Rebecca Smith has been a weaver for 35 years, and a member of California Fibers for the past three years. Because weaving is a solitary, time-intensive activity, it has been important to her to have a community of other fiber artists to interact with. What she loves about California Fibers is that each member has taken their medium in their own unique direction. This creative innovation resonates deeply with Smith, as she is always exploring and devising new approaches to working with her materials and her tools. In 2007, she began experimenting with incorporating wire and beads into tapestry weaving. By 2017, when she joined California Fibers, she had a body of work that includes free-standing and sculptural tapestries, such as those pictured here.
This is Surfacing.
This is Farewell to Summer.
Smith’s current work is driven by an impulse to create lighter work, perhaps due to the heaviness of the times we are living through. She is exploring a technique called “transparency”, which involves weaving an open linen ground cloth while simultaneously weaving inlay to create a design. Her unique take on the technique is to create two or more overlapping images that advance and recede. The pieces turn gently in the air, allowing the images to play hide-and-seek with each other.
Below is Flight.
This is Entwined.
A video of Entwined moving in the breeze.