If you think quilts are just for keeping warm, you obviously haven’t met Flat Rock fiber artist Jo-Ann Jensen. Working out of her backyard studio, Jensen layers hand-cut fabrics over batting to create art quilts (i.e., intricate coverlets better suited for gallery walls than beds). “I draw inspiration from the Blue Ridge Mountains’ changing colors through the seasons,” says Jensen, who will display a selection of her pieces at The Art Place Gallery during The Art of Fiber and Textile this February. According to a press statement, the group exhibition will “highlight works rooted in traditional fiber materials, structures, processes, and history, while also celebrating pieces that push the boundaries of fiber art by exploring unexpected relationships with other creative disciplines.” Participating artists will include members of The Art League of Henderson County as well as artists from Local Cloth, a fiber arts nonprofit that was inundated during Hurricane Helene. “… Local Cloth was almost completely destroyed from floodwaters and debris, which knocked out their front door and windows and rose inside the walls to more than 10 feet,” a statement reads. By comparison, Jensen got lucky. Though a tree branch hit the root of her studio, allowing rain to drench countless yards of fabric, she bounced back quickly. “Happily, I was able to string out several clotheslines in the backyard with the help of my neighbor,” she says. “All the wet fabric dried out in the sunny days that followed the storm.” It’s with this same fabric that she is “eager to continue to create mountain landscapes that remind us of the beauty that surrounds us — not the destruction we saw after the hurricane.”
The Art of Fiber and Textile: February 1-21; Opening Reception: Saturday, February 1, 2-4pm
The Art Place Gallery / 2021 Asheville Highway, Hendersonville / artleaguehvl.org