Joan Kennedy

Journey Fiber Arts

Guest artist at 12) PruVisions

Joan is a sculptor working in fibers. Each piece of her dimensional fiber art begins as a cast-off wool sweater. She disassembles, dyes and cuts the sweaters before sewing them into something new. The results are then transformed through felting from soft, flat fabric into sturdy three-dimensional shapes. After felting, Joan enhances her art with hand stitching using hand dyed wool yarn or other threads. While developing her techniques through experimentation, Joan learned what the fabric wants to do, and now uses those tendencies to express her intentions. Her art aims to illuminate connections within the natural world, and between it and the man-made world. Joan’s hope is that people connect with her art through their own experiences, gaining insights that enhance their future experiences in the natural world.
A lifelong maker and art student, Joan has been growing her current techniques since 2008. She supports the Wisconsin art community as a volunteer at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts and as docent at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, in addition to her membership and service in Wisconsin Craft.