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Artist and Lemon Street Gallery member Sherri Wistrom of Kenosha works out of a studio down the street from the gallery. Surrounded by many fabric selections, her wool, silk and leather fabric pieces are among the works on display at Lemon Street Gallery's Brick Room.
This month's Featured Artist Show includes paintings, fabric art and more from local artists Sherri Wistrom, Chuck Keller and Nancy Neider.
Sherri Wistrom's favorite pieces to make currently are these whimsical wet-felted fish. She uses different felting skills to create the fish, which takes her about a day and a half.
Sherri Wistrom works in her studio making fabric pieces, such as these shawls.
These shawls feature Sherri Wistrom's technique of combining fibers. Wistrom uses a process of agitation to bind wool onto silk.
Some of Nancy Neider's featured artwork in the Brick Room highlights threads used throughout women's lives/ Sherri Wistrom and Neider agreed that this tied in nicely to Wistrom's fabric work featured in the Brick Room.
Chuck Keller's featured artwork in the Brick Room are ink paintings incorporating designs of indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast between Yakutat Bay, Alaska and northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Wistrom's wool ranges from viscose (a Russian wool) to soft, Teeswater wool from Columbus, Wisconsin.
For Sherri Wistrom of Kenosha, a life exploring and creating art has led her to the works currently on display as part of a new local exhibit.
Wistrom is one of three artists currently featured at Lemon Street Gallery’s Brick Room. Her wool, silk and leather fabric pieces are joined by paintings and Native American-inspired design from artists Nancy Neider and Chuck Keller.
Wistrom says she has always been an artist, but growing up her family did not approve of her desire to pursue art professionally, she said.
“When I was a young woman, in our family you either had to be a teacher or a nurse or secretary,” Wistrom said. When she told her father she wanted to go to art school, he vehemently opposed the idea – so Wistrom went to nursing school and became a registered nurse.
She never stopped making art, however.
With a spouse in the Air Force, Wistrom spent 30 years traveling with him for his career, which allowed her to experience and try many different kinds of art.
“Everywhere I went, I tried something. Whatever art was out there, that’s what I tried,” Wistrom said. “I’ve done stained glass; I’ve done acrylics; I’ve done oils; I’ve done China painting … You can imagine if you move every two years for 30 years, you’ve got a really wonderful opportunity to try a lot of different things, which has been a real blessing to me in many ways.”
Currently, Wistrom works out of a studio at 711 46th St., about a block from Lemon Street Gallery. She has been utilizing her studio for the past five years.
Wistrom has the first floor of the building to herself – along with her late friend and former landlady’s terrier Lily Bear – to create her art, and the setting is perfect for her, she said.
“My work is very eclectic. People don’t normally mix felted fish with silk scarves, but that’s what I have chosen to do,” Wistrom said.
Wool and silk have a heavy presence in Wistrom’s fabric work. She started working with them about 15 years ago. A lifelong artist, Wistrom has tried many different mediums for her art, but working with silk and other fabrics was especially inspiring to her.
“There was something about putting a brush to silk, and watching the way that the silk just drank in that wonderful color, and it expanded and that started me on my journey with the fabric,” Wistrom said.
Wistrom eventually started incorporating actual plants, such as small leaves, into her fabric work. Embedding them into fabric work has produced “really beautiful results,” she said.
“I found that you could even take it a step further and use the leaves, the botanicals,” Wistrom said. “To actually have their essence saved onto a piece of paper was just wonderful.”
Wistrom said she goes through phases in regard to her favorite pieces to make. Right now, she’s enjoying making the wet-felted fish.
“They’re just whimsical, and the nice thing about the fish is I’ve been able to use a lot of different techniques on there,” she said. “Each one of them is just about a different technique that you can use in wet felting, and that’s been fun to me because the project is small.
“I can normally get a fish done in a day and a half, and I feel good about being able to put all of the different skills that I’ve learned into one thing.”
Wistrom uses vendors from all over the world to source her wool, she said. She orders from vendors in Italy, Germany and Russia, as well as locally from Susan’s Fiber Shop in Columbus, Wis., which keeps live Teeswater sheep from which the wool is sourced.
All wool is different, Wistrom said. There are many different “microns” of wool, which have unique textures and will produce varying results in the end product. Even if she uses the same felting technique, using the wrong kind of wool for a project can affect the results.
“When I first started doing felting, I really didn’t understand a lot of the intricacies about that,” Wistrom said. “You can get (wool) cheaper, but you end up paying in the end, or your product just isn’t as nice.”
In order to create pieces with mixed fabric, such as the shawls displayed in the Brick Room, Wistrom uses a process of agitation to push different materials into each other. Many of Wistrom’s pieces include silk that has had wool forced onto it. It’s a long process of forcing and coaxing the different fabrics together, so “you have to be a patient person,” she said.
“(The wool) locks are put on a machine … that has teeth on it, and it pulls the fiber so they’re straight, and they’re all put into the same direction,” Wistrom said. “On each of the fibers there are little barbs. The barbs then have to be coaxed through the silk … Then you start a process of agitation with that, so that the fiber actually locks on itself and it starts to shrink.”
Wistrom’s, Neider’s and Keller’s work have been on display in the Brick Room since July 28 and will be featured through Aug. 21, with an artist’s reception on Saturday, Aug. 13.
Wistrom said some of Neider’s featured art focuses on “threads women have through their life,” which works well with Wistrom’s fabric art being featured alongside them.
“So without being purposeful, it’s an integrated show, even though it wasn’t designed to be that,” she said.
Every month from February through Thanksgiving, there is a Featured Artist Show in the Brick Room. For every show, there are two two-dimensional artists and one three-dimensional artist (Wistrom is the three-dimensional artist this month). Featured Artist Shows are usually planned a year in advance.
“There are some people that turn it down, but most people just can’t wait,” Winstrom said.
“I think the community in Kenosha continues to grow. There’s more and more opportunities for us to show our work,” Wistrom said.
Lemon Street Gallery is located at 4601 Sheridan Road. Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. More information is available at www.lemonstreetgallery.org/.
What: Opening reception for featured artists show
When: 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday (Aug. 13)
Where: Lemon Street Gallery, 4601 Sheridan Road
Artists: Chuck Keller, Nancy Neider and Sherri Wistrom
Cost: Admission is free; refreshments are available
For more information: Go to lemonstreetgallery.org or check the gallery’s Facebook page.
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Artist and Lemon Street Gallery member Sherri Wistrom of Kenosha works out of a studio down the street from the gallery. Surrounded by many fabric selections, her wool, silk and leather fabric pieces are among the works on display at Lemon Street Gallery's Brick Room.
This month's Featured Artist Show includes paintings, fabric art and more from local artists Sherri Wistrom, Chuck Keller and Nancy Neider.
Sherri Wistrom's favorite pieces to make currently are these whimsical wet-felted fish. She uses different felting skills to create the fish, which takes her about a day and a half.
Sherri Wistrom works in her studio making fabric pieces, such as these shawls.
These shawls feature Sherri Wistrom's technique of combining fibers. Wistrom uses a process of agitation to bind wool onto silk.
Some of Nancy Neider's featured artwork in the Brick Room highlights threads used throughout women's lives/ Sherri Wistrom and Neider agreed that this tied in nicely to Wistrom's fabric work featured in the Brick Room.
Chuck Keller's featured artwork in the Brick Room are ink paintings incorporating designs of indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast between Yakutat Bay, Alaska and northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Wistrom's wool ranges from viscose (a Russian wool) to soft, Teeswater wool from Columbus, Wisconsin.
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