"Gathered Shadow No. 3" by Barb Burwell

Recycled blankets, digitally printed cotton fabric, up-cycled/found cotton and linen, cotton thread and batting. 11” x 11” x 2” (framed), 2 lbs. 8 oz., 2023.

Listen - Gather - Reminiscence is a series built on the concept of the landscape witnessing time. The landscape becomes a spectator of what the natural world would become if left unattended, exploring elements of the landscape and allowing it to become a visual storyteller.

After spending time in various natural settings, I started to imagine the language of nature as shape. By listening to the stories the landscape would tell and by collecting textures and shapes with snapshots, drawing, and gathering plant material, I began to translate what I was seeing. By responding with gesture, visual reduction, and abstraction, I wanted to capture the most basic and elemental shapes making them the main focus and reducing them to the most potent form to create an abstract landscape composition.

After creating a vocabulary of shapes and collage elements, I started making abstract fabric compositions. Using recycled blankets, digitally printed cotton fabric (derived from my artwork), and up-cycled/found cotton and linen. Each piece is appliquéd, machine sewn, quilted, and attached to canvas on a wood frame.

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Barb Burwell works as curator of gathered information. She collects images, textures and forms, both physically and in her mind’s eye. Her work as an artist includes painting, drawing, mixed media works on paper, wood panel, and canvas. She also works as a fiber artist that employs fabrication techniques such as machine piecework, quilting, appliqué and hand embroidery.

"Looking Out Looking In" is her current body of work that explores the idea of one's internal/external landscape and how specific locations connect to feelings of nostalgia. The work is a collection of metaphorical and visual perspectives that are a direct response to her experiences collected afield, by witnessing the landscape and experiencing the surroundings of the Pacific Northwest.

Burwell was awarded a BFA from Pacific NW College of Art (Portland, OR) has worked and taught in both private and public art education. She shows her work nationally and currently works from her Portland, Oregon based studio.

You can find more of the artist’s work at https://www.barb-burwell.com/.