Denise Bookwalter and Lee Emma Running have been working for two weeks to realize the installation project Lining: Sheathing.    In the studio they have made huge handmade papers sheets, printed onto the paper with laser cut woodblocks for repeat patterns, and assembled and sewn fabrics to construct a shelter in the gallery space.   Here are some images of works in progress:

A room size tent enclosure, inspired by Yurts and other nomadic domestic structures,  is the core of the installation.   It will be covered with canvas walls that have been screen printed with a variety of designs, such as Fair Isle knits, traditional crewel work embroidery, an image of a “whorl” of wool, or a “bloom” of cotton.   Hand dyed silk lines the interior of the tent structure of a shadow like pattern, using the image of a cotton boil that was laser cut into plexi glass and clamped with the silk, for resist dip-dying on the delicate material.  Inside the dark space of the tent a bed-sized platform will be covered with two hand-embroidered felt blankets.   Large handmade papers of Iowa grown kozo fiber will be made during the residency, and then printed with laser engraved woodblocks, that will be hung on the gallery walls.    Lining:  Sheathing gives evidence of a love of textiles, while reflecting the beauty of materials that protect and house the body.  

Denise Bookwalter works in a range of print media including traditional and digital processes, artist’s books, installations and dimensional prints.   Her artists’ books utilize old and new print technologies to create collaborative artists’ books. The National Endowment of the Arts funded her most recent collaborative artists book, Rain/fall. Her work has been exhibited in a variety of venues nationally as well as internationally. She received her BA from Northwestern University and her MFA from Indiana University in Printmaking. Denise currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida and is an Associate Professor of Art at Florida State University where she teaches printmaking and is Area Head of the Printmaking Department.  She is the director and a founding member of Florida State University’s artists book press, Small Craft Advisory Press.

 Lee Emma Running is trained as a traditional papermaker and sculptor. She is currently an Associate Professor at Grinnell College and received a BFA from Pratt Institute in 1999 and an MFA from the University of Iowa in 2005.  Her work has been shown nationally and internationally at venues including the Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City KS, the Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg PA, and the Rijeka Museum of Contemporary Art, Rijeka Croatia. She’s been granted residencies at The Vermont Studio Center, Jentel Artists Residency, Penland School of Crafts and Anchor Graphics, and was in residence in the fall of 2015 at the Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico. She is represented by Olsen Larson Gallery.