Thursday, January 9th, 12:30–3:00
Shepard Garden & Arts Center
We have some great speakers for you in January at our first General Membership meeting of 2025. They live and work in Placer County and you may remember seeing them speak to our group several years ago. They also did a two day workshop for us after that talk. We will also have a short business meeting to transition our board members, and refreshments will be served. Non-members are welcome to attend for $5..
The Presentation
We will give an overview of our journey as fiber artists including techniques and images of our processes and work. Silk painting, batik, felt making and botanical printing will be presented, both with images and samples of our work.
Artists’ Statement
Merridee and Keith Smith of Creekside Silk, work and play together in their wax studio at home and in their art studio at St. Luke’s in Auburn.
Merridee began her artistic journey with her love of fiber arts—the history, beauty, tactile quality, and variety—the common thread that links her hands to those of so many in the past. Her work mainly focuses on silk painting, sometimes incorporating batik, and she also loves felt making and botanical printing.
While accompanying Merridee to the world Batik Conference in 2005, Keith became enthralled with the use of wax and the Indonesian batik copper printing blocks known as ‘tjaps.’ There the couple met batik artists Agus Ismoyo and Nia Fliam and subsequently spent a month honing batik techniques in their studio in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Keith uses the traditional techniques and tools of Indonesian batik to create modern, abstract interpretations of nature. Merridee’s work is more representational and reflects the beauty outside her door in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California as well as by the gardens and scenes from her travels. They collaborate in all aspects of their creative processes, especially in the creation of display pieces that incorporate both of their skills.