Pat (PJ) Floyd
(Out of the Cage: My Wife's Artwork)
Pat collects and saves everything, figuring that one day she will use it.
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My wife, Pat (PJ) Floyd, spent the first stage of her life as a modern dancer, choreographer, and dance instructor. She began making mixed-media sculptures after taking an armature workshop at Arrowmont School of Art & Crafts while I was teaching a week of enameling there. Her passion for vintage fabric and love of nature led her to create a series of whimsical mixed-media animals. Her current work reflects her dance background as she explores the themes of struggle, resilience, and hope.
As a child she entertained herself by making what she and her mother called "Doodankies": Just a bunch of stuff she could find and stick together! Though her skills have certainly improved, she still scours Goodwill, thrifts stores, and antique malls for just the right odds and ends to complement the delicate needle-felted and woven fabric assemblages. Her needle-felting skills have improved to such a high degree that sometimes the faces almost seem real. Though she originally had doubts (and was told by an art teacher that she had probably reached her limit of what was possible with felting), Pat pushed through and over the course of several years developed her skill and style to a level rarely seen among needle-felting artists or other "art doll" makers. |
Mixed-Media Sculpture, Needle-felted, fiber, wire, wood (2024)
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