Week 12 Artist OTW: Heather Anacker and Krista Feld

Artists: Heather Anacker and Krista Feld

Medium: Sculpture, Fibers, Personal Tools, Recycled Materials

Heather Anaker and Krista Feld are both CSULB alum, having graduated with a BFA in Fiber, Textile and Weaving Arts. They are also both fiber artists who create art pieces using natural and synthetic fibers. Heather is from the greater Chicago area while Krista is from Long Beach. In March of 2019, they brought their exhibit Dwelling to CSULB where their main focus was to highlight how raw materials can be used to create a dwelling place.

“Walking” into the Dwelling exhibit through the video, I noticed that the setup is very artsy kitchen. There’s an array of tools mounted on the walls and more kitchen things on the tables like pots and pans. Most of the things mounted onto the wall are silver along with brown from the wood pieces. The pots also contained black, purple and other colors that are made from natural ingredients in order to dye their yarn. There’s also a shelf of multi-colored herbs and wood that they use for their art.

From hearing both Krista and Heather talk about their exhibit Dwelling, they seem to want their audience to really take in their work rather than looking at it for a couple of seconds and moving on. She says that she wants people to be more vulnerable and aware of their surroundings when looking at their art. There’s also a ceremonial aspect to their exhibit but adding in the aspect of asking their audience to take off their shoes before entering the exhibit. Krista also talks about working with materials that usually get thrown away in order to explore their full potential.

I really like their ideals of creating something that is unique and your own rather than buying mass produced objects. I myself knit and crochet so I have lots of yarn and it was cool to see them spinning and dyeing their own yarn. They’re do-it-yourself mentality really resonated with me, especially during this quarantine because I have had the time to create and build my own art projects.