Thanks to Pinterest and it randomly making me follow strangers I learned about the work of Sonya Philip! Gotta love random algorithms. Sonya is a knitter and says of herself that her work is born in patience, which it’s so true of many of the artists I write about here – their work takes patience, time, repetition, etc.
She has a series that she’s working on, ongoingly, called Ordinary Objects. In keeping with my interest in these cellular formations, Sonya notes that the circular patterns within known objects creates a, “creative malignancy.”
I love how she chooses her thread and I love the open spaces that the stitch reducing creates. It creates an almost sand dollar-like look to the pattern.
So cool, the mandala shapes change the surface texture of the piece in the case of spherical or cylindrical starting objects.
Knitting in the round is so difficult and requires so many needles I can only imagine the steady hand and patience that this must require.
This is a similar macrame type creation – like lacework – but in a bicycle wheel. She talks about this piece as a fusion of the functional and the decorative and that seems well represented here.
The above is part of Sonya’s urchin series, which you know I love. This is a combo of watercolor and knitting and the lines that look even more like stitches in the circles are not in fact stitches themselves but painted.
Little green amoeba – awesome! She knit these into gesso’ed leftover postcards from her past show openings.
The above pods might be my favorite of Sonya’s work. These are knit silk covered in beeswax, which, as she points out are both insect secretions. The color is formed by a reaction that happens with the wax / silk – I don’t fully understand it. I love their translucence and variety.
Another pod. Sometimes she hangs them solo or in a cluster.
Close up! I can’t even imagine how delicate these are – but at the same time strong given how strong silk thread is!
These are felted against the body, which is interesting as most felting is done by hand. These were done against the body, which creates a totally different kind of agitation necessary to make the fibers hold. The colored rings are part needle felt, part embroidery. It’s really beautiful – I love all of her concentric circles.
More amoebas – I like it! You also should read Sonya’s blog, it’s great!
This is from Sonya’s sewn topography series – can you see the topo map look? These are linen yarn, machine sewn on to paper – as she notes these are straightforward and I like this directness in this series. I do love a good map created in a unique way, reminds me of Crafterall’s topos.
Tags: 3D, knitting, map, sculpture, weaving
Sonya
Thanks so much for featuring my work!