About Me
Artist BIO
Grae Peters is a textile artist based in Portland Maine. Peters is expected to graduate from Maine College of Art & Design with a BFA in Textile and Fashion Design in 2023.
Their work is based around their experiences in the natural world. This comes from playing in the woods behind their childhood home and visiting national parks on summer vacation with their family. This work is mostly made through weaving and screenprinting but also includes felted and sewn work. Peters is from Sutton MA, their father is a woodturner and mother is a photographer, this instilled an appreciation for the arts and access to materials from a young age. Peters intends to connect work to tactile experiences and create the sensibility of the natural world in interior spaces.
Tactile joy
Artist statement
I create soft sculpturally tactile objects, sometimes wearable, always inviting. I create these is objects to be touched. When someone experiences my work they connect with my hands and making process. As I make this work, the repetition of the loom lifting the warp thread and the shuttle gliding back and forth, allows me to achieve a flow state where I can freely create and experience tactile joy. I hope the audience can connect to this joy when they experience the work and hopefully their engagement with the work will change it through wear, touch or use.
In my work entangled cloth and winding thread replicates the gnarled texture and quiet space of woodland areas that have provided me with consistent company that have surrounded and inspired me. Similar to my natural inspiration I work organically in my practice. Decisions are made on the spot, as I progress I alternate colors, textures and materials as. I approach my making curiosity and versatility focusing on the making itself rather than specific processes.
Everything is entwined and twisted together.