Dove refers to herself as a “dyed in the wool” fiber artist.
Born and raised in West Chester, PA, Amy fell in love early with hand and loom weaving; it was a natural choice for her to attend the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, earning a Bachelor of Science in Textile Design. Several years as a Jacquard fabric designer for a major eastern mill followed, creating many contemporary, abstract, floral, and more traditionally patterned interior decorative fabrics for select furniture manufacturers. From this she developed 'Weavart,' reweaving these commercial designs of hers into collages.
Since relocating to northeast Florida in 2010, Amy has become fascinated with felting and the various textures and blends she can create through the process. A kinesthetic learner through and through, she dyes, felts, prints, stitches and combines different materials to create layers of new textural expressions while embracing the visceral nature of the fibers.
Amy deeply explores Shibori techniques (the Japanese art of resist dyeing and texturing), folding, pleating, binding, and dyeing silk to startling effect. Translucent silk often serves as a substrate for her art as she combines a variety of disciplines to create layers of colors, shades, and textures.
A consummate experimenter, Amy’s design background affords her underlying cohesive direction without constraining her creativity. Her recent extensive experiments and work with Botanical Contact Printing is very exciting! The botanicals release remarkable secrets from local plants that we see every day and often take for granted. Botanical dyeing and printing allows her to look beyond the usual green of leaves and to really see nature's shapes, structure, and chemistry.
Much of Amy’s creativity flows from the magnificent beauty of nature: The variety of colors and textures in flowers, trees, and creatures are her boundless inspiration. The power of the sea, the rustling of the forest, the singing of birds, and the beauty of sunrises and sunsets all lay an indelible imprint on Amy’s work and are reflected in the textures, color palettes, and compositions she creates.
This is TEXTUALITY by Amy Hemphill Dove
