Darci Lenker has long been captivated by textiles - from sewing doll clothes with a toy sewing machine to knotting hemp as a teenager. She discovered this was an actual art form in college where she focused on weaving, felting, and paper and book arts.
After many years of sewing dolls, Lenker began to shift her focus solely to embroidery. She was attracted to the possibilities of what could be done with a single strand of thread and exploring how detailed the medium could be. “Embroidery combines my love for drawing and fiber art. For me, the process of creating art is just as important as the end result. I enjoy extended projects that grow little by little over time,” Lenker explains.
Lenker finds inspiration anywhere and everywhere there are interesting colors, textures, and details. She works out of her home studio in Norman, Oklahoma. Her embroidery artworks have recently been featured at The Vault in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, for Entwined, a small group show of fiber artists. Notably, Lenker’s work was also spotlighted at ArtNow 2019 at Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center where 365 of her small embroideries were installed to represent an entire year of her process. Most recently, she has a collection of space embroideries on display at Science Museum Oklahoma as part of the Cosmic Culture exhibit and work on display in Fiberworks Oklahoma, at Jealous Gallery in London, and Ville de Clermont-Ferrand, France.