Fiber Artist: Xenobia Bailey

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AfriGeneas Heritage Arts & Crafts Forum

Fiber Artist: Xenobia Bailey

By:Jay <Show E-Mail>
Date: 12/1/2008, 3:31 pm

Xenobia Bailey’s works in crochet, which include costumes and colorful wall hangings constructed of concentric circles, are a far cry from the traditional shawls and doilies associated with the medium.

“Xenobia Bailey is the kind of artist who is extending what we think of as craft,” says Kate Lydon, assistant director at SCC. “She is definitely exploring uncharted waters in her medium.”

Bailey, a graduate of New York’s Pratt Institute, learned to crochet from an Italian-Swiss teacher she met while working as an artist-in-community in Brooklyn, N.Y., schools. She says that the development of crochet as a decorative needle arts form derives from the grassroots fiber arts movement of the 1960s, the “black holiness” tent revivals, and the “cosmic funk of the urban cultural movement.” Here's more:
http://www.craftsreport.com/january03/profile.html

Any crocheters in the house? Not sure how my sisters learned and I didn't. :-( Somehow they watched my mom or my aunt while I...well, who knows what I was doing. I can crochet a looooong line--just haven't figured out how to attach it to anything (next row) though. Yikes!

I guess it is about time I learn. :-)