MaryJane Moffat


Walton, Oregon
moffatmj@gmail.com
I donate 5% of my profits to the Campaign to Establish a US Dept of Peace and Non Violence. HR 808 is currently in Congress to create such a Department to fund violence prevention both at home and abroad. To find out more visit www.thePeaceAlliance.org

Biography:
I embroidered my first picture when I was 12 years old and much later got a couple of degrees at the University of Oregon where I studied
drawing with Ron Graff, animation with Ken O'Connell and fiber with Marilyn Roberts.
I learned embroidery at my grandmother's knee. My inspiration comes from textiles all over the world now and throughout history, and from
women like Jessie Newberry, Ann MacBeth and Margaret MacDonald (who married Rennie Mackintosh) who exhibited embroidered work in various European Exhibitions at the turn of the last century. They were all members of The Glasgow School, and coincidentally, although I was born and raised in the north of England, I spent almost every summer at my grandmother's house – in Glasgow. For the past few years I have been teaching and have organized shows of my students' and my work at various locations around Eugene including The Eugene Public Library and the Lane County Building.

Shows in 2008:
The Political Show Linn Benton Community College, April 2008 (Juried)
The Plein Air Show, Springfield, Or, August 2008 (1st Place winner, mixed media)
Art on the Bus, Lane Transit District, Eugene, Or. (Participating Artist)

See examples of current my work at:
New Zone Gallery, 164 West Broadway, Eugene, Oregon 541-683-0759 Tues-Sun 12-6
The Village Gallery, 12505 NW Cornell Rd, Portland, Oregon
503-644-8001 Tues-Sat 10-4, Sun 12-4

About my work:
I love the subtlety you can achieve with watercolor but for me there's nothing to match the texture of thread. I love the feel of the thread
going through my fingers and the way the finished stitches make shadows. Arches 140lb watercolor paper makes a remarkably sturdy
ground for embroidery and painting a background on it before I sew into it, means I don't have to spend months and months on one piece. Occasionally I still embroider on fabric: the journal cover was done on hemp, it's made to fit over the cheap spiral notebooks I use for my many journals; and Amish Homage (inspired by an Amish quilt) was done on silk. I'm also exploring making felt bowls. I enjoy the sustainability of wool, and am exploring organic cotton and wool
threads. Felt too, makes a wonderful ground for embroidery. I start with raw, carded wool, make the bowls, by rubbing the wool hard around a pattern or form in hot water and soap, and then embroider them. I frequently incorporate words into my embroideries on the bowls, often under the lids (see You Are Powerful). Although I make up many of my own stitches I'm also drawn to some of the really old stitches. There's so much history in them. Take blackwork stiches for example (see Dancing Trees image). Blackwork was brought to England from Spain in the 1600s, and it was brought to Spain by the Arabs who were prevented by their religious beliefs from producing figurative art and instead perfected geometric art. Blackwork stitches are actually
wonderful examples of tessellations. Some of my abstract embroideries are not signed on the front so the buyer is free to change the orientation, after a few months, or years. (See images Red Lines and French Knots 1 and Red Lines and French Knots 2) I've always felt the distinction between fine art and craft is a spurious one. Oil and acrylic paints are used to paint walls and doors and yet are still taken seriously as an art form. Embroidery too can be used for practical purposes, yet who says it shouldn't be taken
seriously as an art form. Felt and thread have a much longer history than oil or acrylics and last for 100s of years. The Bayeaux tapestry was actually an embroidery and is still in pretty good
condition after a 1000 years! Hand embroidery used to be everywhere, now it's used mostly by industry to embroider logos by machine on
clothing. One of my goals is to help hand embroidery continue to be part of our wonderful World.