ARTIST’S PROJECT STATEMENT

I work mostly in fiber (felting, quilting, and other sewn objects), but also in ink, pencil, watercolor and acrylic. I share images of places that carried my imagination beyond the present moment. I portray the thoughts that stir me when I travel. I draw spontaneously during worship to quiet my mind to better remember messages brought by others and so my hands can tell me where my heart is. Beginning in late March 2016, I walked 58 days from Guadix in southeastern Spain to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. I wanted to walk across the country and to follow spring’s arrival as it moved north. I had recently retired and needed time to stop my overbooked life, so I could listen to the Inward Teacher. I hoped that when I finished I would know what the next segment of my life would be. — Kendra Biddick

ARTIST’S BIO

I live outside Washington, DC. My artistic career began with an art class given by my son’s elementary school art teacher for adults afraid of the vulnerability inherent in creative expression which introduced me to the joy of wordless expression. I worked on improving my drawing skills and helped my son’s elementary classes make class quilts. I experimented with colored pencil, pastels, watercolor, and pen and ink, and drew whenever I had a few minutes, until I became too busy as a working mom even for that. Later, evenings spent painting and drawing provided a necessary outlet after working all day for the office of compliance at the Food and Drug Administration. I had read about felting, but when a friend offered me some alpaca fleece to experiment with and I felted it into a wine cozy in a couple of hours, I was hooked. I joined the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild, took fiber-related workshops, and joined study groups in design and felting.

Following retirement, my 2-month camino walk in Spain, and a month of visiting museums in Portugal, I realized I had things to say, and needed to be not a felter making craft items, but an artist working primarily in fiber. In 2017 I started taking art classes at my local community college, where I discovered acrylic paint. Now I work in whatever medium seems most appropriate to each inspiration.