Fireside Chat: Fiber Artist Laura Bowman

Laura Bowman is a self-taught fiber artist living in East Tennessee. She creates knotted sculptural tapestries by combining her unique adaptation of an old macramé technique with a modern textile aesthetic using wool, cotton, and acrylic fibers. Her work is personally meditative and she hopes that viewers will spend time getting lost in the intricacies, chaotic energy, and design.

How to register: No registration needed. Drop-in.

Cost: Free and open to all. Food/beverage purchases encouraged to support teahouse nonprofit.

Location: Living room/Fireplace, 1st floor

Laura began her art education in welded metal sculpture over thirty years ago. She often used thin metal rods, anything that looked like a beautiful, fine line, welding them together into solid objects. When she finished school, and no longer had access to welding equipment, she began to explore other ways of making art, while also raising three children. She started painting, and again focused on lines; always using dominant, dark outlines around colorful shapes. Painting on wood turned to painting on cloth, embellishing the work with machine stitching, hand-embroidery, and quilting. So began a journey into the world of textiles which included a focus on weaving, basketry, and macramé. This exploration of fiber art brought her back to sculpture as she wove wildly on large wire warp armatures, built complex knotted vessels and intricate sculptural tapestries made solely of combined yarns; continuing her use of the ever-present and fine, single line.