From the Crossroads episode of Craft in America comes the contemporary fiber artist and weaver of Lia Cook. Lia blends digital imagery and experimental/generative processes and blends them with the very physical and tactile media of woven fiber art.
I was particularly drawn to her portraiture work. We aren’t used to associating a tactile quality to portraits. That sense of touch opens up relationships with emotions and experiences that we associate with touch. I find that particularly interesting in relation to the woven medium. The feel and association of woven fabrics and blankets can carry very specific feelings the relationship to the hand that made it is inescapable. I think about warmth and comfort, of family histories and heirlooms passed down through generations.
In her most recent work, Cook has been exploring how to understand and visualize what’s going on in her own brain when she is interacting with her own work and her process. Working with researchers to using observation and imagery tools like EEG’s to capture her brain activity. That information and imagery have then been incorporated into her works.