ART OF INDIGENOUS FIBERS
ANITA FIELDS
Biography
Born in Oklahoma, Native American artist Anita Fields creates works of clay and textile that reflect the worldview of her Osage culture. Her work explores the intricacies of cultural influences and the intersections of balance and chaos found within our existence. The early Osage notions of duality, such as earth and sky, male and female, are represented in her work.
Fields’ sculptures were exhibited in “Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices,” Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas. Her work was also included in “Who Stole the Teepee?,” National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, New York, and the “Legacy of the Generations: Pottery by American Indian Women,” National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Field’s current work is included in the exhibit “Hearts of Our People” traveling exhibition, “Weaving History Into Art: the Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn,” Gilcrease Museum, and “Form and Relation: Contemporary Native Ceramics,” Hood Museum, Dartmouth.
Artist Statement
My art practice is multidisciplinary, I engage with several mediums and techniques. My primary focus is clay and textiles, and the combination of the two. I have been creating with clay for forty-five years. I was initially captivated with clay because of the immediacy, the transformative qualities, and the endless possibilities it offered. It took me back to my childhood memories of making mud pies under the hot Oklahoma sun and a connection to the earth.
I know my passion for textiles and creating via a needle and thread are directly driven by being taught to sew at a young age by my grandmother. Influences that I return to time and time again are the human form, variations of the body, and concepts related to the natural world. Landscape related work speaks to the importance and memory of time and place.
I’m interested in how we adorn ourselves for certain purposes and the transformative experiences we are allowed by this process. These ideas are realized by the making of clay and textile articles of clothing such as dresses, moccasins and even purses. They are metaphors for how we see our place in the world and the influences of culture.
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