Cydne LaBonte - Fiber and Soft Sculpture

​“Fabric has called to me since I was a small child. I remember trying to weave with the tall grasses that grew along the railroad tracks near our house and trying to sew leaves together with twigs. As I look back, I see how sewing influenced my art, even my paintings. Yet, I resisted focusing on fiber art, perhaps because I believed the lie that art made with sewing, knitting, embroidery, etc. is not “real art”. But now in my sixties I am embracing fiber as my medium and pushing the boundaries of color, line, shape, texture, and subject. My work is centered around forming rope, cord, yarn, or string into a 3D shape. I use coiling, either at the sewing machine, by hand sewing, or by crochet it to form handbags, baskets, bowls, and sculpture. I love to alter the rope with paint, dye, burning, rusting, and overcasting with thread, either before construction begins or on the surface of the finished shape. My current experiments involve using recycled yarns and garments, turning plastic bags into a cord for crocheting, and incorporating other recycled plastics, papers, or metals. The ideas for this form of expression continue to flow, and I am excited to see where this journey will take me.”