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 Filly (detail)  Filly (detail)  Filly (detail)  Filly (detail) Thank you to Bruno Mauro for his support. |
 Filly (2001) Quilling (paper), grommets in wall, Installation at &Ampersand International Arts, San Francisco, CA Growing up in Montana, I was surrounded by the iconography of the American West, and specifically that of the cowboy. Images of rugged men with their code of stoic endurance, self-reliance, loyalty, courage, and camaraderie, on horseback riding across the plains, wrangling cattle and spitting chew were everywhere - from the paintings of Charles M. Russell and Frederick Remington to the landscape itself. However, what I remember being the most drawn to were the accouterments of the cowboy - the beautiful ornamentation and floral designs that adorned their trappings and presented such a delicate contrast to the rough and tough image of the wrangler.  Filly (2001) Quilling (paper), grommets in wall (detail) Inspired by the sensuality and beauty in the designs of these tools of the Western trade - saddles, boots, bits, and spurs - and their fanciful forms, Filly took viewers on a playful prance through the territory of the femme in the American West. I chose the craft of quilling - the rolling, scrolling and fluting of narrow strips of paper - to draw on this decorative sensibility. Quilling was a popular craft among ladies in the early West and I was taught to quill as a child by my grandmother. These squirming tendrils of paper coil and drape through the space with the playful and defiant tension of creatures living in a lair of control and abandon - not unlike those that fill the plains and mountains of the American West -- and are unbroken. Other Projects that I have done that relate to this work include: you're not a wave, you're the water Tan Series Filly Drawings Bridle Series  Filly (2001) Quilling (paper), grommets in wall (detail) |
| © Megan Wilson, 2003 |