Visual Art: Fibre Artist and Felt Maker

Born in Leeds and a Lincolnshire resident since 1989, Moira West studied at De Montfort University and the Open College of the Arts and was awarded a first class honours degree in Creative Arts. Her practice straddles the boundary between fine art and craft, exploring ideas through making.

Much of her work is site specific. Working methods include hand-made felting processes incorporating traditional and contemporary techniques. Wool fibres predominate, integrated with plant and cellulose fibres, to create unusual shapes and textures. Her work invites interaction and personal confrontation with life and its unexpected pathways.

She has a reputation for creating striking, fascinating and unusual fibre art, many examples of which are in private collections. Combining textile technique with a diverse range of challenging materials, her work is inspired by the Lincolnshire landscape and a desire to push boundaries whilst creating an impact to promote greater understanding of human frailty.

Recent exhibitions either as a solo artist or with fellow artists have included the Carre Gallery, Sleaford, the Sam Scorer Gallery, Lincoln, Gallery at St.Martin’s, Lincoln, The Collection, Lincoln, Grantham Museum, and Stamford Arts Centre.

A member of Art on the Map, since 2008, the Contemporary Crafts Network, since 2010 and more recently Lincolnshire Artists Society, she is also a supporter of the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford. She is a Friend of the Sam Scorer Gallery, Lincoln and is registered with organisations including the Crafts Council, the International Felt Association, the Artists’ Directory and the Textile Directory.

She has submitted work to the ‘SEE IT’ exhibition June 2007, to ‘Art of the Stitch’ 2008/9, Embroiderers’ Guild and OPEM, Lincoln 2011 (selected).

Influenced and inspired by seminal artists: Jenny Cowern, Eva Hesse, David Hockney, Andy Goldsworthy, Howard Hodgkin, Claudia Merx, David Nash, Jaume Plensa, Sean Scully, Alfred Steiglitz, Richard Wentworth and Michael Brennand-Wood, but also many other artists for whom process and space are driving factors.