Artist Statement
There is something wonderful about wool fiber. It is soft, light, and warm. It has all kinds of natural colors and then you can dye it into whatever colors you need. Next, there is the 'magic' part; how the felting needle interlocks the fibers and creates form and shape. You kind of paint and sculpt at the same time. It feels alive to me.
I discovered needle felting in 2010 and started making figures and animals and participated in the yearly Swedish Christmas Fair at St Mary's Cathedral 2010 to 2016. I had my kids sell and I taught children and adults to needle felt. It was fun because needle felting was not as known at the time, and it was as if you performed a magic trick to people. After we moved to El Granada on the Coastside of the Bay Area, now a decade ago, I started doing wall hangings with wool and different fibers, adding stitching or beads and small objects like shells to my paintings.
I‘ve enjoyed oil and watercolor, but with wool I like the sculpting part and how I can just keep changing and working on it until I feel I’m done. I don’t have to know exactly what I’m doing like it is with watercolor, and I have time to work out the problems that I encounter. Also, I keep discovering new things within textile art and am currently trying my hand at dyeing cotton and linens and want to incorporate that in my future projects and want to get into free form machine stitching after seeing some wonderful work that other textile artists do.
The canvas when needle felting can just be the wool itself if you wet felt a surface to work on, you can buy prefelt (loosely felted wool that come in sheets), or lately I’ve used linen. I don’t put my paintings under glass, I mount it as simply as possible, sometimes with a ‘frame’ of wool. I want to keep it light and tactile. Like anything with color and dye, it’s best to keep out of direct sunlight to preserve the colors.
My wool is mainly from Romney sheep that keep the rows clear of weeds in a vineyard in Occidental, Sonoma. Since the wool has not been mechanically carded I am continuously removing what is known in fleece circles as 'vegetable matter'; foxtails and other seeds that get stuck in the fur of the sheep. I'm also using alpaca from "Alpacas by the Sea' in Montana, art yarns, silk and whatever else I have gathered over the years. The Fengari yarn store in Half Moon Bay is a good source or interesting yarns.
I love to hike with my dog, experiencing and photographing and then using that to create a picture. (That’s why my motives are usually not from State Parks, where dogs are not allowed regrettably). It is very satisfying, when I have completed a big piece, to think of the big dirty mass of fleece that it came from, and how the long process of washing, cleaning, drying, dyeing, felting, stitching and mounting the piece transformed it into my interpretation of the world around me. It is fun to share with people, so I hope you enjoy it.
Birgitta Bower in El Granada, California
There is something wonderful about wool fiber. It is soft, light, and warm. It has all kinds of natural colors and then you can dye it into whatever colors you need. Next, there is the 'magic' part; how the felting needle interlocks the fibers and creates form and shape. You kind of paint and sculpt at the same time. It feels alive to me.
I discovered needle felting in 2010 and started making figures and animals and participated in the yearly Swedish Christmas Fair at St Mary's Cathedral 2010 to 2016. I had my kids sell and I taught children and adults to needle felt. It was fun because needle felting was not as known at the time, and it was as if you performed a magic trick to people. After we moved to El Granada on the Coastside of the Bay Area, now a decade ago, I started doing wall hangings with wool and different fibers, adding stitching or beads and small objects like shells to my paintings.
I‘ve enjoyed oil and watercolor, but with wool I like the sculpting part and how I can just keep changing and working on it until I feel I’m done. I don’t have to know exactly what I’m doing like it is with watercolor, and I have time to work out the problems that I encounter. Also, I keep discovering new things within textile art and am currently trying my hand at dyeing cotton and linens and want to incorporate that in my future projects and want to get into free form machine stitching after seeing some wonderful work that other textile artists do.
The canvas when needle felting can just be the wool itself if you wet felt a surface to work on, you can buy prefelt (loosely felted wool that come in sheets), or lately I’ve used linen. I don’t put my paintings under glass, I mount it as simply as possible, sometimes with a ‘frame’ of wool. I want to keep it light and tactile. Like anything with color and dye, it’s best to keep out of direct sunlight to preserve the colors.
My wool is mainly from Romney sheep that keep the rows clear of weeds in a vineyard in Occidental, Sonoma. Since the wool has not been mechanically carded I am continuously removing what is known in fleece circles as 'vegetable matter'; foxtails and other seeds that get stuck in the fur of the sheep. I'm also using alpaca from "Alpacas by the Sea' in Montana, art yarns, silk and whatever else I have gathered over the years. The Fengari yarn store in Half Moon Bay is a good source or interesting yarns.
I love to hike with my dog, experiencing and photographing and then using that to create a picture. (That’s why my motives are usually not from State Parks, where dogs are not allowed regrettably). It is very satisfying, when I have completed a big piece, to think of the big dirty mass of fleece that it came from, and how the long process of washing, cleaning, drying, dyeing, felting, stitching and mounting the piece transformed it into my interpretation of the world around me. It is fun to share with people, so I hope you enjoy it.
Birgitta Bower in El Granada, California
CURRENT SHOWS
|
- Fengari, the Yarn store on Main Street in Half Moon Bay. "
|
Mile Rock Beach, San Francisco
|
|
PRESS/ ARTICLES
September 2024 edition Punch Magazine
https://www.journalgraphicsdigitalpublications.com/36Media/2024/PunchMagazineSeptember2024/88/
https://www.journalgraphicsdigitalpublications.com/36Media/2024/PunchMagazineSeptember2024/88/
June 2024 edition of the Half Moon Bay Review Magazine:
https://www.hmbreview.com/coastside_magazine_stories/a-fluid-approach-to-wool/article_259f1396-16da-11ef-9660-e7d2a774fb5e.html
https://www.hmbreview.com/coastside_magazine_stories/a-fluid-approach-to-wool/article_259f1396-16da-11ef-9660-e7d2a774fb5e.html
Essay by Peter Tokofsky: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6371670c7ac48726400f7815/t/6641297989842c561916c8fc/1715546489301/Needle-Felted+Landscapes+by+Birgitta+Bower+Are+Coastside+Gold%2C+by+Peter+Tokofsky+PhD.pdf
Past shows I've participated in
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, 'Artist's Choice", June 26 -July21, 2025: Devil's Slide Curves (sold), Wavecrest, Evening Glow
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, "Imagine This! All Media Show 2025", May 22 - June 23, 2025: Time Suspended, Pescadero Coast, Mile Rock Beach
|
|
|
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, Membership Show, Dec 7-Dec 30, 2024. "Herons at Mavericks."
- M Stark Gallery in Half Moon Bay showed 12 of my pieces for a solo show, June 1 to July 14, 2024: https://www.mstarkgallery.com/bower
Sold work: Mt Tam from Loma Alta, Mori Point - looking north, Coastal Farm #1, Costal Farm#2, Fort Funston 1, Pines of El Granada, Coastal Gold, Devil's Slide, Surfers Beach.
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, All Media Show "Anything Goes", May 9 - June 30.
My "Blue Skies" and "Montara Mountain" was accepted. |
|
|
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, Member show, November 30- January 28
|
Cathedral Trees at Mt Madonna
|
|
- Falkirk cultural Center, San Rafael: "Mixing it Up with Mixed Media", August 11 - September 15, 2023: "Falling Water"
|
|
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, All Media Show: Textures and Contrasts' June 15-July 24, 2023: 'Mt Tam from Loma Alta' (mention: 'excellence') and 'City by the Bay'
|
|
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, November 2022, Member Show 'Falling Water'
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, June - July 2022, All Media Show
3rd prize for 'Fort Funston' |
|
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, May17-June 15, 2022. Group show, 'Life on Earth'
https://www.coastside-artists.com/life-on-earth.html#/ |
|
|
- San Mateo County Women's Art Show, March 1 to April 29, 2022, "Women's View,
400 County Center, Redwood City. Judge : Alena Sauzade "Oxalis season on the medians" (Honorable mention) |
|
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, November-December 2021, Membership show
'Memorial County Park and Pescadero Creek' (Honorable mention) |
|
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay,
All Media show. June 24-July 18, 2021. Juror: Kay Duffy. ‘Mori Point looking North’ and ‘Mori Point looking South’ (honorable mention) |
|
|
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, All Media Show, 'Unchartered Territory, July 15-Sep 1, 2020. Virtual due to Covid. Jurors: Larkin Evans, Greta Waterman, Jane Lewis
'Sail Rock at Mavericks'(1st prize) |
|
|
- Falkirk cultural Center, Spring Show 2020, theme: 'California Pride'. 'Devil's slide' was accepted. Online show because of Covid, (it's #13):
https://www.facebook.com/FalkirkCulturalCenter/videos/514096939481367/ |
|
|
|
- Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, Nov 8 - Nov 31, 2019, 'Fresh Art','
' Flower Power at Ross Cove' |
|
|
|
-Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, July 20 - Aug 11, 2019, All Media Show, 'Personal Journeys', juror Chanda Carey.
'Golden Hour on Haleakala' (2nd prize in sculpture) |
|
|
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, CA. June 21 - July 22, 2018, All Media Show, 'Fond Memories', juror Brian Bowes, 'Morning Fog' (1st prize)
|
|