Naomi J. Falk grew up in the wilds of Michigan and, from an early age, planned to be an archaeologist, a brain surgeon, a heart surgeon, a meteorologist, and travel the world with Jacques Cousteau (He was an underwater explorer and conservationist and made films for tv about his adventures). Those didn’t work out, but she did study sculpture and ceramics at Michigan State and Portland State Universities and receive an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University. Ruminating on our relationships with manufactured and natural landscapes, Considering grief, loss, and communal and environmental survival, Falk’s work explores the stories and implications embedded in (still useful) recycled and reclaimed objects (clothing, textiles, and construction materials). A tinkerer and explorer she builds in playful iterations—is it better this way or that? Through collaboration and conversation with people and places, Falk investigates where material, cultural, and ecological histories intersect, creating sculptural and fiber-based works and immersive installations. How might foraged materials be gathered and reframed to build objects and experiences that comfort, support, challenge, and sustain us?

Falk has exhibited at well-respected regional and national venues and done residencies in Iceland, Vermont, the Faroe Islands, and most recently, at Hambidge Center and The Residency Project. An Associate Professor of Studio Art in Sculpture at the University of South Carolina, she is Co-Creator of www.WhatDoWeDoNow.art and a new local art collective, Blue Acorn Art Lab. Falk is currently the Fall 2024 Fibers Fellow at Colorado College.

Class: Block 1, Fall 2024

This course is an introduction to fiber art and experimenting with meaning and message through language, text, and visual symbolism. Through hands-on projects and reading, writing, and presentation assignments we will explore a variety of material and technical processes, along with conceptual, historical, cultural, and contemporary contexts of fiber arts. We’ll practice traditional and non-traditional fiber art techniques and concepts using embroidery, sewing, indigo dyeing, and quilting to make works considering the conceptual power of words and symbols to communicate protest, safety, and care and their long use and histories in fiber art.