Kelp Entanglement

LUCY TRABER - September 25th - October 19th

From early and continuing nurture in the natural world I was eventually drawn to creating forms from wild fibers, employing the ancient methods of deep history. It was 1970 in Berkeley. Years of experimentation with locally available plants from gardens, vacant lots, woods, and beaches led me into a love affair with kelp. Gathered from the shore where it has been tossed by the ocean then thoroughly dried by sun and wind, it soaks in my bathtub till pliant - long cool strands, patterned tubes like leather, rust, black, ocher, brown, white, lightly sea-fragrant. Kelp is docile and elastic when wet, extremely mischievous while drying, rigid and stable in completion. The creative process is a collaboration. My vision and the capricious spirit of the kelp play and wrestle together toward the final statement, which is always a little surprising. My aim is to celebrate the beauty of this life form in its variety of expression.