Upheaval 10 / Keeping Up Appearances 3 (Carol Larson)

Carol Larson (born 1947)

Upheaval 10, 2011

 

40 × 44 in. (101,6 × 111, 8 cm)
Mixed media.

Courtesy of the artist, Petaluma, California.

Keeping Up Appearances 3, 2011

 

30 × 40 in. (76,2 × 101,6 cm)
Mixed media.
Courtesy of the artist, Petaluma, California.

Carol Larson’s textile work encompasses both the narrative, exploring social issues, and the abstract, inspired by the patterns and textures of ordinary life. “I am a storyteller,” she says. “With cloth as my medium, I layer text onto fabric and embellish with images, clothing, ephemera, and stitch relevant to the story. Through the examination of social/cultural values such as appearances, women’s issues, sexual assault, aging, dementia, social justice, racism, gun violence, and climate change, I create a narrative [that] encourages the viewer to contemplate their point of view and potentially spark conversation. Much of my current work is further inspired by outrage.”

Self-taught Larson has been working with fiber since she was a child and learned to sew her own clothes, moving from sewing to knitting to quilting to original textile art. Her work has been exhibited at Visions Art Museum, San Diego; the National Quilt Museum, Paducah, Kentucky; the George Washington University Textile Museum, Washington, D.C.; and Quilt National, Athens, Ohio, among others. Art Quilting Studio, Exploring Fiber Art, the Washington Post, and NPR featured her textiles.