ARTIST / WEAVER

As an artist I explore the ideas of space, light and time.

As a weaver, I am interested in handwoven cloths’ potential and possibilities - functionally, experientially, and as a filter of light. I work within a set of choices - the fibres, the weave structure, and the loom I weave on. This way I engage with the subtle changes that arise with any variation I make or by what randomly occurs.

I concentrate on the weaving – the tension – the space – the light.

I savor how weaving is utilitarian, decorative and fine art, and how it allows me to work across these modes, shifting through while embodying all three.

While I create pieces of functionality and beauty, these works - the Lightworks and the Wearables - are also experiential.

As the weaver, I experience the tactility, the light, the weight, the beauty of the piece while it emerges under tension on the loom.

I alone get to experience this presence – this fleeting ‘now’ of the taut cloth.

The viewer/wearer has an altogether different experience - as once the piece is no longer under tension, the tactility and light-ness of it shifts - and the ‘now’ of it – the experience I had while it was being brought into being on the loom – vanishes forever.

I come to each piece anew. Each piece begins the same. Each piece is unique. It becomes about what I’m thinking – what I am feeling while I weave. I am aware every moment of the weave – adjusting to the tensions of the loom.

Each piece has its own presence, each piece is alive.

I tend to fall in rapture with each piece as I weave it.

While I weave - drawing the weft through the warp - sometimes I feel like I’m chasing the vagaries - like the tumult of waves crashing on the rocks, endlessly hypnotically fascinating.

Miriam Johnson has a background in fine art & film, and has lived and worked in Australia and the USA. She now creates from her studio in Tasmania, Australia. And she likes black.

WRITING I will be publishing writings on Substack from time to time, please subscribe if you would like to read about my inspirations, work and process.