Kayla Powers
is a fiber artist living and working in the North End of Detroit, Michigan. Kayla creates ecologically focused textile art with the intention of exploring the common threads of our shared humanity. Her work has been exhibited in fine art galleries, a natural history museum, public parks, and on the side of an old liquor store.
As a self-taught artist and a trained horticulturist, Kayla is interested in human ecology, craft traditions, the passing of time, and the oneness of all things. She works exclusively with locally foraged dye plants, positioning her work in a precise moment in time and place.
Kayla is currently pursuing an MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in the Fiber Department, slated for graduation in 2023.
Behind The Process of Cloud Rock I + II
“Each piece begins with a length of copper wire. Copper is as soft and pliable as it is strong and solid. I respond to the material’s natural tendencies while weaving it into an organic, dimensional shape. When the structure has been developed, I add layer upon layer of cotton, silk, wool, hemp, secondhand yarn, and repurposed fabric. The act of weaving is slow and meditative, I think about tension, connection, time, and accumulation.”
“When the density of fiber has built up enough to create cloth, I fill the sculpture with yarn and fabric scraps. The sculpture becomes a vessel. These pieces are part of an ongoing exploration of place. They reference rocks – constant and stationary in our landscape, but also clouds, an intangible and temporary part of our world.” - Kayla Powers