OFF THE GRID
Biographies

Registration Information

and Registration Form

Click here

Heather Allen-Swarttouw
Asheville, N
Heather Allen-Swarttouw is a studio artist, writer and educator living in Asheville. She received her MFA in textiles from the University of Massachusetts. She has exhibited and taught throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, Nepal, Thailand and Singapore, and has published numerous articles on textile artists, creativity and journaling, including “Journaling and My Creative Process” in the Surface Design Journal. Creating a personal reference library of creative journals has given her insights and propelled her in her current creative explorations.

Janice Arnold
Centralia, WA
www.jafelt.com/jaHome.html
Janice Arnold has owned her own business for 28 years, with a lifelong passion for textiles and the art of craft. As the daughter of a cartographer, she grew up looking at the ‘big picture’ and minute detail simultaneously. For the past 10 years she has been primarily working in handmade felt. She has collaborated with designers and artists in a wide variety of disciplines. Notable clients include Cirque du Soleil, LA Opera, Nordstrom Corporation, NBBJ and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Susan Taber Avila
Oakland, CA
www.suta.com
Susan Taber Avila exhibits her stitched constructions nationally and internationally. Her artwork has been published in American Craft, Artweek, Art Business News, Fiberarts and the Surface Design Journal and was included in Fiberarts Design Book Six and Fiberarts Design Book Seven. She is an associate professor of design (Fashion and Textiles) at the University of California, Davis and is also co-creator of FiberScene.com, a website for promoting fine art with a textile sensibility.

Mary Babcock
Kailua, HI
Mary Babcock is an assistant professor of art and fiber chair at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She holds an MFA in Studio Art (specialization in Fiber, Installation and Performance Art/University of Arizona), as well as a Ph.D. in Psychology (University of Pennsylvania), with specific interests in cross-disciplinary collaboration and community-involved arts. Mary has introduced Performance/Installation to the UH Fiber curriculum and has performed across the United States, as well as throughout Japan.

Jerry Bleem
Cicero, IL
www.packergallery.com
Jerry Bleem, an artist, teacher, writer, Franciscan friar and Catholic priest, earned his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his M.Div. from the Catholic Theological Union at Chicago. Interested in the cultural construction of meaning, he examines and transforms the nonprecious through time-intensive accumulation. His awards include five artist fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, an Arts Midwest/NEA Regional Visual Arts fellowship and numerous artist residencies. The Packer Schopf Gallery in Chicago represents his work.

David Brackett
Lawrence, KS
David Brackett is an assistant professor of textiles at the University of Kansas. His work explores the effects of chance on the formation of pattern, both in nature and in society. He received a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Textiles from the University of Kansas. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and he has taught numerous workshops in weaving, dyeing and screen-printing.

Jeffrey Bruce
Quincy, IL
Jeffrey Bruce has 24 years of experience as a fine art photographer, specializing in photographing three-dimensional art. His work is seen internationally in books and periodicals, as well as on posters and websites. He has photographed work for artists, galleries, museums and collectors throughout North America.

Baile (detail)
Work by Carolyn Kallenborn

Photo by Jeffrey Bruce

Maria Elena Buszek
Kansas City, MO
www.mariabuszek.com
Maria Elena Buszek is a critic, curator and professor of modern and contemporary art at the Kansas City Art Institute. She is the author of the book Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture and contributor to numerous international books and exhibition catalogs. Her writing has appeared in such journals as Art in America, Photography Quarterly, TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies and The Journal of Modern Craft. Dr. Buszek's latest book is the anthology Extra/ordinary: Craft culture and contemporary art, forthcoming from Duke University Press.

Jean Cacicedo
Berkeley, CA
www.jeancacicedo.com
Jean Williams Cacicedo received a BFA from the Pratt Institute, NY in 1970. She was a prime innovator in the Wearable Art Movement of the 1970s. For three decades she has worked both on and off the body. Jean is known for her pieced, dyed, slashed and felted wool coats into which she incorporates fabrics she has manipulated with the various processes she has developed. Her sewn constructions have been exhibited nationwide and throughout the world.

Akemi Cohn
Chicago, IL
www.akemistudio.com
Akemi Cohn studied traditional Japanese dyeing techniques for 10 years under the master Haru Izumi. She earned her MFA in Fiberarts from Cranbrook and her BFA from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan. Cohn has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as workshops at Haystack, Penland and Arrowmont. Her national and international exhibits include the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Nebraska and Zijdelings (Netherlands), and she has been an artist-in-residence at Anderson Ranch and Ragdale Foundation.

Nisha Drinkard
Bogota, NJ
www.nisha.net
Nisha Drinkard earned her MFA from Arizona State University. As an assistant professor she has taught at William Paterson University for seven years and also taught at Newark Museum and Peters Valley. Nisha has taught, lectured and exhibited throughout the United States, including exhibitions at the University of Texas at Tyler and the Museum of Art in Arizona.

Jane Dunnewold
San Antonio, TX
www.complexcloth.com
Jane Dunnewold is the author of Complex Cloth (1996) and Improvisational Screen Printing (2003) and co-author of Finding Your Own Visual Language (2007). She teaches and exhibits widely and was awarded the Quilt Japan Prize in the 2002 Visions exhibition and the Gold Prize at the Taegue International Textile Exhibition. Dunnewold maintains Art Cloth Studios in San Antonio, Texas.

Pamela Feldman
Chicago, IL
www.pamelafeldman.com
Pamela Feldman received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the University of California, Davis. She has earned the Certificate of Excellence in Dyeing and Master’s in Dyeing from the HGA. She is editor and publisher of the Turkey Red Journal, an online natural dye newsletter, and teaches weaving and dyeing at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Continuing Studies Department and the Lillstreet Art Center. Her work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States.

Bean Gilsdorf
Portland, OR
www.beangilsdorf.com
Bean Gilsdorf is an artist, writer and teacher. Her commentary and exhibition reviews have appeared in Fiberarts magazine. Her quilts and installations have been exhibited in numerous venues, such as Quilt National, Visions, Le Arti Tessili, and in galleries and museums across the United States. She teaches English at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon.

Kerr Grabowski
Sussex, NJ
www.kerrgrabowski.com
Kerr Grabowski is a fiber artist and teacher known for her innovative approaches to dyeing and screen printing. Kerr’s love of color and spontaneity is evident in her elegantly whimsical art wear. A NJ Arts Fellowship recipient, Kerr is the developer of Deconstructed Screen Printing. She produced the DVD Deconstructed Screen Printing and has been published in Ornament, Fiberarts, the Surface Design Journal, Fiberarts Design Book Six and Silk Painting for Fashion and Fine Art. Kerr exhibits and teaches internationally.

Lisa Grey
Portsmouth, NH
Lisa Grey has been a full-time fiber artist for over 28 years. She has worked extensively with a wide variety of dyeing techniques and various fiber media, including printmaking, quilting, weaving, basketry and creative sewing. Her individual and collaborative artwork, currently focusing on experimental marbling techniques, has been shown in galleries across the country and internationally. Her teaching style encourages students to push the boundaries while exploring the "what ifs."

Gunnel Hag
Toronto, Canada
www.colourvie.com
Gunnel Hag studied textile design in Sweden and England. Her studio, Trees Textile Designers and Printers, in Toronto, produces fabrics for film and theater productions. She taught in the Textile Studio at Sheridan College, Oakville, Ontario for 12 years and has been a visiting lecturer at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. Her fabrics have been represented at international design exhibitions and she has published two books: Creating Texture and Creating Texture: Soft Textures.

Mary Hark
Madison, WI
Mary Hark is a studio artist and assistant professor in design studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Mary has exhibited nationally, as well as in Iceland and Ghana. She received a 2006 Senior Fulbright Research Scholarship to study in Ghana. She is the proprietor of HARK! Handmade Paper Studio, which specializes in high-quality flax and linen papers. Mary earned an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA from the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

Jessica Hemmings
Winchester, England
Dr. Jessica Hemmings holds a BFA (Honors) in Textile Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, an MA in Comparative Literature (Distinction) from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and wrote her Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh. Jessica has taught at RISD and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and is currently a Reader in Textile Culture at the Winchester School of Art. Her book Yvonne Vera: The Voice of Cloth is published by Kalliope Paperbacks in 2008.

Jorie Johnson
Kyoto, Japan
www.joirae.com
Jorie Johnson was born into a wool merchant’s household and has ventured off-track since first being instructed in Scandinavian felt boot making in Finland in 1977. She has traveled the world looking for more information about this ancient textile ever since. She studied Textile Design in Finland and at RISD, and held an internship with Marimekko. The author of two books, she teaches at Kyoto University of Art & Design in Japan and has taught workshops all over the world.

Carolyn Kallenborn
Madison, WI
www.carolynkallenborn.com
Carolyn Kallenborn is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Design Studies Department. She was an assistant professor in the Fiber Department at the Kansas City Art Institute from 2001–2007. Carolyn currently serves as conference chair of SDA’s Off The Grid and was conference coordinator of SDA’s 2007 and 2005 conferences. She has been on the receiving end of thousands of digital images that go on the web, to publications and to digital presentations.

Alice Kettle
UK
www.alicekettle.com
Alice Kettle is a contemporary textile/fiber artist based in the United Kingdom. She has established a unique area of practice, consistently and on an unparalleled scale. Alice has extended the possibilities of machine embroidery by producing works the size of tapestries and exploiting the textures and effects made possible through the harnessing of a mechanical process to creative ends. She is research associate at Manchester Metropolitan University and honorary fellow at the University of Winchester. Her work is represented in various public collections.

Odyssey
Alice Kettle

Lisa Klakulak
Asheville, NC
www.strongfelt.com
Lisa Klakulak is a studio artist who operates her business, STRONGFELT, out of Asheville, NC. She has a BFA in Fiber from Colorado State University and has recently dedicated a three-year residency at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee to an exploration of felting techniques. She exhibits nationally, and her work has appeared in the Surface Design Journal, Fiberarts and Shuttle Spindle & Dye-Pot. She has been sought for instruction at Penland, Arrowmont, Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, Shakerag Workshops and Coupeville Arts Center.

Gerhardt Knodel
Bloomfield Hills, MI
Gerhardt Knodel is currently engaged in full-time studio practice following his long involvement with Cranbrook Academy of Art as resident artist and head of the fiber studio from 1970–1995 and as director of the academy from 1996–2007. His studio work has consistently explored possibilities for textiles to engage the viewer in diverse contexts, including art, design, architecture and theater, and he is a strong advocate for adventurous expansion of the fiber medium and its extraordinary legacy.

Tracy Krumm
Raleigh, NC
www.tracykrumm.com
Tracy Krumm is an educator, sculptor and researcher of the possible relationships between metals, textile processes and material studies. Her work has been exhibited internationally in over 100 venues during the past 20 years and has been featured in numerous publications, including the Surface Design Journal, Textil Forum, Sculpture Magazine and Metalsmith. Her work resides in many private, corporate and museum collections, including the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe, Bloomingdale's and Ford Motor Company.

Patricia Malarcher
Englewood, NJ
Patricia Malarcher, editor of the Surface Design Journal and SDA Newsletter, has contributed to books: Helena Hernmarck: Tapestry Artist, Objects and Meaning, and Michael James: Art & Inspiration, and written for exhibition catalogs including Generations/Transformations (American Textile History Museum), Cultures Revealed: Appliques from Around the World (Visual Arts Center, NCSU/Raleigh), and Priscilla Sage: 1958-2008 (Iowa State University Museum). She received a Renwick Fellowship for research in craft criticism and is a studio artist whose pieced constructions have been shown internationally.

Ray Materson
Wynantskill, NY
www.raymaterson.com
Ray Materson was raised in the American Midwest. His family life, though rich in some ways, was troubled due to his father’s alcoholism. The legacy of this hidden family illness ultimately played out in Ray’s life. He experimented with alcohol and drugs as a youth and finally became an addict. His addiction led to a short string of robberies committed with a shoplifted toy gun. Sent to prison, Ray reconnected with God, discovered an artistic talent and literally sewed his life back together.

Julie Mclaughlin
Dysart, IA
Julie McLaughlin worked as a costume designer before taking a more personal creative journey exploring handmade papers in a sculptural way. Her work has appeared nationally and internationally in many exhibits including Fashion Statement, the Fine Art of Faux Apparel, Wheaton College, Norton MA; Paper Adornment, Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts, Chicago, IL; and Paper Runway, a group show of wearable paper garments in Santiago, Chili and Atlanta, GA. She works out of McJulie Studios in Dysart, IA.

Waisting Away
Julie Mclaughlin

Amy Clarke Moore
Lakewood, CO
www.amyclarkemoore.com
Amy Clarke Moore earned her MFA in Fibers from Colorado State University in 1990. She started beading in 1998 to complete a staff project for Beadwork magazine. Her work is born out of a passionate interest in fairytale, myths and art. She enjoys the process of stitching the beads onto canvas. She regards each bead as a thought and the spiral path of her beadwork like the passage of time. Currently Clarke-Moore is the editor of Spin Off magazine, Interweave Press.

Barbara Setsu Pickett
Eugene, OR
Barbara Setsu Pickett is an associate professor in the Department of Art, University of Oregon. Her art and research focus on velvet weaving, Jacquard design and shibori. She researches velvet weaving in Italy, France, Britain, Japan, China, Turkey and now Uzbekistan. Pickett and her son Michael run Mihara Shibori Studio and create silk shibori scarves. She has received awards from NEA Individual Artist, Fulbright Research, Institute of Turkish Studies, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio and Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Recover Book: 9 Charms
Babara Setsu Pickett

Jason Pollen
Kansas City, MO
Jason Pollen is an internationally recognized artist and teacher known for his fiber art and use of innovative techniques. He exhibits in major fine art galleries in Europe, Asia and the United States. A native New Yorker, Jason has lived and worked in Paris, London, Zurich, India and Tibet, and has taught at the Royal College of Art in London, the Pratt Institute in New York, and the Parsons School of Design in New York. He is currently the chair of the Kansas City Art Institute Fiber Department and president of the Surface Design Association.

Rebecca Ringquist
Chicago, IL
www.rebeccaringquist.com
Rebecca Ringquist is a Chicago-based visual artist. Her drawings on paper and stitched drawings on fabric explore issues of identity through thinly veiled metaphors utilizing old-fashioned imagery and double entendres. Her work has been exhibited nationally. Ringquist earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Fiber and Material Studies Department, where she is now an instructor. She is also the director of textile arts at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago.

Victoria Z. Rivers
Sacramento, CA
Victoria Z. Rivers is a professor in the Design Program at the University of California, Davis. She has been the recipient of an NEA Visual Artist's Fellowship, an Indo-American Fellowship and an American Artists Abroad through the U.S. Department of State in Ghana. She publishes, lectures, teaches and exhibits internationally in East Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, China, India, Thailand, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, The Cook Islands, England and Ireland. She was a featured speaker at the 2008 Handweavers' Guild of America Convergence.

Adrienne Sloane
Watertown, MA
www.adriennesloane.com
Adrienne Sloane, a Boston-based artist, has exhibited nationally for over 20 years. Her work has been published in Fiberarts Magazine, American Craft, the Surface Design Journal, the Crafts Report and Fiberarts Design Book Six. With a degree in anthropology, she has married her passion for textiles with one for travel by consulting on knitting projects in Peru and Bolivia. Knitting both by hand and by machine, she is mindful of the historical context of her medium.

Harmony Susalla
Gualala, CA
www.harmonyart.com
Harmony Susalla's designs have been sold at every retail level from Wal-Mart and Target to Williams-Sonoma and Nordstrom. In 2005, she walked away from her successful career to create her own line of printed, organic cotton fabrics. Harmony's personal mission is to infuse her fabrics with color and design created with environmentally thoughtful inks and dyes. Her designs are inspired by nature and her business is motivated to protect it. She now sells organic fabrics to over 120 businesses around the world.

Heather Ujiie
Langhorne, PA
Heather Ujiie has a BS in Visual Arts from SUNY, an Associates Degree in Textile Design from Fashion Institute of Technology and an A.A. in Art Education from Brooklyn College. A native New Yorker, she has designed for Waverly, Polo Ralph Lauren, Schumacher and Dan River, to name a few. Currently she creates digitally printed art installation pieces and commercial textiles, and teaches at both Moore College of Art & Design and Philadelphia University.

Hitoshi Ujiie
Langhorne, PA
www.hitoshiujiie.com
Hitoshi Ujiie, MFA, University of Georgia, and BFA, Kyoto Seika University, is a pioneer in the field of digital inkjet printing for textiles. His professional experience includes designing fine fabrics at internationally renowned Jack Lenor Larsen Design Studio. In 1991 he established Hitoshi Ujiie Design, a studio that specializes in the design of a wide range of new fabric products. He is an associate professor at Philadelphia University, where he established The Center for Excellence of Digital Inkjet Printing for Textiles.

Branch
Hitoshi Ujiie

Els Van Baarle
Dreischor, Netherlands
www.elsvanbaarle.com
Els Van Baarle is a free-lance teacher and textile artist. Her work has been featured in many exhibits including the 2006 ZEIT-STÚCKexhibition, which traveled in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland; the 2006 Explorations II at Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, Ohio; the 2nd Flag Triennial and Mini Art Triennial, both in Szombathely, Hungary; and in Piece Hall Gallery, Halifax. Her works have been published in many books, magazines and catalogues, including the 2008 summer issue of the Surface Design Journal.

Brieven van een Vriend I; Letters from a friend I
Els Van Baarle

Jan Ru Wan
Greenville, NC
Jan Ru Wan is a textile artist and educator. Through her mixed media, sculptural forms and site-specific formats, she evokes the “human experience” of the body and represents the physical and spiritual blending of Eastern and Western cultures. Her frequent solo shows and workshops help nonartists understand her highly conceptual work. In 2006, she was recognized by the Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) award by the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee for her achievements.

Kathyanne White
Prescott, AZ
www.kathyannewhite.com
Kathyanne White is a contemporary artist whose work is fiber based, innovative, complex and unique. White’s work is housed in public and private collections including: the Museum of Arts and Design; the American Folk Art Museum; and the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her publications include: Fiberarts, American Style, Fiberarts Design Book Seven and Quilting Arts. She was awarded first place at the Yosemite Renaissance XXII exhibit in 2007.

Daniella Woolf
Santa Cruz, CA
www.daniellawoolf.com
Daniella Woolf holds an MA in Textile Structures from UCLA. She went Off the Grid in 2001 when she discovered encaustic and now teaches workshops in encaustic for fiber artists. Woolf was a 2007 recipient of the Gail Rich Award for excellence in the arts in Santa Cruz and the 2008 Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship. Her current work is about identity, privacy and security, and is exhibited nationally and internationally. She blogs at Encausticopolis under the name Dotty Stripes.

For More Information:
Conference Registration starts Jan. 5, 2009. 
For Registration Information and Registration Form

Click here

Questions:

For all conference related questions:

Kathy Dowell
2009 Conference Coordinator
Surface Design Association
816-471-2115

E-mail: Click here

For all registration questions, contact:
Gerrie Condgon
2812 SE Moreland Lane
Portland, OR 97202
503-788-3322

E-mail: Click here

For all SDA membership related questions, contact:
Joy Stocksdale
Surface Design Association
PO Box 360
Sebastopol CA 95473-0306
707-829-3110

E-mail: Click here