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Kelly Mead sits in the middle of the floor of a historic 19th century house on Officers Row in Vancouver, Wash., when WW calls. She says she’s staring at the machine embroidery design by textile artist Blair Martin Cahill that she needs to hang at William Scofield Gallery, a new art gallery prioritizing textile arts that opened Friday, Aug. 15.
William Scofield Gallery’s walls will be decorated with quilts, embroidery, mixed media and bobbin lace, to name only a few of the mediums textile artists use to express themselves. Mead and her husband, David, first announced William Scofield Gallery back in May. The name William Scofield is a combined name taken from two of the Meads’ relatives. They chose to open the gallery to give textile artists a dedicated space to show their work.
“There’s just not as much as exposure and opportunity for this type of artwork,” Kelly Mead says. “I want to show that textile can be elevated and hold its own in the fine art world.”
Elevate, the gallery’s first exhibition on view through Sept. 28, takes everyday crafts and strings them together as a juried fine art show. Thirty pieces by 23 artists who responded to a national artist call will display in Elevate, united by such qualities as technique, emotional response, and the use of ordinary materials reworked into a higher-level creation. Cahill’s machine-embroidered textile piece Rincon, Queen of the Coast stitches vibrant colors, depicting a person adorned with tattoos in scuba goggles under the sea. Deb Spofford, a local artist and owner of the Vancouver textile art studio Made on 23rd, uses ink block printing and stitches on top of it in her hand stitching of Celebrate the Journey. Mead’s Dancer uses a picture from when she worked as a freelance photographer, and displays it in a conventional embroidery hoop.
“I am so drawn to how just a look, a facial expression can tell a story,” she says.
Mead, who had previously worked as a freelance portrait photographer, added 3D elements to her art around seven years ago. The Meads love traveling, and after spending the maximum amount of time possible in London in 2020 during the pandemic lockdown, she learned fiber arts are a much more respected medium in the United Kingdom than the United States.
“It’s just something that you can’t see online,” Mead says. “I remember the first time I saw Van Gogh, I was like, man, it’s OK. But then the first time I saw it in real life, I could feel it. You could feel the paint, because there’s texture, and that’s the thing about fiber art.”
She returned to the U.S. with a newfound inspiration for her fiber art and started a home studio. Mead’s work was accepted for last year’s Clark County Open Exhibition, exposing her to local art lovers. After Elevate wraps up, Mead will participate in the Open Exhibition again. She will also host a solo show of her own at the William Scofield Gallery, displaying her creative processes in a show called Threads and Progress.
Meanwhile, Mead hopes the gallery will expand in the future. “There’s just so many great artists we just love to see,” she says. “But right now, it’s a great space, and I’m just hoping to see people come and just experience how fiber and textile are.”
SEE IT: Elevate at William Scofield Gallery, 1059 Officers Row, Vancouver, Wash., 360-910-3595, williamscofieldgallery.com. 4–7 pm Wednesday–Friday, 1–5 pm Saturday–Sunday, through Sept. 28. Free.
