It isn’t often that you hear of an internationally respected textile artist who is originally from Ireland.  As a country we seem to lag behind others in appreciating our rich tradition of creative work with textiles and are slow to bring those skills into contemporary art and to encourage new and innovative textile artists.   I have to thank TextileArtist.org for drawing our attention to Debbie Smyth who specialises in large scale thread drawings and has worked for many big name clients such as Hermes, Addidas and the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra. http://debbie-smyth.com/about/

‘In full Swing’ 2013

What amazing large scale work with nails and thread.  It is very interesting to think that these works are temporary and fleeting – when the exhibition ends the nails come out and the work disappears!!

Here is a link to a full interview Debbie did for TextileArtist.org and more great images of her work.  http://www.textileartist.org/debbie-smyth-inspired-memories-3/

Over the next few months we plan to publish short interviews with artists whose work we admire so watch this space.

By the way, if you have not heard of TextileArtist.org by now you should have! It is an amazing website run by two brothers, Joe and Sam, with a love of textile art inspired by their mother, Sue Stone.   It is a place for textile artists and art enthusiasts to be inspired, learn from the best, promote their work and communicate with like-minded creatives.   They frequently do in depth interviews with artists about their work, what inspires them and they ask artists to offer advice to aspiring textile artists like us!     They also show great images of textile art, information on relevant publications, exhibitions and workshops and generally provide a wonderful database of inspiration for us all!

Have a good weekend!