Threads of the earth
North Coast textile artists
featured in Cannon Beach exhibit
BY MALLORY GRUBEN
S
unset-inspired weavings and abstract patchwork
fabric murals will fill the Cannon Beach Gallery this
month. It’s part of a textile show from the Cannon
Beach Arts Association, on view now through Sept. 26, that
brings six Oregon artists together to showcase vibrant and
varied works. Two of the artists are residents of the North
Coast, and shared the process and meaning of their creations.
Kyla
Allyn
Cantor
Sjogren
Abstract fabric
assemblage
Cannon Beach artist Allyn
Cantor works with threads
and scrap cloth to create
mixed media compositions.
llyn Cantor’s long career in tex-
A
tile art originated in high school,
when she handmade some of her own
clothes. As a long-time painter, Cantor
focused her attention on textiles in col-
lege because she found it to be “broader”
than painting.
“I had been making a lot of hand-
made clothing on my own since high
school, but I had been painting since
high school too,” said Cantor. “But I
didn’t want to major in painting. There
just seemed like a lot more to explore in
the textiles department.”
Cantor, 45, lives in Cannon Beach
and calls her unique style “fabric
assemblage.” Most of her pieces are
abstract designs made of a patchwork
of fabrics and canvas. She admits she
has a giant collection of fabric.
“I save every bit of scrap, because
they become the gestures from the line
and scissor marks,” she said.
She received a grant from the Can-
non Beach Arts Association in 2005 to
develop her body of work, and she’s
been showing in the local gallery since.
Cantor sews together repurposed
fabric with pieces of painter’s canvas
and stretches them like a traditional
painting would be stretched. Then she
adds embellishments, such as embroi-
6 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
dery or screen printed
images. She likened
some of her designs to
the layered topography
maps of mountain ranges.
“It can take months
for a big one, but the
smaller ones go pretty
fast,” she said. “A lot of it
is pinning it together and
sticking it on the wall,
then living with it for a
Woven
plant fibers
Wheeler textile artist Kyla
Sjogren weaves plant
fibers, pigments and
natural elements by hand.
Where to see the art
Cannon Beach Gallery
t 18, Kyla Sjogren
A
faced a choice. She
could attend college for
See Allyn Cantor, Page 10
environmental science, or
pursue a degree in fine art.
She chose the latter,
and her passion for natural
dyes and weaving blos-
somed. However, decades
later she’s found her deci-
sion still allowed her to
indulge in her more scien-
tific interests.
“The natural dye
‘Winter Light,’ by Allyn Cantor, is
characterized by juxtaposing layers of
surface texture and fluidity of linear
motion created by loose threads.
Kyla Sjogren created all of the colors in
this rug from plant or insect pigments.
1064 S. Hemlock Street
On view now through Sept.
26 with with an artist recep-
tion during the Earth & Ocean
Arts Festival on Sept. 18.
Open Wednesday through
Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
aspect uses botany and chemistry and
learning how to figure out how to
apply those pigments onto fibers,” said
Sjogren.
The 46-year-old creates each of her
pieces from her home in Wheeler while
pulling from her environmental science
knowledge. She carefully considers how
her work might affect the surrounding
ecosystem by asking questions about
how using a certain plant for pigment
might lead to overharvesting, or how to
keep carbon emissions low by sourcing
wool from local farmers instead of truck-
ing it in from out of state.
“I don’t want to cause any harm, self-
ishly, because I feel like you can work in
tandem with the ecosystem you’re in and
not really cause too much of a distur-
bance,” she said.
In that way, textile art is more than
just the end product for Sjogren. She
views the process of sourcing materi-
als, researching natural dye ingredients,
choosing to apply materials in a certain
order and documenting her discoveries
as significant parts of her art making.
Her artwork has taught her how St.
John’s Wort produces a “great red-brown
color,” for dying yarns and how nettle
See Kyla Sjogren, Page 10