Fiber art show to bring texture Artspace Uptown Artist Lofts

Everybody’s seen the signs and knows the score. You’re not supposed to touch the art.

There is though one artistic medium where texture is an integral part of the experience: fiber art.

The Artspace Uptown Artist Lofts at 717 Franklin Street in downtown Michigan City will “celebrate the sense of touch with a fiber art exhibit” featuring an array of different fiber mediums between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday, May 3 during the First Friday art crawl between galleries in Michigan City’s Uptown Arts District.

“Most of us take for granted the information that we receive from our sense of touch,” Artspace said in a press release. “However, an entire art form called ‘fiber art’ has taken shape from this sensation. Fiber art consists of everything from stuffed animal creation to quilting beautifully intricate blankets, quilts, or hanging wall pieces all made from yarn, thread, or other fibrous materials.”

Felecia Clark-Viou, who’s worked as a fiber artist for more than four decades, will curate the show, which will feature her work as well as that of several other artists. Known as Miss V, she’s worked in the medium since she took up crochet as a child and then sewing as a teenager. She’s crafted handbags, recycled upholstery fabric and crocheted with various materials.

She also helped launched the Needlearts League, an open forum for needle arts practitioners that runs between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. every Thursday at the Michigan City Public Library.

“We (fiber artists) discern fiber imperfections,” she said. “We glory in textures. We pull, weave, cut, manipulate, sew, unravel until what is left in their hands acquiesce to our will.”

The exhibit is free and open to the public.