Bio

Teresa Shields has always been drawn to fabric, thread, wool fiber, magnets and wood. Through embroidery she interprets abstract shapes found in the natural forms of sliced fruits and vegetables. In 2016 she began wet felting and now enjoys exploring the materiality of turning wool fibers into solid but soft hollow forms. Her work is often idiosyncratic and leave the viewer craving a tactile experience. Teresa exhibits her work throughout the United States and locally at Graver's Lane Gallery in Chestnut Hill and has won a handful of nice awards. She earned her BFA at Carnegie Mellon University and MFA at Mass College of Art. She is an empty nester living and working in Jenkintown, just outside Philadelphia, with her husband and two cats.

Statement

I have been around fabric and stitching my whole life. I am a maker. I love things that have a human touch. I look at nature-plant forms, geometry, cell structures, bones, antlers, wings-to see the underlying connections these things have in common. My embroideries are straight forward. I proceed very deliberately one stitch and then another, each knot, each color a decision, meditative and slow, but always moving forward. I rarely rip out stitches.

My felt making is the opposite of straight forward. It is two steps ahead and one step backwards. The problem child. The art that acts out but is loved unconditionally. If I can't sleep or have a spare minute I am thinking about ways to construct things with wool roving and partial felt. The process is like candy for my ADD brain. Working backwards. Big whole picture, then part to part.

I have a quirky sense of humor that occasionally shows but also love making things that are simply beautiful. Craftsmanship matters to me. Sometimes I set difficult parameters for myself-just because. The challenge is to make things that show my hand, my skill, my vision.