Layers of Meaning

Nicola Henley - fiber manipulations

Nicola Henley creates contemporary textiles through surface manipulation and stitching. An online exhibition describes Henley's surface manipulations: "Nicola Henley's textile pieces are made by a combination of dying, painting, and screen-printing cotton calico and texturing the surface with various materials stitched into the cloth."

A past issue of Fiberarts magazine offers an interview with Nicola Henley, entitled Free to Fly. Henley describes how she came to be fascinated by her subject matter of sea birds in flight, 'In college, Henley was intrigued by space and movement; she came to birds by chance. Stranded at a bird center by a storm while on holiday in Ireland, she started observing a peregrine falcon that came there each day, and she ended up being captivated by the "small jewel of being in all that space around it.' Henley has both studied and photographed birds and still watches them, but she is now more interested in the movement of sea and sky. She wants to capture the 'essence of the bird without making it about the bird.'"

More of Henley's work can be viewed at:
Irish Arts Review
Embroidery Magazine