Latest / Voices of the Albemarle / Ep. 9: The Fight for Fiber Art with Katherine Wassink

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Ep. 9: The Fight for Fiber Art with Katherine Wassink · Voices of the Albemarle

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome back to Voices of the Albemarle.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Izzy Kelly Goss, and we are, of course, joined with my co-host, David Prizer.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: One of the voices, that's right.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, one of the voices.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: And today we are joined by Catherine Wasink, a local artist with a beautiful art style and a unique medium.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Back in September, she was announced as the People's Choice Award winner of Arts of the Albemarle's Mary Crutchfield Landmark Art Competition for her fiber art depiction of the Great Desmal Swamp.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: She's here today to speak about her journey as an artist, her battle to have her art accepted in mainstream spaces.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're so glad that you're here to start.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about how you became interested in creating art and if you started with fiber or painting, and just how did you get to where you are today?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I started playing with fibers and fabric as a young child.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: My mother was a home economics teacher, and it was expected that I would follow in those footsteps.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: I made doll clothes, I made my own clothing through high school and college, and everyone expected me to be a home economist, and I wasn't having any of that.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: I majored in art history, and not only were my parents worried about what I would do with art history, I was worried too.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I uh got enough history and government credits to be certified to teach that.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: But after um college, I was fortunate enough to get a job in New York City with the Educational Division of Simplicity Patterns, travel the country giving programs in schools and colleges.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I was working with fibers and fabrics and clothing.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: It was always in the clothing realm.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then later, um, when I when I wanted to stop traveling, I came to Elizabeth City and COA to teach.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: And after marriage, I worked with Watermark, the Crafts Marketing Cooperative in Camden, and still was doing uh clothing.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: I did art to wear jackets, but I didn't really want to do, didn't want to have to market those.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: So um gradually morphed into doing uh wall art pieces.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: And um I love working with fiber and expressing my ideas and so forth in fiber, but I've actually never done any watercolor or used that those mediums.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: I did a little bit of oil growing up, but that's that's it.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Just quick quickly started into wall art pieces uh from with fiber.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: What what what's art to wear jacket?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: What is that?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: They're one of a kind jackets that have um designs on them.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was the grand national winner in the American Sewing Gills Creativity Contest in 2003 and 2005.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, it's just telling a story on the clothing almost.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh but it doesn't look like it it's not in the costume realm.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's wearable art.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um but it's usually one of a kind.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Can I ask this one question?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the reason I'm asking.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is what went through my mind was you know, you go back on these uh I think uh Ocasio Cortez went to uh like uh an event and she had things written on her dress, and some people have these messages.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's I know that's I don't think that's what you're talking about, but I but I was immediately went there.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So when you say art to work, it literally is a depiction of something or whatever you're feeling.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: It is literally art.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's it could be hung on a wall, right?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: It could be.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: You could take a section of it or hang it on the wall.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Or the Metropolitan does, I mean, their big fashion their fashion show this year, or not fashion show, but their big moneymaker is art uh expressing wall pieces uh in their clothing and vice versa.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, the med gala.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: The med gala that is actually their theme um in May.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's fashion to wear.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Fashion to wear.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um art to wear, art art in fashion.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I told you I was interested in this.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is fascinating.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, this is an incredibly fascinating, and if you've seen her artwork, the way that she manipulates the the fiber, she places it and stretches it and in such a way that it really emanates the the natural movement of water and trees in in your landscape specifically.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And from what I've seen, you tend to gravitate towards landscapes, is you have like a way of creating the boundaries between the sky and the water and the trees and the water, even though some of the colors are similar, while still utilizing that soft nature of your medium.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something in particular that gravitates you towards landscaping?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I grew up in a very rural section of Virginia, so it was all around me.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then I lived in Camden for 33 years in the middle of 500 acres of swamp.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's what I looked at.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: So it makes an impression, an indelible impression.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: And um I I like the colors.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: The colors are nice.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Also, um, if you get a leaf a quarter of an inch out of to the side, it's it's okay.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: But if you get a perspective line a quarter of an inch out of the way, it looks like the building is falling down.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't really enjoy doing architectural pieces.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um that I'm just not that's not my nature.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: I relate more to the natural colors and landscapes.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: But it's the way I what it's what I saw when I grew up.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And when you when you say that, um, like with the architecture, the way that the lines have to be.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like when people hear fiber art, they tend to gravitate towards the idea of woven tapestry or needlepoint, but the the process on creating wall art out of fiber, it must be very different.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: What what does that process look like?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably not that different.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: I use a combination of techniques.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was well grounded in sewing and clothing uh projects growing up, and then with my um parental background and so forth, and then I made my own clothes and worked for a company that I had to be in their patterns, so I made those also when I uh worked for them.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm well grounded in the techniques, so I had those to pull from.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't use any glue uh or any paint in my pieces because I don't want the glue to melt if somebody buys a piece and sends it across country in an unair conditioned pot or something.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: So uh they're you know substantial.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: I work only with archival um mat board and so forth.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the technique that I use the most is one that's very, very old.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's needle felting.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: If you think about the people in the nomadic tribes in Afghanistan, or those their yurts are usually, their walls of those tents are usually needle-felted fibers.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they're very thick and dense.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the technique I probably use maybe 60% of the time, but I'm combining other sewing techniques like how do I attach um birch bark to a background piece because you can't sew it in a straight line or it'll split.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to zigzag it to make it, you know, to attach it.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um a lot of those things I probably had in my stash of memory from growing up.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I could combine all of those uh techniques.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it sounds like you really use a lot of creativity paired with your technical background, and they I feel like they all come together really well.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say I'm um anything other than very amateur, but I have done a lot of like needlepoint felting, at least as a child.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: My mother, my mother's really into it as well.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it can be quite time consuming.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of time do you put into these pieces?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: How long does one typically take you?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh probably from if I really concentrate or if I have a deadline for a show, uh, I need to have started at least six weeks in advance.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I've done two major pieces a year.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's been my uh production mode.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh I'm not prolific, but I've you know have have to live too, a new roof, you know, new get the yard cut, that kind of thing.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: So um life does toy with my creative schedule.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, understandable.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and when we've previously spoken, we spoke during the the landmark competition um after you had just won the People's Choice Award.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: And what really sparked my interest in your story was how adamant you were about giving your art a space.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you told me that there was a little bit of a struggle in people not wanting to accept fiber art uh as a medium, as in in mainstream spaces like like gallery shows.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just wondering, like, how did you overcome that?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: What was that like for you?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I was surprised to say the least that I one of my first pieces, I mean, I didn't start doing this until 20 years ago.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: It was just sort of a long journey to get to the wall art pieces.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I took my piece to enter into a juried show and they said, Oh, you can't enter, you need to enter a craft show.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought, and then I was very upset that um art was being judged by the medium you used.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: You had to use oil, acrylic, or watercolor.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I didn't really think that was fair.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: I thought that any method that you used, well, within reason to express your creative ideas should be um you know allowed as long as the subject was okay and so forth.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I thought, okay, the only way to prove that it's can be considered fine art is to enter a number of juried shows and see what the judge thinks about them.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so I, you know, use that venue to get judges' approval, and then gradually I've gotten the public's approval that, oh yeah, yeah, that's that's probably art when they see one of my pieces.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: So um, you know, that's the journey I've taken trying to get it accepted in northeastern North Carolina and on the West Coast or New England, England, Australia are hotbeds of fiber art, but people weren't used to the idea.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: They hadn't thought about it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um so my quest has been to introduce them to that, and it actually has um a long history.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: The Middle Ages, the uh wall hangings and the tapestries used, they're all original art to the weavers using it.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's not called fiber art, but that's what it is.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's like art done with fiber.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine going back well before us, uh all of us, that would have been a more common medium because the people were weaving and and all the kinds of things that would have been more common for people to use to express themselves.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um you mentioned that um I think you said uh Australia and I guess the United Kingdom are hotbeds.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: England has a long tradition of ecclesiastical art.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: And if you think about all the rich robes and the uh decoration, all of those, mainly for the higher ups, are one of a kind.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: So they have been doing it not necessarily in the same format that I've used, but that is fiber art.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the way they've expressed the uh I mean that's one of the ways.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um New Zealand and Australia, because of the high population of sheep, they've got the wool to work with.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the women who inspired me the most was a a Dutch lady uh who immigrated to Australia, and her work is published um probably twenty, twenty-five years ago, with uh huge um commercial art that adorns buildings.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um her work is gorgeous and it's all done using embroidery techniques, but it's all individual to the a commission that she has at the time.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: And it's accepted as, you know, art adorning those buildings.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I just this this is a whole different subject for me.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just I never thought about this.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I was reading up on it, it would really you w I love history, and you just mentioned you know going back in the in the ages, the the robes that they made and things like that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: It never dawned on me that that that that also could be considered art.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Not maybe not at all, but yeah they're for royalty, for in in religious purposes, whatever.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just it never dawned on me.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and another way to think about it is the famous uh cave drawings in Les Gaux, France.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they're in all the art history books, but that's done with berries and charcoal.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, but no one said you can't go in an art history book because you played with berry juice.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I will say, as far as like robes go, throwing back to the Met Gala, that was actually a theme that they had some odd years ago.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: They had it was, I think, art in the church, and and people showed up in in full-length robes and dresses with Renaissance paintings on them.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I definitely think there is room in the art world for all kinds of fiber art.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um you said that in a lot of other places it's more accepted.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you said Northeastern North Carolina.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, you know, we've started opening up.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like despite the fact that the arts community is supposed to be like, I feel like it's generally seen as an openly expressive place, do you think that there is a prejudice in in certain areas against mediums outside the norm?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think there probably was because people did not think about it.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: They hadn't thought about it.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I did a one-person show and I didn't have enough fiber art pieces, so I said, Can I use an oil painting that I did in college just to fill this wall?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the owner said yes.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then one of the town fathers was standing there looking at it, and I walked up and he said, Oh, I didn't know you did real art too.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that actually happened um probably 17 years ago.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: So, but he hadn't thought about um it shouldn't be uh confined or def defined by the medium you use.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you know, I've worked school kids could be given a bunch of yarn and rags and some glue, you know, to make it harder and um play with that.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: They don't have to have expensive uh equipment or paints and papers.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: They could create the um folk artist, you know, worked with what they had.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: And one lady who was certified by the Museum of History in Raleigh as a certified folk artist in Perquimans County, uh, she says, if I seize it in my head, I can do it.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: And she used it was amazing.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: One of the animals she did, she had used wooden spools for the knobs on the knees, you know.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, she wasn't limited by a medium as she shouldn't have been.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I found her work fascinating.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: What what cultures uh when I I'm gonna say what cultures, um the reason I I'm uh going here is is I also have a passion for like looking and studying Native Americans.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta I gotta imagine that there's that that that whatever fiber would be in the Native American cultures that exist too.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So other cultures, what other cultures really tend to really gravitate towards this or are you seeing the a lot of?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think probably all of them at some time or another.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean the um weavings with um sinew on Eskimo garb, you know, that's it's all original.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, it's they're making they're telling stories of their culture, uh expressing themselves that way.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: And you can usually tell which tribe they're from or which section of the country, um, you know, where they live by what they depict in their um historical vessels and garments.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Are these things that you learned along the way too?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because isn't you're getting into so many other areas, you're talking how people communicate, how people express their passions.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just art, it's like you said, telling a story.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, is this this thing that did you learn this along the way?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that for some reason this is piquing my my my interest a lot, you know?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know where I learned what's wow, but uh I mean I was thinking specifically about um the Eskimos in Alaska um and on the Northwest Coast, um you know, or just any of the tribal areas.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um needle felting is uh you're starting with a base fabric and then you're taking uh yarn, well, you're taking wool or any other, it could be bamboo even or corn husk that have been boiled down.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: You take that and apply it using a barbed needle.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: The needle needle is about three inches long.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen that before, yeah.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and and then you put the wool down and you punch the needle through.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: So the back side of your piece is almost a pastel of the front.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you don't need glue.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it holds.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: If I make a mistake or have a line that where I don't want it, I I have to take the tweezers and pull it out.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's time consuming to uh correct a mistake.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a very sturdy, you're making a very thick, dense fabric out of what was um out of two components.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the needle felting.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: To compare it to wet felting, that's when you take your wool sweater and put it in the washing machine by mistake and it comes out three sizes smaller, but it's very dense and very thick, and you can't stretch it out.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's wet felting, and that's an another technique.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't used that but once or twice when I wanted to shrink something down or perhaps blend the colors a little more accurately.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, but I'm not sure I've done any two pieces alike.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm experimenting too because there hasn't been no school for me to go to.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it seems like you said that there's like multiple different types of the felting.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever really experimented with with any kind of other felt or fabric?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um you said that you did the the wearable art.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is that like embroidery?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: No, I used yarn and I couched it or laid it on top and worked with it and then cut it into a crazy quilt pattern and then assembled a jacket from that.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I've done some wet felting, but it's messy.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's water and soap suds, and um, I used um poodle hair in one of my pieces.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: My little dog, um, I always, you know, groomed him and cut it, washed him and cut his hair, and then I used the hair to go in the garden to keep the rabbits away.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: And he died, and then we moved from Camden into Elizabeth City, and I found a bag of his hair.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought, oh, I can't throw copper's hair away.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought, what would happen if I use that?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it he was copper colored, and I needed soil that was slightly reddish in one of the pieces, and um, you know, it it worked.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's so special too.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it ethically sourced.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's a big thing.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's I did freeze it, you know, to make sure that there were no bugs in it or whatever.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: And just out of my curiosity, with obviously we've discussed there are other places that are already accepting um of more unconventional, so to speak, mediums.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like there are any kind of mediums that you've seen that might be kind of unconventional that may be making their way into a mainstream space?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think people are experimenting and using more of what's in their own histories and backgrounds.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um in the um big Miami art show, I think it was last year or the year before, you know, someone had nailed a banana to the wall.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I remember then it sold for a million dollars or something.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: I that's extreme.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think there'll be that much of it.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: But now I see um acrylic artist adding some fibers or strings or whatever to their pieces.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um metal art.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: I I see people using found objects, but I use a lot of recycled sorry silks.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: I love to work with uh fibers that uh reflect color and I can get recycled, I mean I can get sorry silks uh and recycled kimonas as backgrounds.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um thrift stores, people who get rid of their silk blouses have been a source also.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: So uh again, just out of my curiosity, what would you say is like the most unusual piece that you have pulled fabric or fiber from to make other than copper's hair?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: That might be up there.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I took um I was cleaning out my husband's shoe box.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, you used to polish your shoes regularly, and I thought, why is this taking up space in the closet?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I looked inside and I saw the shoe polish rag that both of us had used a long time ago, and I thought, I can't throw this away.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, I enhanced it with sorry silks and then it won an award in an art show.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: Another one was I took um, we had a great dane, and I took the we had to reinforce all of the screen doors with hardware call and there were scraps of that left.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I w uh wrapped it in yarn and it was dead, so then I put gold leaf on top of it and used that.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it's um my husband always said that he had if he had a favorite necktie, he had to hide it.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise he'd see it in one of my works.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I have back in the day when the the ties were wider, uh, there was a there was um I can't remember the name of this artist, but she would hand paint ties.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: I probably have over 300 ties.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I still because they look, they're just really weird stuff on them, and I just never got rid of them.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I know this sounds weird.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you still keeping your tie?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know why.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if I can tie a tie right now, it's been so long.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: But but I still have them because they have they're one of a kind.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nicole Miller, that's what it was.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, I remember that name.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you just said that.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um and somebody told me you should make something out of this.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what am I gonna make out of it?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I can I could be an artist.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: A coloss.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can see my ties in in the Museum of Modern Art.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'll guarantee you my ties are gonna be no, maybe not.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: See, and for some of our younger listeners out there, that reminds me of um the Twilight movies where they have this giant art piece on the wall that's all of their graduation caps because they're they're vampires and they continuously go and matriculate from high school and college.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I think you should do something like that.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just I will I will.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm being serious.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: I know I'm referencing Twilight.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was also thinking I'm I'm cleaning up my closets and I did find a lot of rags with shoe polish on them.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want some extra mediums, I'll I'll bring them to you.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, if they have some color in them, I found some red.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, just black.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's well, maybe that could be used and something, but I have I'm an artist and I didn't know it.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: This is a great you were gonna say I was I was gonna say I had some red shoes and some green shoes, and so I had spots of red and green on them, but um I and there's a print on the video.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, a lot of your art can be found at Arts of the Albama.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um I feel like Arts of the Albemarle really creates an artistic community.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: Have you found a lot of support in the area for your art from from other local artists?
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not in touch with a lot of local artists because I work in a vacuum.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: No one else is working in the medium.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: I can't take my paint box and go out and do a plain air painting.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've got a room full of rags and buttons and so forth that I'm pulling from.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: So no one is really working in the medium.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone has been supportive.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: Other the other artists have been very supportive, but as far as um, you know, of of my endeavors, but as far I haven't there's no one else doing what I'm doing in this area that I've seen.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: And in my opinion, that's what makes your art so truly special.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: You've brought something so unique to our area.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, it's it's it's endemic with me.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I it's what I I I would be hard pressed to do an oil painting of an architectural building.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think, oh no.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: But again, I think that's that's what makes it special.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is it's really true to you.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's a supportive community, and this area is just full of ex exceptionally creative people.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: No, they all haven't found a voice yet, or they're not promoted as they are, say, in the uh Asheville area.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um and they don't have as many venues for uh showing their work, but that's coming.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like you know, right, we're right on the cusp of an explosion here.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely agree.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think unique art like yours is going to be on the forefront of that.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this is um you've won me over.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is I you've I am I'm a huge fan right now.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: As am I.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for joining us today.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate that.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: For anyone that doesn't know, they can find uh quite a few of your pieces.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: You said prints, some of your prints are at Arts of the Albemarle, Prints and Cards.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: And cards are at uh the hospital gift shop, also.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, that's nice.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you again.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's been such a pleasure hearing your story.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's wonderful.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, anyone who has not seen her art should definitely check it out.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to Voices of the Albemarle.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: We really appreciate Catherine Wasink coming and joining us today, as well as all of our listeners for joining us.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you stay tuned in for our next episode where we will be having a conversation with local music professor and musician Douglas Jackson about his time in the music industry as well as his latest single, Elizabeth City Grooves.