ABIGAIL LIVINGOOD
White Wings #2, fiber and metal, 41" x 41" x 11", 2015

In her own words:

When I was a little girl I was captivated by my mother's trips to the fabric store where she bought exotic supplies for making opera costumes. I begged her to teach me to sew and by age 10 I was making my own clothes.

I studied fashion design in NYC but returned to Louisville, Kentucky, and I opened a small art studio where I made art quilts and liturgical banners and vestments. After a few years I chose to go back to school for BFA as a Fiber major and a Painting minor.

After Art school I interned at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York in their Textile Conservation Lab to try out museum work. Again, I returned to Louisville and my artist roots and worked as a quilt artist and sewer-designer.

In 2009 I started working three dimensionally including welded steel, wood and other materials along with my fiber.

For me, there is always a story to tell. There is nothing that connects me to you like sharing stories. When I have been willing to go deep within me for a truth that touches the core of me, then I trust I have made something good.

I draw on several recurring visual metaphors, like cornstalks, branches, wings, and walls, to describe autobiographical inner workings. Every piece becomes an experience of conversation and transformation because I am, in essence, documenting my artistic/spiritual journey.

I tap into the distinctive expressive character of a variety of materials and techniques to layer meanings in my stories. Together, hard and soft structures and textures convey the tension and glue there is in emotions. In my creative process I take both materials and emotions apart so I can build them back in a new way of understanding.

Abigail's website