Christine Anderson

Both my mother and her mother taught me sewing and knitting; and like them I have been practicing these skills and indulging a love of fiber and fabric since I was a child. In the 1980s and 90s, I learned paper arts and weaving, and I studied painting and drawing with Sally Brown, Joyce Lyon, Jackie Kielkopf, as well as other founding members of the WARM Art Collective. Most recently in 2019, I jumped my hat making to a new level after spending a week at the Sievers Fiber Arts located in Wisconsin’s Door County. There I wet-felted with Dawn Edwards, a magnificent feltmaker from Plainwell, Michigan. Like many of my mentors, I have been inspired by the abundance of dazzling variety that the Earth’s flora, fauna, and landscape present.

In December of 2019, after nearly 40 years as a practicing hospital nurse and then a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I retired from full-time professional work. While I worked and raised a family, I made things, took classes, and sold some of my fiber work to friends through small neighborhood-based art fairs. Working with my hands with fibers, fabrics, and in the garden has always been a balm to my anxious mind and heart.

Since retiring, I resolved to share my work with a larger community. I am showing wet-felted knitted accessories (gloves, hats, wraps), cotton batik kimonos, and hand-sewn books. I also have published a series of art cards that showcase the wonderful paintings of my mother, Lois Severson, who died in 2018.

I have always believed that garments like hats, robes, and other wraps have a transformative power to put the wearer in touch with sources of joy and strength and which perhaps protect us from some of the trauma of living this life.