Fiber artist and fellow art enthusiast Kimberly A. Laudert was a 2021 first time MN State Arts Board grant recipient. Lucky for those who knew her, she invited a group of us to weekly meetings around the topic of addressing mental health stigma in ourselves and others. We had several guest speakers sharing their perspective (NAMI, a somatic therapist, Kimberly and myself). The project culminated in Kimberly teaching us needle felting skills and each person creating a felted piece that expressed ourselves around hope and resilience. The single works of art were then joined together in a large hanging that was showcased at the Crossroads exhibit at Hennepin Theater Trust in downtown Minneapolis.
Congratulations Kimberly!
Wendy from Windswept Hill Farm & Studios was gracious enough to invite us out to visit her farm to see where the wool actually comes from!! Service dog and sheep looked surprisingly similar.
Here is my 6 x 9"creation.
Then Kimberly got started on attaching each piece with 4 snap closures, one for each corner.
Several of us were invited to lend our hand in the process. I enjoyed it so much, I went back several times.
Then she needed to plan out how to hang it and tried out several ideas from a yarn border to copper tubing.
The final piece was titled Resilience!
And now Kimberly is in the process of implementing her next awarded MSAB grant where she is using images of these felted pieces and pairing them with poetry that she teaches us how to write
I can't wait to join in to that project as well!
