Heather Kerley Art



Heather Kerley Art

About The Artist

Heather Kerley • Bowie, MD
Fiber & Textiles • CUSTOM COMMISSIONS

Heather Kerley is a fiber artist living near Washington, D.C. Committed to sustainability, she uses found and upcycled materials in much of her work. Her abstract embroideries using found fabric, such as vintage kimono silk scraps, are developed in an improvisational and intuitive fashion. Her designs "riff" on and transform the existing pattern with an eclectic mix of materials and different stitches. Kerley's abstract compositions in fiber are an extension of her fluid paintings.



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Q&A with the Artist

Tell us how your work is made.

I prefer to approach each piece from a fresh place without preparation. I choose a piece of fabric and start to think about a palette and first stitches. Then, the work evolves intuitively and improvisationally. I find that, in going from one piece to the next while also creating my paintings and quilts, certain palettes, shapes, and nature-inspired themes crop up over and over. This extends to the embroidered quilts that I have begun making featuring botanical themes.


What makes you passionate about the medium you work with?

I love the slow process of hand embroidery. It is a form of meditation, in my opinion. It gives my brain time to make intuitive, almost subconscious choices in the use of color, shape, and allusions to real world things such as moss and roots. In this way, the work often feels like it is revealing itself to me and I never get tired of that. I also feel privileged to keep the tradition of hand embroidery alive while also evolving as a contemporary art form.

What is something unique about you or your practice?

My experience with art-making has been totally circular. For my college application art portfolio in high school, I made a series of hand-embroidered and hand-dyed batik pieces. After two years in art school focusing on painting, drawing, illustration, and design, I made a total life detour and became an analyst for the government. Eventually, I returned to art, first painting and drawing. I eventually quit my job to become a full-time artist. And then, after all that, I came back to embroidery!