“Thread and fabrics are my paints. Instead of brushstrokes, I stitch.” With these words, contemporary textile artist Sandra Lauterbach deftly describes her work and inspires artists and appreciators alike.
When creating a piece of art Sandra searches for pieces that can share a dialogue. In the words of curator and critic Peter Frank, “Lauterbach is making a political statement with her fanciful works….. By working with materials and techniques associated with domestic life and women’s practice, Lauterbach argues for the full validation, as fine art, of women’s creative work in general…. Her work, sprightly and unpredictable, advances Lauterbach’s feminist premise rather than the other way around.”
Known for her original use of fiber and textiles and careful expression of detail, Sandra has exhibited across the globe, from Paris to Krakow to the United Kingdom. In the United States, her work has been shown at the Textile Museum at George Washington University and the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., the International Museum of Art and Science, McAllen, TX, the Whistler House Museum of Art, Lowell, MA, the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art and the Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Her work has also been published in numerous catalogues and books.
Sandra’s roots in textiles run deep. Her family was in the textile business for over 4 generations, starting in the Austrian Hungarian Empire, then Poland and finally in Los Angeles. After studying art at Pomona College, she earned a JD degree at USC Law School. She eventually left the practice of law and focused on her art. She has attended various art schools, including Otis College of Art and Design. She is an active member of both the Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art and the Los Angeles Art Association and exhibits at Gallery 825. She is a juried artist member of the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). She works from her studio in Los Angeles.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Fabric has always been a part of my world. My family was in the textile business for over 4 generations. That may help explain why I feel most comfortable expressing myself with textiles.
The challenge for me in creating my current series of freeform abstract pieces is in taking diverse patterned fabric pieces and creating a dialogue between them that results in a harmonious whole. I start by putting one piece and then another on my design wall and see if they communicate. Is there a dialogue between one piece and another? A spark? Color, shape, pattern print, and scale are all factors I consider in addition to other design elements. I seek to create depth and movement in my pieces.
I view fabric pieces as my paint. The stitching helps to interconnect the forms by creating texture and marks on my "canvas"--similar to a painter using brush strokes to create marks in their paintings. My work marries the traditional and historical technique of stitching with contemporary abstract art. The free form pieces placed at different heights and angles reveal both a playfulness often missing in more formal exhibitions and a gravitas that recognizes both painters and sculptors of postmodern abstractions.
The energy in these pieces calls out for irregular free form shapes—not to be confined to a traditional rectangular size. This is true of much of Frank Stella’s later works. My work references John Chamberlain’s vividly colored and irregularly shaped agglomerations and Frank Stella’s three-dimensional art. The bold patterns and colors attract attention from a distance and the detailed stitching holds one’s attention as you draw close. The viewer’s imagination is needed to complete my work as I intentionally create pieces that leave much to be explored and discovered.
Peter Frank, art critic and curator, commented: “The elements [of Sandra’s work] are full of surprises. There is a blithe discourse of starkly different patterns and colors butting up against one another. The pieces hold my interest. And even more significantly, they promise to hold my interest when I come back to them.”