Artist's Statement
My name is Evelyn Brumwell and I hold a BFA from the Maryland Institute and a MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art where I studied painting. For over 17 years I raised alpacas (now retired from farming) and have explored all aspects of the alpaca fiber, from spinning art yarns, weaving, hand painting the fibers and felting. I have discovered that there is more than function in creating works that are wearable and found that the form can be creative, exciting and fun to wear. I have developed a line of headwear, scarves and wraps using various felting techniques such as wet, needle and nuno felting. Many of the hats are made from a pattern that I designed and other hats and scarves are made with free form felting that allows the design to develop as I work the felt. All felt is either in natural colors or my hand dyed fibers and silk. I consider this as painting. I am inspired by ethnic and traditional designs in headwear as well as theatrical costumes. Each piece is created one at a time letting the alpaca felt/fiber take a shape expressing its color and texture. All my pieces are functional and fun to wear.
I also am a collage painter and at present working on a new body of work. The work is created using multiple layering, scraping some images away and experimenting with texture and images that remain and others that appear. I often repeat the process many times before the work is finished. They are very visceral and dreamlike and my hope is that the viewer is drawn into the work for their own interpretation.
