Artist in Residence: Pat Hertzberg

This pioneer of the ‘thread web’ technique creates highly textured tactile pieces that almost beg to be touched.

November 25, 2024 | Janice Quirt | Artist in Residence

Alton fibre and mixed-media artist Pat Hertzberg’s unyielding artistic drive lies in creating mesmerizing and tactile textures. Pat pioneered her distinctive “thread-web” technique of stitching together huge volumes of small fabric patches or strips; some larger works comprise more than 1,000 individual pieces. She cuts each of these pieces from larger swaths, which she has often hand-dyed or painted earlier in the process.

Enchanted Forest bowl, fibre with thread-web technique in 3-D, 14″ x 14″ x 5″

Fragile Hope, fibre with thread-web technique, 35″ x 31″

At left, Childhood Memories (detail), acrylic, 45″ x 35″. At right, Sybil’s Aura, fibre with thread-web technique, 40″ x 30″

“Viewers standing before my work may be admiring it or trying to figure out how it was made. They might be fighting the urge to touch it – or they could be deciding what to have for dinner,” she jests. “All options are fine with me. Besides self-expression, the real goal of art is to connect and to provide the conduit for unhurried reflection.”

Find her at pathertzberg.com