Review

"Winter Tones," Fiber Collage (Stitched Fabric, Rabbit Fur, Copper Leaf, Antique Glass Beads)

Terri Rogers
Living in the Layers

1-3 p.m.
(Opening Reception)

Unitarian Gallery
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
4501 Walnut
Kansas City, MO
816-531-2131

Hours after opening reception: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
Runs through: March 31

Artist's site: http://sewnmeditations.blogspot.com
Gallery site: http://www.allsoulskc.org

We begin today with a short bit of required reading: Stanley Kunitz's poem The Layers.

Beautiful piece, isn't it? A touch sad, perhaps, but building toward this powerful and ultimately hopeful couplet:

"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."

That's not the end of the piece, of course (that comes six lines later), but it is the climactic point. It is from those lines that Terri Rogers drew the title of her fiber collage show, Living in the Layers, that opens this afternoon with a reception from 1-3 p.m. at the Unitarian Gallery inside All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church.

Rogers explains:

Most of the pieces in this show, and something that I've been exploring lately, is the magical way that things change, or become new again, when another layer is added. In my artwork, this usually translates to another literal layer of fabric: sheer and/or translucent fabrics, that have a personality of their own, that lend a new view of what was already there.

In short, layers can both conceal and reveal. Think of  sheer clothing, for example; that which is covered is not hidden, but is suddenly made far more intriguing for not being fully visible.

In creating most of the pieces this show, Rogers has laid thin fabrics over thicker ones, accenting them with metallic wire, with beads, and with other items both natural and artificial.

For Winter Tones, today's featured piece, the list of additions includes white rabbit fur, a copper leaf and antique turquoise glass beads. Besides underscoring the theme of the wall hanging, the augmentations also serve as entry points into Rogers' calm, meditative composition (another common thread, so to speak, which runs throughout her work).

The layers in this show aren't merely visual or structural, though. For Rogers, it's also about the number of layers of connections with people that get pulled together to create a new piece of art.

It's a lengthy list.

There are pieces of nature from my travels, Rogers writes. There are bits of jobs that I've done; there are pieces of fabric that people just give me because they are precious to them, but they don't have anything they can do with them; there are old pieces of jewelry that undoubtedly have their own story. There are (mostly) recycled frames from friends — again, frames precious to them, but past their usefulness to the individual. It's a wonderful weaving of stories and good feelings ... in other words, layers ...

And for Rogers, the stories and good feelings are crucial. How many artists do you know who conduct blessing ceremonies for their shows, asking that the pieces bring happiness and peace to viewers? For her, that's yet another layer, a spiritual component that's as important as any swatch or stitch.

She lives in those layers ... and because she inhabits that space so fully, Rogers brings her pieces to joyful, contemplative life as well.

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