Fiber Invitational Featuring Three Artists Set to Open Nov. 5

October 28, 1996

WACO, Texas - An exhibition of machine embroidered and surface manipulated artworks by Barbara Lee Smith, Carol Shinn and Susan Wilchins will open Tuesday, Nov. 5, in Baylor University's University Gallery in Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center.
The exhibit, which will run through Dec. 5, features artworks made from machine stitching, hand and/or machine embroidery, appliqué, printing, painting, melting and fusing.
Smith is a studio artist, itinerant teacher and lecturer, having taught in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Mexico and the United States. She is the author of Celebrating the Stitch: Contemporary Embroidery in North America and curator of a major exhibition that traveled internationally for three years. She is curator of the "U.S. and Us" exhibit which will travel extensively in New Zealand. This year she had a solo exhibition at the Orie Gallery, Tokyo.
Shinn started weaving in 1972 and continued to weave through 1988 when she completed her master's degree in fine arts from Arizona State University. During graduate school she became interested in other fiber techniques. She developed a style of machine embroidery that allowed a greater degree of detail and accuracy in imagery than she was achieving with her tapestry weaving. Since then she has become nationally known for her photo realistic pieces which collage images of Western landscape, cars, trucks and highways.
Wilchins teaches in the School of Design at North Carolina State University, where she is professor of design and coordinates the program in Fibers and Surface Design. Her work has been published in Celebrating the Stitch and The Surface Designer's Art and in leading craft and textile magazines. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and in England, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Colombia and the International Biennial of Tapestry in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The University Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free.
For more information, contact Dr. Mary Ruth Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Art, at (817) 755-1867.