Karen D. Miller

Karen D. Miller

Karen Miller

Ottawa

Ontario

Canada

I’ve always been drawn to fibre as a medium, at first because it is so forgiving, and later for its almost perfect versatility. It provides me with a host of materials to work with, from the thinnest of threads to the heaviest of felts, and allows me to explore dimensionality, texture, and light. And it has a long tradition to it, particularly the hooking technique that I prefer, that reaches back across generations of women whose work was seen as functional rather than aesthetic. How appropriate that I use this technique today to consider the devalued labour of women and mothers. Its slow rhythm is in opposition to much of the pace of the motherhood journey. Yet each loop of yarn brings me closer to elevating and recognizing the experiences that we as mothers have long been told society is not comfortable hearing.