Artist Talk: Linda Gass, Using Beauty to Look at Hard Environmental Issues

How do we respond to the effects of climate change, pollution and contamination on our water resources? What will inspire us to change our behavior? Artist Linda Gass makes artwork that uses beauty to encourage people to look at the hard environmental issues we face. Working in textile, glass and installation art, Linda’s artwork addresses the relationship between humans and the water and land that sustain them. Linda’s presentation will take you on a photographic journey to the places that inspire her artwork, from the wilderness areas of California to significant water interventions in the American West. Linda will share images of her artwork made in response to her experiences, her research and the environmental implications. She will also invite you into her studio to show you how her artwork is made: from initial concept sketches to the finished artwork. By the end you will have a new appreciation and awareness for water resources and the impacts of climate change and how art can play an important role in educating the public.

LIVE STREAMED: March 12, 2021.

This talk is presented in conjunction with the Craft in America Center exhibition, Making Waves: Ocean Ecology and Craft, on view through August 21, 2021. This event was live streamed on March 12, 2021.

About the Artist

Bay Area artist Linda Gass is best known for her labor-intensive stitched paintings. Her birds-eye view textiles blend painting with quilting and embroidery techniques to highlight the human marks on the landscape that affect our water resources. Winner of the prestigious Fleishhacker Eureka Fellowship Award, her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including the Museum of Craft and Design, the Oakland Museum and the US Embassy in Moscow, and has been published in books and magazines, including The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, 500 Art Quilts, and American Craft. Linda is a native Californian and when she’s not making art or championing environmental causes, you can find her backpacking, camping and hiking in the wilderness areas of the West where she finds much of the inspiration for her work. To learn more about Linda, visit her website: https://www.lindagass.com

This project is supported by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. www.culturela.org

Additional support for the Craft in America Center is provided by the California Arts Council, a state agency (learn more at www.arts.ca.gov) and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.

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