Featured Artist: Dana Martin

I create pieces of handwoven art that evoke the visual language of southern Utah's land, water, sky, flora and fauna.

My love for fiber began when I was a child. I relished making latch hook rugs for my parents and doing crewelwork with my grandmother. I loved the craft, the tactile nature of the work, and what could be created with a combination of skill, patience and creativity. I returned to fiber in the form of frame weaving, focusing on tapestry techniques. I now combine tapestry with Saori, a Japanese weaving method based on the free expression of individual dignity through weaving.

Aldo Leopold writes, “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” Humans are an incredible species, one that doesn’t always live in harmony with the earth we inhabit. There are consequences for living out of balance with nature. My work honors southern Utah’s irreplaceable wildlands and wildlife and is an invitation to see what I see here: something worth protecting, preserving, loving and fighting for.

Working with new and reclaimed cotton, silk, wool, handspun yarns, and other natural materials, I strive to capture the essence of our unique semi-arid region in each piece and to communicate what it is about this precious area that can’t be described in words. The work begins with incorporating all my senses, paying careful attention to nature, and letting my hands express what my heart sees, hears and feels. I work almost exclusively with dark warp threads, which ground and accentuate the natural colors in the weft — from bright sunrise-influenced palettes to moody sunset-inspired shades.

I donate a portion of all proceeds to protecting wildlife and the habitats they depend on for their survival.