I chose to create a sense of calm and warmth, just like I felt during this favorite moment in nature.
  
  

Mushroom Weaving Zero Three

I attended an art camp program with Light Grey Art Lab in 2021, where I visited Iceland and explored the Snæfellsnes Peninsula with 12 other artists from around the world.

  
During one of these mini-adventures, I learned lichen grows 1-2mm in diameter a year. I was blown away by the fact that these rocks covered in lichen are visual records of YEARS of history. I forced myself to slow down, observe, and truly appreciate an aspect of nature I probably would’ve just walked right past.

  
This fiber art piece mixes weaving, crochet, and needle felting techniques to recreate the patterns and sense of movement made by lichen growing on volcanic rock.

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Lisa Cox

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