Bio

Marcelyn Bennett-Carpenter is a fiber artist captivated by weaving’s timeless relevance, cultural prevalence, physical and psychological presence, and playful technical interpretations. She earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art and currently teaches in the largest hand-weaving studio in North America at the Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She has taught at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and attended the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Open Residency. She exhibits her work in galleries all around Michigan, the country and internationally including the recent Extreme Fibers: Icons and the New Edge at the Muskegon Art Museum, The Textile Society of America’s Symposium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Site: Brooklyn in New York City, and created one of her large-scale elastic installations for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center. Her most recent commission was for the Applebaum Family Foundation Office in Birmingham, Michigan.

Statement

I draw hyperreal trees. I contour the tree’s shape, so the trees are flattened and animated. I then double them like in a reflection creating Rorschach-like imagery. Each tree is specific, and the titles reference their actual location around metropolitan Detroit. Trees pay homage to their circumstance with their powerful presence. They are true to the chances of their time and place. By personifying trees iconographically, I put them forth as physical and emotional forces in the urban landscape.

These works are from a series that I call Handwoven Drawings. Handwoven drawings are created in three phases. First, I draw on slats of softwood. Then, I hand-cut the slats into even thinner strips. In order, each strip is woven into the warp on a floor loom using a traditional textile pattern. Essentially, the drawing is cut apart then re- assembled within the structure of interlacing threads. Finally, I manipulate the surface of the weaving using other techniques like embroidery and collage.

The Handwoven Drawings are part of my larger body of work that includes Interactive Elastic Installations, Wearable Woven Structures, Interactive Sculptures, and drawing. I work under the umbrella of fiber art, mixing mediums of drawing, painting, weaving, sculpture, and installation. The curiosity that drives my work centers on perception and creating a sublime sensation. Beauty to me is physical and carries the strongest psychological impact. The beauty I take in and the beauty I create ties closely to the body moving through spaces both architectural like cathedrals and natural like the forest.

All my work can be seen on my website marcelynbennettcarpenter.com.