Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is very pleased to announce that Dorothy McGuinness has been named as the Gallery’s new featured artist and she will now be promoted by the gallery for the next 14 days in the gallery’s Artist Showcase.

Dorothy was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists of the gallery’s recent Solo Art Exhibition Series #4. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.  Below are Dorothy's Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.

Artist Biography:

Dorothy McGuinness took her first basket making class in 1987. Traditional American and Native American styles have influenced her work. Using many traditional and native materials such as cedar and cherry bark, sweet grass and spruce roots, she studied basket weaving techniques that have been handed down through the centuries. Dorothy has studied extensively with Jiro Yonezawa, a Japanese basket maker and teacher. She discovered her medium of choice in 2000, when she took a workshop with Jackie Abrams using watercolor paper as a basket weaving material. Dorothy now works exclusively in diagonal twills creating contemporary sculptural baskets. What most attracts Dorothy to using paper and paint for weaving is the ability to play with color and pattern. She enjoy exploring the interplay of weaving, color and patterns in new sculptural pieces and continues to experiment with various weaving methods and techniques.

Dorothy has participated in numerous local, national and international shows and has won various national and international awards. In 2007 she participated in a Fiber Arts Certificate Program at the University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education School. She also participated in the EDGE professional development program sponsored by Artist Trust in Seattle, Washington. She was born in 1961 in Western Washington and currently resides in Everett, Washington.

Artist Statement:

After 29 years of exploring the woven form, I have mastered the art of diagonal twill, with which I create forms and structures not normally found in the basketry world. My medium for this unique work is watercolor paper, which I’ve painted and cut into very narrow uniform strips to achieve the precision I seek.

Approaching my work as a puzzle drives me to discover new shapes and weaving innovations. I often think, “How will it work out if I try this, or how can I get this shape or pattern combination? What if I use these colors in this combination in this order? What if…”

I am also very much interested in the math and geometric constraints of the work. Using hundreds of strips of paper at a time, I explore new structural forms: multiple woven units, asymmetrical corners, weaving opposite corners together, multiple-stepped corners in tandem that add structure to the work. This creates a singular look to the pieces, building unique and intriguing forms that are encoded with energy and elegance.

I am intrigued by the potential outcome of any new design. The evolution of my body of work is built on taking risks, and avoiding the “known”. The risks offer challenges, which often lead to new directions. This is the excitement that keeps me working in a repetitive medium: it is an on-going meditation on improvisation, a continual experiment through which my work can progress and develop.  Dorothy's Website is www.dorothymcguinnessbasket.com