Kerry A. Faraone

Purcellville, VA

Confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac

I have become obsessed with the ghost forests that line the coast of North Carolina, which I started to document with my camera in 2020. Along the Albemarle Sound, these groupings of dead and dying trees expand dramatically while also decaying through storms, rain, and sunshine. I based this quilt on a photograph I took in the summer of 2022 at the edge of the Nags Head Woods Preserve. These three trees have since been uprooted by a massive storm; only the roots are visible now. This quilt is the first in a series of works dedicated to this fragile ecosystem simultaneously beautiful and melancholic. The series builds on my own photography, using fabrics I painted and printed.

The fabric is painted and mono-printed with pigments dissolved in soy milk. I transferred the manipulated photograph, layered the bottom of the quilt with cheesecloth, stitched the quilt sandwich, and embellished the piece. Materials include: cotton fabric; soy-based paint; photo transfer; 80/20 batting; thread (cotton, monofilament, polyester); glass and stone beads.

Annegret Fauser is a fiber artist whose work focuses on the intersection of nature and culture. Born in Germany and now residing in North Carolina, she has lived in Ghana, France, Great Britain, and Australia before moving to the United States in 2001. Together with travels to countries as varied as Italy and India, these different cultural frameworks have shaped both her life and her work. Her recent art explores the fragile ecosystems of the Albemarle Sound (Outer Banks, NC), where the impacts of global warming, human expansion, and nature’s resilience create a beautiful albeit precarious environment. Between 2018 and 2020, she completed an advanced (Level 4) City and Guild (U.K.) accredited course, followed by a Master Practitioner Course with the School of Stitched Textiles (2022).

https://www.afauser.com