Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Outi Martikainen

Carpets, crochet with polypropylene cord

Hietana, embroidery on heat formed polyester felt

Laces, crochet with polypropylene string

Finnish textile artist Outi Martikainen creates amazing, sculptural pieces using different materials and scales to illustrate how things take form and shape in space.

One particular phrase in Outi Martikainen's artist statement is similar to my own perspective on art and design - she says, "As an artist I see myself working in the space between art and design and, as a textile artist, I find design work rewarding and that the frame within which I must work often shapes and feeds the thought process. Never-the-less I consider the work process that one does not see in the completed work to be most important, in art as well as in design."

When I was in design school we continuously discussed the importance of the design process. To me, the design process of creating is always exciting, even sometimes more than the final result. Although when I look at Martikainen's work I am equally excited about the process, materials and subtle details in the final results. Actually textile art in general makes me really excited!

How about you - do you feel the design process is important in your work?

14 comments:

Lizzy said...

How creative! I like Hietana the best!

naphtali said...

you always find interesting things!

Victoria said...

That embroidery work is amazing. As for me I like the designing part very much... everything feels new, fresh and exciting... full of possibilities to what may be... sort of like early romance!

Anonymous said...

yes -- the design process is essential. you see it more and more now, the intersection between design and art. no boundaries.

abigail said...

I love the embroidery and lace and now that I think about it the carpets too!
such great work. thank you for sharing it!

Brittany | the Home Ground said...

Love this artist! Process is incredibly important to me and my work. Too important, some would argue. If I don't like the process, no result could be worth the work.

Sam said...

The lace puddles aroung the trees are very pretty! The design process when I'm creating a drawing is very important to me. I get ideas and I move them around and colour them in my mind's eye like a 3-D diorama. It's fun!

Amber said...

The trees crack me up. It is like they dressed up for tea.
Also, I hope you had a lovely birthday.
One of my favorite ideas is a list for the year before your next birthday. This year it would be 27 things to do before you turn 28. They can be big, little, whatever. It is really sort of fun.

Anonymous said...

I like a lot the embroidery on the heat tranformed felt. At first I thought that these are huge ceramic tiles. But surprise ..it's felt

nelya said...

Love that first "carpet" with the linked circles. This artist takes textiles to a whole new level. Fascinating!

The Summer Kitchen Girls said...

Wow! Very cool stuff! I can honestly say that I have NEVER seen crochet laces around trees - but I love it! We were just talking about the design process with a student that has been shadowing us this week - we were telling her that you have to look for inspiration everywhere - these are great examples!!

*SNYdesign said...

These are such great shots!!! So clever ideas. Really makes you stop and think! People are so creative!!!:)

Denise Kiggan said...

I so enjoy this type of interventive art! Truly creative.

Alexa Johnson said...

Hey there! Aren't these lace trunk collars reminiscent of your "trunk warmers" that you knit for some local trees? Loved those, and these!

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