Live Weaving Demonstration with Lisa Denney

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Live Weaving Demonstration with Lisa Denney

Area 61 Gallery’s final “Featured Artist Show” for the year is a pairing of local artist works by Paul Fontana & Lisa Denney in "Wax & Weave".

Lisa Denney, an artist and floor covering designer, creates beautiful weavings that incorporate other art media pushing the boundaries of traditional fiber craft toward fine art.

Lisa will continue our "Live, Masked & Socially Distanced Art Demonstration Series" weaving among her latest creations this Sunday, 11/29 from 2-4pm.

Wax & Weave will be on display through the end of the year and all pieces are available for purchase.

Lisa's Artist Statement for this latest show:

My intent for my next series of weavings (this series) was to be called Departures as it was going to be a point at which I went bigger and got braver with techniques. I had just obtained a 4x4 foot loom to do some large pieces. Then COVID came. Due to a two-month furlough that grew into 3 months, I had more time to work in my studio, which thanks to COVID, is now at my home.

Themes of inner reflection and current events of 2020 run through some of my latest work. I’ve continued to work at incorporating other media into these tapestries. The pandemic isolated me but it also forced me out into deeper water past imposter’s syndrome. Two of my largest weavings of 2020 truly departed when they sold at The Dalton Arts Guild's fall art show in October – a pleasant surprise in a pandemic when most in-person art shows were canceled.

These pieces are all made on a frame loom. The act of weaving has been a meditation for me, especially during this difficult year. This ancient art has kept me grounded.

I’ve been weaving since 2014 while I was a designer for a rug company in India. In 2017, I began to take weaving seriously when I lost my job. I have made peace with that and now see that job carried me to a point I needed to be, and then it let me go on the right path to make my way. In the same way, through the losses of this year, I have been able to find growth as an artist as a hidden blessing and a feeling of still being on the right path. I am tired and weary of each day being another tragedy, but I hang on to the hope that all is how it has to be to move forward.

Bio

Lisa Denney is a cross-disciplinary artist living in Chattanooga Tennessee. She was born in eastern Tennessee and has made a full circle to get back home, earning a BA in Studio Art from the University of West Georgia in Carrollton Georgia along the way. A career in flooring design brought her to the Chattanooga area. She currently has a studio in her home where she designs carpet for hotels and makes art. She teaches online classes in weaving and other art mediums with The Chattery, a Chattanooga-based life-learning nonprofit organization – www.thechattery.org.