Nicole Meyer is a fiber artist and art educator, who focuses primarily on weaving, macramé, mixed media, and embroidery. She has been teaching art at the high school level for over ten years and has won several Scholastic Art & Writing Awards as an art educator at the regional and national levels. She enjoys working with textiles and often creates abstract works resembling landscapes. She is currently teaching art part-time while working out of her home studio. You can find out more about Nicole and her work at https://www.nicoleioma.com/. Nicole will be Ignite’s Maker-in-Residence during fall 2024.
Maker-in-Residence Q&A
Q: What mediums do you work in and why?
A: I love fiber art – embroidery, weaving, macramé, felting, etc. I also love combining different methods and doing mixed media work. I enjoy working with different textures and having art be a tactile experience, and yarn/fabric/thread/rope/felt/etc. lends itself so well to that. Fiber art is also unique in that it often brings groups of people together to work in creative circles and form communities. Although I don’t knit, a great example of a fiber community would be knitting circles!
Q: Where do you draw artistic inspiration from?
A: I’m inspired by textiles I find and from other creatives working around me. I’ll often come across a certain type of yarn or a certain color of wool roving and have an urgent need to create something with that specific material. I work around other creatives all the time, whether it be my students, other art educators, or friends, and I am constantly inspired not only by their work but by conversation with them. I’m also often inspired by my love of gift-giving, and I get excited to create pieces with a specific person in mind.
Q: What is your favorite art tool/supply?
A: Any kind of thread, yarn, or rope. If I had to be more specific, I’d say anything with interesting color or texture. The tools I use the most are any kind of needle (felting needles, embroidery needles, weaving needles, tapestry needles), which is funny because I have a bit of a needle phobia.
Q: Who are some of your favorite artists?
A: I really love and am blown away by Cayce Zavaglia’s work. Her embroidery pieces are unreal and very inspiring, and the fact that she displays the messy side of her beautiful work is such a refreshing concept. I enjoy both Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky’s work for the color, the use of line and shape, and general playfulness. I’ll always have a soft spot for Van Gogh and am forever fascinated by Frida Kahlo.
Q: What kinds of things will you be doing during your residency in Ignite?
A: I’ll be creating a Community Doodle Embroidery in collaboration with anyone who comes into Ignite and who wishes to participate! Anyone can add a little doodle that represents themselves in some way, whether it be a simple drawn image, a design, or a written word. I will then embroider over the drawn lines to create a permanent representation of the Ignite community in the fall of 2024. Personally, I want to take advantage of the Ignite Studio space to see what my work can look like on a larger scale while exploring with embroidery, weaving, macra-weaving, mixed media, etc. I’m looking forward to it!
Q: What art accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: I am most proud of passing on my love of fiber arts to my students. They often tell me that they use the techniques they have learned in my classes to relax and unwind, and that they are so happy and impressed by the pieces they create. There is a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes along with creating, and I find it incredibly fulfilling to pass that feeling onto others. My students sometimes claim that they are not artists and/or not creative but then leave my class with a sense of creative self-confidence.
Q: What is something you still hope to accomplish in art?
A: I simply hope to continue creating. I have a baby boy at home and am finding out very quickly that it’s easy to let the time and energy to create slip away. The best goal I have for myself is to never stop making art.
Q: What else do you want the HEPL community to know about you?
A: I’m very excited to connect with the HEPL community! I look forward to our time together in the classes I am teaching as well as open studio time, where I am hoping that we can create together while forming connections.
Sign up for workshops with Nicole and see her whole calendar of events here.