Photos Tim Thayer
P E R S O N A L P A T H S
Above:
Rat,
2006,
wood, handmade felt, kozo fiber,
8 x 3 x 14 in.
Left:
Fetch,
2010,
handmade felt, shell, beads,
ï5 x ï3 x 6 in.
sections, lays on the sculptures’
cores and sews together as a
skin. Finally, she drenches the
felt with bookbinders glue.
When it dries, she sands the
sculptures’ hardened surfaces
manually.
What, ultimately, does Aaron-
Taylor hope to achieve through
her art? “As an artist I’m a com-
municator,” she says, “but I’m
trying to communicate on a
heart level.” Not nit-picked
specifics, but the universal
gist of her dreams finds expres-
sion in her works, always
accompanied by brief, sugges-
tive passages of text, poems
or quotations.
“When people can relate,
when they come up and say,
‘Aha, I get it,’ then I’m ful-
filled,” she says.
+
susanaarontaylor.com
Roger Green writes about art
from Ann Arbor, mi.
Jungian psychology,” Aaron-
Taylor says. Maybe the artist’s
simultaneous exposure to fiber
and sculpture at Cranbrook also
demonstrates Jung’s concept of
synchronicity—two or more
experiences that initially seem
unrelated but ultimately form a
meaningful connection.
The ideas informing Aaron-
Taylor’s art are complex, but
they’re nearly matched by her
complicated technical processes.
Aaron-Taylor scavenges the
tree limbs and roots (and occa-
sionally metal scraps) that form
the cores of her sculptures. She
chooses intuitively. “I see po-
tentiality in nature,” she says.
“I have to feel a connection be-
fore I pick something up.” Typ-
ically, she carves or cuts her
wooden finds, using an X-Acto
knife or a scroll saw.
It’s the fabrication and appli-
cation of felt that is most labor-
intensive, however. To create
the felt, she presses layers of
commercially available fleece,
dyed different colors, between
sheets of netting. She then
sprays the layered fleece with
diluted liquid soap, then rubs,
rolls and unrolls the spongy
product. Next, she wets it
with hot and cold water, so it
will shrink.
What results are sheets of
chunky felt, which she cuts into
dec/jan 11 american craft 031
