Luca Tanaka
Fiber Studio Artist-in-Residence Intern
Born in Nagano, Japan and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Luca is a Fiber artist and a lifelong student of everything. She earned her BFA in Fiber Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She uses being situated both inside and outside of two very different cultures, along with her undying love of learning, to approach this vast and complicated world. She is especially fond of weaving and is excited to share this love with the Nezinscot community, as well as learn more about animal husbandry and the early stages of her yarns. She is passionate about gardening and sustainable living and plans to glean as much wisdom from her farm experience as possible.
Artist Statement
As makers in the world today, we are drowning in choices, materials, and images that have been severed from their contexts, their histories. As we pull our materials from the void, so we return them to the void. What we briefly had use for becomes detritus in the wasteland. I look to traditions to guide me from this detachment. Through weaving, sewing, unraveling, and mending, I tell the story of each part of the clothes life. The cloth, in turn, connects me to my histories—that of my family, that of my cultures, and that of my community. As each piece of string can be rewoven, each scrap of cloth can find a new home. What was once discarded becomes building blocks in another life, connecting what is to what once was. The reworking is a retelling of the story that continues.
A Few of Luca’s Fiber Projects
