“Contemporary Expressions of Traditional Arts” Fast & Knaster

Barbara Fast, a founding member of the Collective, has an eclectic style and has worked in baskets, gourds, felt and assemblage over the years. Her work has always reflected her personality and point of view. Fast says she is not a professional artist, has not been to art school and doesn’t make her living as an artist. She is, however, “creatively curious” and when she is attracted to a piece of art, she wonders how it is made and wants to try a similar technique. As a result, she has created her art using many different mediums.  “I have sewn creatively since I was a child, and I enjoy working with fabric and with felt.  I also particularly like to make baskets and to embellish hard-shell gourds.”

Mirka Knaster says “living on the Mendonoma coast, daily I feel the impact of the Pacific Ocean on my sensory experience and creative process. I witness with awe how the ever-changing light transforms the hues and textures of land, sea, and sky from dawn till nightfall. I find it exhilarating to intuitively translate my impressions and feelings by engaging with color, texture, line, shape and space, pattern and design. Along the way, I embrace and celebrate the surprises that emerge from open-ended improvisation. In creating nonpictorial 2-D and 3-D fiber art, I incorporate new and repurposed textiles, natural dyeing, handmade papers from Asia, stitching, ink, paint, wood, and other materials.