
Taylor Painter-Wolfe
My work is made entirely of felted wool I make and dye
by hand. Making my own materials is an important part of
my artistic process because it allows me to have a hand
in every aspect of creating my art from start to finish.
The unpredictability involved always yields unique and
interesting results. Using traditional fiber art techniques
such as felting, dyeing, applique, reverse applique, and
stitching, I turn what was once just plain white wool into
colorful and dynamic abstract landscapes.
My inspiration comes from aerial photography, satellite
images, and textures and shapes found in natural
environments. From high above, the details of a place
are stripped away leaving only an elegant design of
intersecting, shapes, colors, and lines. I look at thousands
of miles of land and turn it into mere inches of stitched
felt, providing a unique overview of an expansive space
that cannot adequately be seen and understood from
the ground. I am particularly interested in representing
landscapes where natural and man-made environments
intersect and have a compelling influence on each
other. I often use as inspiration areas affected by climate
change, natural disasters, and human use. My intent is to
create a simplified and thought-provoking way to view
land, our impact on it, and relationship to it while leaving
the work open to interpretation, putting no demands on
the viewer to see one particular type of landscape over
another.