Woodworker Katie Hudnall grew up along the Potomac River and spent childhood summers on the South Carolina coast. Her fanciful, sometimes functional, sometimes impractical, painted wooden objects are inspired by furniture, illustration, tools, toys, and all things nautical. Katie prefers using recycled and found wood whenever possible as it sparks new discoveries and encourages an openness to change and adaptation.

Textile artist Amy Putansu spent her childhood growing up on the Atlantic Ocean along the rugged coast of Maine. Her hand woven “paintings” use a rare weaving technique called ondulé which allows her to manipulate threads into wave-like patterns that suggest the fluidity and movement of water. These contemplative works keep Amy connected to her heritage and homeland while serving as personal meditations on the impermanence of all things.

Glass artist Sarah Vaughn has always been drawn to rivers, lakes, and anywhere she could become lost in a sea of smooth stones. She creates recollections of rocks, small moments that are not meant to last, in materials that are permanent yet fragile. Her perfectly composed and stacked groupings of glass and porcelain rocks serve as a metaphor for personal experiences and the precarious nature of life.

KATIE HUDNALL

Artist Information | Studio artist; education: MFA Virginia Commonwealth University (VA), BFA Corcoran College of Art and Design (DC); teaching: University of Wisconsin, Madison (WI), Herron School of Art and Design (IN), Murray State University (KY), Virginia Commonwealth University (VA), Port Townsend School of Woodworking (WA), Anderson Ranch Art Center (CO), Haystack Mountain School of Craft (ME), Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (TN); exhibitions: University of Michigan (MI), Kohler Art Center (WI), Abel Contemporary Gallery (WI), Contemporary Craft (PA, Center for Art in Wood (PA), Appalachian Center for Craft (TN), Gordon Art Gallery (VA), Art Lofts Gallery (WI), Storage Space Gallery (IN), Melvin Peterson Gallery (IN), South Bend Museum of Art (IN), Indianapolis Art Center (IN), Messler Gallery (ME), Manifest Gallery (OH), Schaefer International Gallery (HI); residencies: Center for Art in Wood (PA), World Wood Day (Graz, Austria), Emma Lake Artist Collaborative (Saskatchewan, Canada), Anderson Ranch Art Center (CO), 

Artist Statement | Building larger furniture and furniture-like objects from small, rough, discarded bits of wood, I sketch pieces together. There’s intensity and an odd sense of worth in something that has been cobbled together from smaller parts. I don’t hide the connections, and I leave traces of attempts and failures to make something work—an odd map of the logic and processes used to assemble the piece. 

These pieces are often fragile-looking, precariously balanced on spindly legs or bases that rock. Each performs some odd function, opening the door on one opens the umbrella-like structure sprouting from the top of another. The system of pulleys and rope that makes the action possible is as cobbled together as the piece itself, and seems destined to fail, as the whole thing seems destined to collapse. They are metaphors for our relationships with one another. The imperfect edge of one piece fitting perfectly against the imperfect edge of another, pieces whose function suggest protection but offer no real security, and everything seemingly on the verge of collapse, but never quite collapsing. I am tapping into the delight that comes from seeing something work that shouldn’t, the hope that comes from a thing endlessly repaired, no matter how many times it has broken, and the beauty in something textured with imperfections and then worn smooth through use.

AMY PUTANSU

Artist Information  |  Studio artist and educator; education: BFA Rhode Island School of Design; teaching: Haywood Community College (NC), Penland School (NC), Eastern Carolina University (NC), Arrowmont School of Art and Craft (TN), John C. Campbell Folk School (NC), Maiwa School of Textiles (Vancouver BC), Peters Valley School of Craft (NJ); exhibitions: Blue Spiral Gallery (NC), Sager | Braudis Gallery (MO), Southern Highlands Craft Guild (NC); award and grants: Icelandic Textile Center Residency, NC Regional Artist Project grant, Haywood Community College Excellence in Teaching Award

Artist Statement  | The spark for almost every textile I create stems from questions pertinent to my connection with the flux between land and sea. Questions of impermanence and purpose are part of the human predicament, and I balance this uncertainty by beginning each weaving project from a place of experiential understanding.

Using a rare hand-weaving technique called ondulé, I maneuver threads out of the strict grid and into wave-like patterns and lines. The resulting contemplative fields of woven work uphold a minimalist aesthetic, with high regard for restraint. Physically, the process of moving with the loom mimics the movement of the tides. Aesthetically, ondulé weaving enables me to capture the fluidity and textures in the visual vocabulary I amassed during my solitary childhood roaming the shores and islands along the North Atlantic. Undulating waves of the ocean, tidal patterns in the sand, and especially the distant horizon.

SARAH VAUGHN

Artist Information | Studio artist; Penland Resident Artist; education: MFA Rochester Institute of Technology (NY), BFA Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (IL), AA Olney Central College (IL); teaching: Chrysler Museum of Glass Studio (VA), Third Degree Glass Factory (MO), Old Dominion University (VA), Governor’s School of Art (VA); exhibitions: Wayne Art Center (PA), Artlink Contemporary Gallery (IN), Yeiser Art Center (KY), Brea Gallery (CA), Blowing Rock Art and History Museum (NC), Appalachian Center for Craft (TN), Winterowd Fine Art (NM), Tacoma Museum of Glass (WA), Momentum Gallery (NC)

Artist Statement | I create sculptures and installations that pause to consider pivotal moments and visualize the precarious balance we maintain throughout life. Primarily using cast and cold-formed processes, I exploit the preconceived perception of glass as a material to help articulate the topics being explored, asking the viewer to question the material being used and how it changes their notion of what they see. 

My work focuses on responses to experiences throughout life. I consider each piece an abstracted self-portrait, capturing thoughts, anxieties, memories, and hopes. Recurring themes like “precarious balance” and “contemplative moments” speak to the desire to find harmony and a sense of order while acknowledging that I am tiptoeing on the edge of chaos. At times using tension, friction, and gravity to stack, wedge, and balance elements to create the desired effect. The emotional response elicited from the viewer is meant to allow pause, reflecting on one’s own history, finding common ground within the emotions we have all experienced throughout life regardless of the narratives that lead us there.