juliet karelsen: heptagonal winter

In all its various forms and configurations, Juliet Karelsen’s work cross-references painting, stitching, tapestry, rug making, embroidery, abstract art, fantasy, landscape, textile, miniature worlds, and even science – from botany to mycology to planetary and solar – touching on the micro and macro scales. Though there’s nothing political about actual nature, tragically, nature as a concept has become both a figurative and literal firestorm. In a world where daily interaction with plants and trees and moss and lichen (etc!) is increasingly rare, even disappearing, Juliet’s work points to the importance of taking the time to slow down, notice and finally, to protect the jewels of the forest, the planet, and the universe. As Denise Levertov says in her poem “Sojourns in the Parallel World”: We live our lives […in] / A world /parallel to our own though overlapping. / We call it ‘Nature’; only reluctantly / admitting ourselves to be ‘Nature’ too.”

Heptagonal Winter offers a viewing portal into an infinity of early spring forest in Maine. In geometry, a heptagon prism is an object formed by seven square/rectangular sides with a top and bottom. It is one of the infinite possibilities of convex prisms that exist.

Heptagonal Winter, 2020, wood, mirrors, felt, thread, embroidery floss, pipe cleaners, wool, glue, dried lentils, wire, electrical wires, LED spotlights, colored filter, dimensions variable